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(After a brief theme song, SANTIAGO and MARGARITA place their hands firmly on the desks and stare into the camera.)
MARGARITA: Good evening, folks of La Mancha. We hope you’ve been enjoying the weather today because it has certainly been warmer than usual for this time of year.
SANTIAGO: It sure has, Margarita. I know I enjoyed it poolside this afternoon with a few drinks in hand. (SANTIAGO winks to the camera while MARGARTA glares at him.) Alright, then…Over to you, Juan, for the weather forecast this week.
(The camera pans to Juan, an awkward young man in his thirties, as he fixes his hair and nervously stares into the camera, clearly anxious about his first weather forecast.)
JUAN: Good evening, I’m meteorologist Juan. Let’s take a look at the weather outside. It is currently 31° Celsius with humidity levels rising, making it seem warmer as we head into the cooler 18° Celsius this evening. The rest of the week will see similar temps with still increasing humidity, which will unfortunately not be too pleasant. That’s all for the weather this week. Back to you, Santiago.
(The camera turns from an overly proud and smiling Juan to SANTIAGO and MARGARITA, who is reapplying her lipstick. She quickly notices and throws the lipstick to the ground, ready for her next line.)
MARGARITA: In other news, we have a live reporter at the scene of the knighting of Don Quixote. We have been told that he stopped by the inn of Senior Castellano asking to be knighted before he traveled on adventures. Diego, over to you.
(The screen cuts to a middle-aged man named Diego looking extremely unenthused as he stands next to the overweight innkeeper SENIOR CASTELLANO, who is wearing a tattered red blanket as a cape and holding a thick book.)
DIEGO: Margarita, we’re here at the corner of Bajada del Barco and Paseo de Cabestreros at the Inn reporting to you live from the knighting ceremony of the one and only Don Quixote. As you can see, there is quite the crowd gathered here to witness such a momentous event and historical knighting. Here, we have the innkeeper, Senior Castellano, with his side of the story.
CASTELLANO: Well, I was just minding my own business and taking care of the inn when this strange man calling himself Don Quixote burst through the door waving a sword and told me to make him a knight. So I said “Sure, why not?” I didn’t tell him I’m not a real knight since it seemed harmless to play along. He made me wear a cape and gather all of the neighbors to witness as I read from a book while he knelt before me.
(CASTELLANO stands close to the camera and whispers before walking away to chat with several neighbors.)
I just made up the rituals and stuff I said from the book… it didn’t really mean anything. But he doesn’t need to know that.
(DIEGO and the cameraman walk over to Don Quixote, who is bragging to several old ladies about his future conquests, and asks for an interview. Don Quixote gladly agrees and straightens his armor and mustache before facing the camera.)
DIEGO: Hi there, Don Quixote. Congratulations on your new status of being a knight! That must be very exciting. Can you tell us a little bit about how and why you were knighted today?
DON QUIXOTE: Yes, thank you very much. It is truly an honor I have been dreaming of for my entire life. I was riding along with my favorite horse, Rozinante, and thinking about all of the fantastic adventures I’m about to have when I realized one important thing: I had not had my knighting ceremony! And every famous knight needs to have the perfect knighting ceremony. So I stopped at this marvelous castle here on the side of the road- which was very convenient I might add- and asked the kind knight who lived there to knight me at once. I asked him to perform all of the rituals as they had been done for him when he was knighted and in the tradition of our ancestors. (DON QUIXOTE beams as he tells his story and twirls the ends of his mustache until part of his armor shoulder pad falls to the floor with a loud clang. He quickly picks it up, looking side to side to ensure no one has seen, and slaps it back on his shoulder in hopes it will stay.)
DIEGO: Wow, Don Quixote, that is quite an inspiring story. Congratulations on your new title and we’ll see you next time on one of your adventures. Back to you, Santiago.
(MARGARITA and SANTIAGO stare grimly into the camera as they process what they just saw.)
MARGARITA: Well, folks, it appears that Don Quixote truly believes he was just knighted in a castle... and you saw it all first right here. We have heard that he plans to leave for his first adventure at dawn so we will keep you updated when we have more information. Until then, this is Margarita and Santiago at MCS-TV1. Have a good night.
Bibliography: Stories of Don Quixote, Written Anew for Young People by James Baldwin (Originally written in Spanish by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra).
Author's Note: The story of Don Quixote follows an old man who has completely lost his wits and after reading many adventure novels about knights, decides to embark on his own with his horse Rozinante. The entire village of La Mancha thinks he is crazy and worries as he packs old, beaten armor and a little food before setting out on his horse. As he is riding and thinking of his future adventures, he realizes he has not been officially knighted and immediately stops at an inn, which, in his madness, he thinks is a castle owned by a famous knight. He asks the innkeeper to knight him immediately before he can set out on his adventures. In the original, the innkeeper has him perform several knightly tasks and prove himself, but I changed the story so that the innkeeper simply thought it was funny to play along, especially since he had no idea how a knighting ceremony went.
I added some personality to the innkeeper and tried to highlight the level of madness Don Quixote reached by describing the reactions of the news anchors to the ceremony. The biggest change is writing in the style of the news special with the anchors Santiago and Margarita explaining all of the adventures. This first story serves the purpose of explaining a little bit more about Don Quixote's craziness and setting the stage for him to travel on his own adventures. Also, since the author is named Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, I named the TV station after his initials.
I wanted to tell the story of Don Quixote because it is something I read as a child and remembered loving but not that many people know the story! I have always found it funny and thought it would be a fun opportunity to tell an uncommon story with a fun twist on it. The only downside to this storytelling technique is that finding images has been incredibly difficult. Everything I have wanted to use has not been available for reuse, so I resorted to trying to edit my own picture. I know it is terrible since I only added text to it, but I am going to try to get better at "photoshopping" because it could be a funny aspect of the stories.
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