Queen Letizia chaired a working meeting at the Instituto Cervantes in Los Angeles on the current situation and prospects for the growth of the Spanish language in the United States, on the eve of the official inauguration of the institution’s new center to be held on Tuesday.
The director of the Spanish organization, Luis García Montero, thanked Doña Letizia for her presence and highlighted the traditional support that the King and Queen of Spain have traditionally given to the institution, which since 1991 has promoted Spanish and the culture of the countries that have it as an official language. The poet and professor of Spanish literature then summarized the objectives pursued by the new Instituto Cervantes center, which is the first to be launched on the West Coast.
For his part, the director of the Instituto Cervantes in New York, Richard Bueno, explained the challenges that pan-Hispanism — the coordination between Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries — poses for Spanish, its teaching and its certification. According to him, the weight and the «diverse unity» of Spanish are reinforced by the development of Ibero-American linguistic and intercultural networks, the use of technological resources and the new perspectives of the global world.
In this context, the director of the Chicago center, Anastasio Sanchez, on which the Aula Cervantes in Seattle depends, summarized the results of its activity, which has as one of its basic pillars the dedication to children and young people. He also highlighted before the Queen the agreement with the CPS (Chicago Public School) to teach and implement the curriculum of the Institute in public and private schools in the city, and the new program called «Cervantes Bridges», to help and teach Spanish to the most disadvantaged students in the metropolitan area, so that they can obtain their Seal of Biliteracy at the end of high school.
Thus, Marta Mateo, head of the Observatory of Spanish at Harvard University, cited the studies they carry out with different sources –among them, the latest census, from 2020– to explain the current position of Spanish in the USA, with special attention to its dominance and use by different types of speakers, the educational panorama, translation, the audiovisual media and the media.
The director of Albuquerque, Silvia Rodríguez Grijalba, pointed out the peculiarities of the center derived from the fact that New Mexico is the only bilingual state in the country. For this reason, although Spanish is taught, its work goes a step further: it offers literacy improvement programs and cultural activities for the knowledge of the cultural heritage of its Hispanic students.
He also gave an overview of the work they are doing in the extension that Cervantes opened in 2021 in the city of El Paso, where 80 percent of the population speaks Spanish. Under the name «Pride and Heritage», classes are offered to children and adolescents to improve their Spanish and to learn «and feel proud of the culture of their ancestors».
The person in charge of the Los Angeles center, Luis García Martín, has advanced the two main lines that determine its activity: the great presence of Mexico and Central America in it and the importance of the audiovisual industry. The new headquarters aspires to become a meeting place for Spanish-language creativity and the most visible place for the exhibition and debate of cinematographic and audiovisual creation in Spanish.
In addition, the writer has advanced the special attention that will be devoted to the second and third generations of immigrants, whose relationship with the language is sometimes conflictive, according to the Cervantes Institute in a statement.
Also participating in the working session with Doña Letizia were the director of the Spanish Trade Office in Los Angeles, Juan Luis Gimeno, and Spanish-language film producer Ignacio Darnaude, a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of the United States and Spain.
Darnaude emphasized the «explosive growth of Spanish and Latino in the world of entertainment,» as well as the «undeniable business figures» and «the pressure for the product generated by Hollywood to reflect the cultural diversity of the country.» «We have a golden opportunity to unite and leverage these forces, expanding Spanish and Latino culture in the U.S. and around the world with the help of what unites us: the Spanish language,» said the producer.
