Final Congress on Spanish Language: The Cervantes-RAE controversy and the new challenges of Spanish

The king has left. Arequipa regains its tranquil appearance, with less intense traffic. The end of the year is approaching. 10th International Congress of the Spanish Language ( CILE ), and the conclusions will be delivered tomorrow. Without a doubt, the controversy between Luis García Montero, director of the Cervantes Institute, and Santiago Muñoz Machado, director of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) and president of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language (ASALE), will remain as the defining moment of this Congress. Despite this, the scheduled program continues to develop normally.

Last night, a noisy demonstration by the so-called Generation Z against the government of José Jerí added chaos to the already chaotic historic center, which was freed up when the Spanish monarch left.

Between venues, between sessions, PromPerú—an entity similar to the former Fundación Exportar in Argentina—found time to show us the benefits of a city that has begun producing wine (taking advantage of the aridity of its soil, which is part of the Atacama Desert), increasing tourism (you can see it on the streets), and boosting the quality of its agricultural production on terraces, or "andenes" (a type of farming that dates back to the Incas). Copper mining, and to a lesser extent gold and silver mining (yes, not everything was plundered by the Spanish colonizers), is emerging as one of the most relevant activities.

Let's return to the Congress. In addition to the García Montero–Muñoz Machado controversy, which is still ongoing and puts the next CILE in 2028 on hold, the venue of which has yet to be determined , two other milestones will remain in the record of the 10th Congress: the "presence" of Mario Vargas Llosa, who permeated both the cultural and academic programs, including the solemn opening session.

Yesterday afternoon, the special tribute session , attended by Felipe VI, was notable for the contributions of prominent Ibero-American writers and for making it clear that his work is destined to endure. Another issue gaining ground in academia, the publishing world, and other cultural spheres represented at this Congress is artificial intelligence.

"Spanish, a mixed language. Interculturality and the global community: a permanent challenge" was one of this morning's sessions, moderated by Carme Riera, deputy director of the RAE.

His speech raised, above all, questions about interculturality, which not only encompasses the exchange between both sides of the ocean, but also the extent to which there is symmetry in this. Words and thoughts are shared, but inequality in Latin American countries is a fact. Riera asserted everyone's right to education and culture and noted that a lively debate in Spain today concerns the languages ​​of the autonomous regions. He highlighted the linguistic ecosystems that exist in Peru, with so many ethnic groups and 56 linguistic ecosystems.

"Would a single language be preferable? Or two or three?" the academic asked herself. And she expressed the contradiction between diversity, which hinders the realization of a common social, cultural, and economic project, and the need to safeguard it, because languages ​​"are lenses through which we see the world . When a language dies, it undoubtedly means the disappearance of a worldview," she said.

But he insisted on the need for mutual understanding because "in the unitary system of the language, we still have misunderstandings." He illustrated this with an anecdote from the Madrid airport. A young Colombian woman asked, "Can I have a metro ticket, please?" And the man, a Spaniard, replied, "We don't give anything away here." "He said it in that cutting tone that we Spaniards have," Riera admitted. A valid example to understand this lack of understanding even when speaking the same language.

He recalled that Aymara and Quechua words were already included in the 1925 edition of the language dictionary . "It's a richness that began with the first American word incorporated, which was canoe (from the time of Christopher Columbus)."

He immediately delved into gastronomy as an example of unity in diversity. He praised Arequipa and Peruvian cuisine, and focused on fusion cuisine. "It's an example of the diversity of origins in the extraordinary unity that is a dish."

Carme Riera's reflection on this topic was interesting, as she pointed to culinary fusion as a form of "decolonization of power ." To achieve true interculturality, epistemological decolonization is necessary.

And it took a step forward in one of the current challenges facing language in the West, regarding the need to integrate the cultures of indigenous peoples, including Spanish speakers in Africa.

Juan Gabriel Vásquez , with his usual erudition for public speaking, began with an anecdote about George Steiner. “He said that in our Western languages, the future is ahead and the past is behind. And so we built an entire philosophical system with that simple distribution. But there is a tribe in Paraguay for whom the future, which has not happened, is what is behind, and the past, already lived, is ahead. If this tribe were to disappear, a way of being in the world would disappear, as well as a philosophical system that questions us and forces us to reevaluate.”

He immediately moved on to talk about translation and the fusion of literature that stems from it. Interestingly, the translation and distribution of the book took place an hour later at the Mario Vargas Llosa Regional Library, organized by the Cervantes Institute.

Vásquez noted that "translation is a universal, open, and contaminated metaphor for the novel as a genre. The novel has stayed alive by devouring other genres, cannibalizing them to reinvent itself ."

He then reviewed the beginnings of the novel as a comedy, until he discovered tragedy through Stendhal, Flaubert, Tolstoy, and in the 20th century, philosophy and the essay, and reflected on human character.

