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A tertulia (Spanish: [terˈtulja]; Galician: [teɾˈtulja]; Portuguese: tertúlia [tɨɾˈtuliɐ]; Catalan: tertúlia [tərˈtuɫiə]) is a social gathering with literary or artistic overtones, especially in Iberia or Latin America. Tertulia also means an informal meeting of people to talk about current affairs, arts, etc. The word is originally Spanish (borrowed by Catalan and Portuguese), and has only moderate currency in English, in describing Latin cultural contexts.

It is rather similar to a salon, but a typical tertulia in recent centuries has been a regularly scheduled event in a public place such as a bar, although some tertulias are held in more private spaces, such as someone's living room. Participants, known as contertulios, may share their recent creations such as poetry, short stories, other writings, and even artwork or songs. Usually, but not always, the participants in a regularly scheduled tertulia are, in some respects, like-minded, having similar political or literary tastes.


King Philip (the 1st of England and 2nd of Spain) who reigned in In 16th Century Spain was a philosopher who was very interested in the ancient world and its cultures. Within his court he employed polymaths such as Juan de Mal Lara to compose poetry to accompany artworks which enriched his various palaces. Of great interest to the king were the works of the politician he described as the greatest orator of all time Marcus Tullius Cicero and the Christian author Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus. Courtiers and academics would gather to discuss such works with their royal patron, and so emerged the term Tertulia for learned discussion [1]

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