Children from Villanueva de los Infantes become “explorers” of the town on a children’s theatrical tour

On Sunday morning, several dozen boys and girls of all ages explored the historic district of Villanueva de los Infantes as part of a children’s dramatized tour. This initiative, organized by the Department of Culture and Tourism headed by Francisco Javier Peinado, has been taking place for several years as part of the Fair and Festivities program and has been very well received by local families.

The activity was coordinated by the “maestrices” (teachers and actresses) Merceduka and Anacuka, who became “explorers of Villanueva de los Infantes” to uncover the secrets of the town’s history alongside the participants. This initiative, as Mercedes Gutiérrez (Merceduka) explains, builds on the children’s activity workbook launched this summer, which is available for free at the Tourist Office. “This year’s tour revolves around searching for clues—based on observing the surroundings—and culminates in naming the children ‘explorers of Villanueva de los Infantes,’” she noted.

The itinerary began at the Church of Santo Domingo and also included a visit to the Chapel of the Sagrado Corazón School, the new exhibition “La huella de la mirada. Photography and Society in Castilla-La Mancha, 1839–1936’ at the “El Mercado” Museum of Contemporary Art, and the House of the Knight of the Green Cloak mentioned in *Don Quixote*; ending at the Casa de los Estudios, a grammar school from the Golden Age. At this minor college—one of the jewels of Villanueva de los Infantes’ Historic-Artistic Complex—the participants solved the riddle posed by the explorers Anacuka and Merceduka at the start of the tour: “What is Villanueva de los Infantes’ most valuable treasure?” The answer was to share the knowledge they had learned about the town’s history.