Spain´s Islamic, Judaic and Christian histories together provide a model for the co-existence of traditions and beliefs.

Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said have built up a close working relationship that has inspired them to seek alternative paths towards peace, coexistence and mutual understanding through the medium of culture. The West Eastern Divan, a workshop for budding musicians from the Middle East, stands out for its importance and social impact amongst the projects that Barenboim and Said have launched together. Meetings have already been held in Weimar (Germany), Chicago (USA) and last August in Seville (Spain), and in just four years have become a guiding light for peaceful coexistence. The project unites young people through music, setting up orchestras where Palestinian, Israeli, Syrian, Lebanese, Egyptian and other musicians all perform together.

Edward Said is one of the unequivocal exponents of Palestinian cultures. This Palestinian intellectual, writer and essayist lived in New York, where he worked as a lecturer at Columbia University. His work ranges over vast fields of knowledge, and includes such disciplines as political analysis, literary criticism and musicology. He has also subject East-West social, cultural, religious and artistic relations to this closest scrutiny. Like other exiles throughout the course of history, Said has overcome and risen above his country´s and his own personal misfortunes, and has succeeded in fulfilling the challenge, in the words of Juan Goytisolo, of "transforming destiny into conscience" and thereby "creating works that are above and beyond the chance circumstance of any given political stance because of the heart-felt pleas and selfless inspiration within them".

Edward Said died in New York City on September 25, 2003 when he was 67 years old.