In a city, Cádiz, on many balconies adorned with words typical of the Cádiz language, “sieso”, “jartible”, “bastinazo”…, with its more relaxed rhythm of life that puts into perspective the rush that speaks of exchange , The The ninth International Congress of the Spanish Language (CILE) started this Monday at the Gran Teatro Falla in Cadiz. On this occasion, the motto will be Spanish Language: Mestizaje and Interculturality, a few words that will certainly be repeated in a good part of the ten plenary sessions and the almost fifty panels of the very dense academic program. Miscegenation, a word that led King Felipe to declare in his speech: “Spanish is a mixed language from the beginning and this miscegenation goes beyond social coexistence, education and the entire cultural, literary and artistic world. , infrastructures, architecture, medicine or law”. An idea that the writer Soledad Puértolas, “in the mix we recognize ourselves” and the director of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE): “Mestizaje was a consequence of coexistence that produced happier communities, abounded in.”
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Don Felipe recalled that this CILE should have taken place in Arequipa (Peru), but “well-known circumstances advised a change of venue”. The monarch has quoted some well-known figures of Spanish: “After Mandarin Chinese, the second mother tongue in the world and after English the second language in international communication. If you add potential users, there are almost 500 million speakers.” For this reason he has called out: “If we have this strength, we have the opportunity for our language to become more and more global. This is Spanish time. The 21st century must become the century of the Spaniards”.
In the theatre, the most serious emphasis was given to the voice of the writer Sergio Ramírez, who lived in exile and was forced to leave his Nicaragua by the authoritarian government of Daniel Ortega, which even deprived him of his citizenship. In the place where a month ago traditionally the finale of the carnival groups was celebrated, the party that laughs at the powerful and the thugs, Ramírez announced: “In Nicaragua we have been fleeing from volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and hurricanes and tyrants for 2,000 years, from first to grow old in his bed to the last to continue enforcing silence. “It’s an ancient face superimposed on another face of phantasmagoria.” In a tone that is at times somber, the author of Tongolele, who could not dance, winner of the 2017 Cervantes Prize, has pointed out: “Tyranny punishes the mockery of fiction and they can take away your country, your memory, your past, because in the delirium of their capricious They arbitrarily believe they have the power to make you disappear”. Ramírez, who was a young rebel in the Sandinista Revolution in 1979 and was himself vice-president to Ortega, has pointed out: “Literature is the only moral security in society.”
Until Thursday, Cádiz is the scene of this major triennial event with a language spoken by almost 500 million people around the world. Almost 280 speakers have come so far, including writers, academics of the Spanish language from 23 institutions around the world, philologists…
Sergio Ramírez, during the opening of the IX. Edition of the International Congress of the Spanish Language Jorge Zapata (EFE)
The idea of celebrating the CILE was born in 1992, precisely at a conference on the Spanish language in Seville on the occasion of that year’s World Fair. It was then-President of Mexico, Ernesto Zedillo, who proposed the idea and offered his country as the venue for the first, which was held in Zacatecas in 1997. The first and so far the only one in Spain was in Valladolid ( 2001).
In his words, the director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero, launched a song to those who suffered in exile, including the poet of the generation of 27 Rafael Alberti, born in the town of El Puerto de Santa María in Cadiz , who is from Argentina “he longed for the other shore in America, but realized that a new way of feeling had entered his identity.” García Montero has also warned about the current threat of “hate speech and racism”, which is why he concluded by referring to the local football team Cádiz, whose motto was “The fight is not negotiation”. Also present at the Falla were the Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, and the President of the Junta de Andalucía, Juan Manuel Moreno.
The writer Elvida Lindo, columnist for EL PAÍS, where she was born in 1962, also spoke about this city: “There is no other example of a Spanish and Latin American city like Havana.” Likewise, he has highlighted the way of life that can be seen in these streets: “Where all drama turns into comedy over time. The trap, the haste, the fear, the sanctification of hyperactivity are avoided”. In this line, the mayor of Cadiz, José María González Santos, said of his compatriots: “We speak quickly, we recognize each other with the Arabic, with the gypsy”. And he ended with some of those words that can be read on balconies in the center of Cadiz and that can be heard nowadays in a city whose corners smell of oranges and orange blossoms: “Be aliquindoi, [atentos]enjoy the thong [cachondeo]that this Congress is a bastinazo” (which would become a hoot, something out of the ordinary, superlative).
Exhibitions, presentations, concerts… for the cultural part
The Cádiz Language Congress will be accompanied by an extensive cultural program with book presentations, exhibitions… and which will open this Monday at 6:30 p.m. with a cajoneada in front of the Falla Theater. 64 drummers will play the popular instrument, born in Peru and inherited from flamenco. An event to which everyone is invited who wants to clap their hands or something else. Next, the Falla will host the Tempo de luz concert with flamenco artists Carmen Linares, Marina Heredia and Arcángel.
Also, on the 28th, a special issue of the literary journal Granta will appear with several unpublished stories by Peruvian authors; on this day there will also be a concert by the guitarist Vicente Amigo in the Falla; Also, a rap workshop, debates on journalism, poetry readings…
On the 29th the first map of the translation of the Cervantes Institute, which EL PAÍS advanced on Sunday, will be presented. It’s a new tool that allows you to consult the works and authors most frequently translated from Spanish into the 10 main languages of the world, from 1950 to the present day.
All the culture that suits you awaits you here.
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