¿POR QUÉ VILLANUEVA DE LOS INFANTES ES EL “LUGAR DE LA MANCHA” EN EL QUIJOTE?

This work starts from the fact that the Ingenioso Hidalgo don Quijote de La Mancha is a novel. It is a fictitious, imaginary story, but also as representative of one of the first realistic novels. It describes places, names and times which were real at the XVI century when it was written. La Mancha, El Toboso, Barcelona, the expulsion of the Moriscos by King Felipe III, or the mention of Roque Guinart in Cataluna, show that Cervantes was describing places, names and times which were real. Why, then, not to try to know which was “the place in La Mancha” where don Quixote lived? In this work, and from different methodologies used by the author in previous works, it will be pre-determined that the place in La Mancha is Villanueva de los Infantes, in the south-east part of the province of Ciudad Real in Spain.