“That tradition,” said the Colombian writer, “is inconceivable without the fusion of cultures along the way. My Latin American tradition is that of the 20th-century novel, which broke with its cultural traditions and dedicated itself to seeking out connections with other cultures. Just as all of this began with Borges, in Latin American literature, we are all children of Borges.”

He then recounted a joke by Borges, who, having grown up in an Anglophile family, read Don Quixote for the first time in English and then, upon reading it in Spanish, thought it was a poor translation.

“When García Márquez read Kafka's Metamorphosis , it was in a translation by Borges, as was also the case with Virginia Woolf's Orlando. There is no better reader than a translator.”

He then recalled Julio Cortázar and Javier Marías as extraordinary translators, and the influence that the profession left on his own pages.

When “(the Peruvian writer) Fernando Iwasaki presented the book about Borges as a translator, an intense relationship with the creative Borges is evident,” said Juan Gabriel Vásquez.

In his essay on the Argentine writer and tradition, "Borges says we shouldn't limit ourselves," the author of The Sound of Things Falling reflected , "and that's what we Latin American writers have done, appropriating other traditions to build our own. It's a cycle that begins with Borges and, in a way, closes with Vargas Llosa."

Metaphorically, Vásquez said that "the territory of literary stain in Latin America is made of alloys and is stained by their impurities."

At a meeting dedicated to "Publishers for Book Accessibility in Peru and Circulation in Latin America," it became clear that without public policies, circulation and sustainability are meaningless.

The panel was attended by Luis García Montero , Alfaguara's editor-in-chief, Pilar Reyes ; independent Mexican editor Jeannette L. Clariond ; Spain's Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun ; and Raquel Caleya , also from Cervantes.

The moderator's curious introduction was to call Minister Urtasun "minister." Urtasun stated that the official intention of his government is to "achieve book sustainability . We are interested in good practices that allow us to ensure the circulation of books in Spanish," a language he said is "continuously growing."

In light of the Ibero-American Summit taking place on the peninsula next year, "new strategies are being planned to streamline the circulation of books." One notable point is that, according to him, more and more Latin American authors are being read in Spain.

García Montero then referred to the circulation of ideas through the Cervantes Institute. “Spanish is more than a vocabulary. Our mission is a commitment to culture and the dissemination of ideas .”

He then recalled that the Institute he leads not only promotes respect for the languages ​​of the Spanish state—Galician, Catalan, and Basque, among others—but also promotes the presence of Spanish-speaking authors in the various countries where it operates. "To summarize, we are present in 101 cities in Europe, North America, Africa, and Asia , and that means spaces for disseminating culture. Our commitment is to systematic cooperation," said García Montero, "between the different languages ​​in Spain and with Latin American institutions."

He then spoke about the 70 Cervantes libraries , which feature new Spanish-language publications and also offer workshops. He emphasized the importance of "the translation map, to study the authors most translated into other languages ​​and those who should be supported so their work can be translated. Collaboration with translators is linked to relationships with Hispanists, some of whom are directors of a Cervantes branch, which facilitates the translation of an author into another language." He then said that the major publishing groups in our language are bridges with Latin American countries.

Pilar Reyes, editorial director of Alfaguara, immediately emphasized the importance of creating a common catalog after highlighting the presence of the publishing group to which she belongs in seven countries, given the very different publishing structures in Latin America. The majority of the catalog, she said, is from our region, which "generates a constant conversation." Reyes's proposal to create a collective catalog was very interesting, especially for Latin American writers who can be read in Spain but not in our neighboring countries.

The Spanish book market grew by 35% between 2019 and 2024 , recovering from a crisis. And the same recovery was extended to the Colombian market, which grew by 60% during the same period. "Translation and distribution are considered on a country-by-country basis, because some countries are more sensitive," he noted.

He spoke of a notable increase in readers on both sides of the ocean . “We need to create a common ground. One of the most costly elements is logistics, having to do with distribution costs and tariffs. In translation support, we have to think about this collectively. When we come to a fair like Frankfurt, the author's nationality isn't considered, but rather the fact that they are a Spanish-language writer.”

He lamented that essay writing is limited to English-speaking scientists, when there are authors who research and reflect on major global issues. "We need to break that publishing dynamic because we have difficulty selling Spanish-language authors on these subjects."

From Mexico, the publisher Clariond, who recently opened a publishing house in the United States, said something very beautiful: “ We must think of the book as a mobile homeland, as a legacy and a promise . It's not just an object of the market and memory. But it's also a way of speaking about fragility. It has had the capacity to survive on screens and make dialogue a cultural and economic dimension.”

In Latin America, said the editor of Vaso Roto, " the paradox is that we have enormous literary wealth, but a very uneven infrastructure . Small publishers shouldn't be worried about the price of a book; instead, we need to create awareness and a publishing fund of authors for readers."