Rigoberto Urán, a famous Colombian cyclist and better known as Rigo, is the protagonist of this new story written by the prolific author Adriana Ramírez. In this novel Ramírez presents in a fictionalized way many of Rigo´s experiences and situations in his personal and sports life.
As a Spanish teacher, I think that this novel has many characteristics that make it unique and a very good reading option for my students. On the one hand, I love the idea that Ramírez has chosen an athlete who still competes and because of his worldwide fame is well known to many of our students, especially those who follow cycling. (You can access Rigo´s website, HERE).
On the other hand, the fact that the book is written in the first person, since Rigo tells his own story, is different and not very common among the CI readers. I believe that our students should be exposed to readings with different types of narrators, so they will get used to read from different perspectives. This will allow them to read without much difficulty works of Hispanic literature where they will have to follow multiple narrators.
Although the story of Rigo, focuses mainly on his life, it also represents the resilient nature of many Colombians, especially those living in the coffee axis and in the department of Antioquia, where high mountains can present a daily challenge for those who must travel by foot or bicycle every day.
Rigo was able to capitalize on this geographical difficulty in his favor, as many other Colombian cyclists have done in order to stand out in European elite cycling teams. Watch here a song that famous colombian songer Carlos Vives has dedicated to all of those colombian cyclists that have competed around the world.
Rigo is an interesting, contemporary novel and a very good addition to those classes at the Intermediate level of proficiency in Spanish.
You can watch Adriana talking about her book HERE
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@Copyright 2019 Diego Ojeda, this material is intended for educational purposes and it’s free. It is prohibited to profit from it in any way or form. For questions contact Diego Ojeda @ diego@srojeda.com
DIEGO OJEDA 