By historical coincidence, three leading figures in world literature died on this date of the same year: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, William Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega.
Miguel de Cervantes brilliantly cultivated all the narrative genres prevalent in his day. In honor of Cervantes, April 23 is celebrated around the world as Spanish Language Day.
William Shakespeare, English poet and playwright, author of a now-classic play depicting every facet of the human heart, every passion and every impulse, from love and piety to jealousy, ambition, greed and doubt.
Shakespeare’s contacts with the author of Don Quixote are constant, and his work is continually performed on Spanish-speaking stages.
Garcilaso de la Vega wrote such works as the famous Royal Commentaries and the General History of Peru. His works are rich in autobiographical elements.
Spanish speakers also adopt the date to celebrate World Spanish Language Day. Maybe because Cervantes’ masterpiece, El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, didn’t broaden the perspective of our language very much?
Also as a posthumous offering In 1995 the General Conference of UNESCO chose April 23 as International Book Day. considering that historically it has been the most powerful element in the concentration and dissemination of human knowledge and the most effective means of preserving it.
Spanish is one of the 6 official languages of the United Nations. Also those of more than 20 countries in America, Europe and Africa.
Spanish Language Day has its origins in 1926 when the Valencian writer Vicente Clavel Andrés proposed the idea of a special day to celebrate literature. The tradition started in Valencia and gradually spread throughout Spain.
What is the future of the Spanish language in the world? although The Spanish language is the second most important language in the world and the third most spoken with 400 million indigenous peopleShe faces enormous challenges and the date invites reflection.
As of November 2018, more than 577 million people worldwide speak Spanish, of which 480 million are native speakers.
7.6 percent of the world’s population speak Spanish. Almost 22 million people study it in 107 countries. Spanish is also the third most used language on the internet and the most widely studied foreign language in the United States.
Recent estimates put the Spanish-speaking population at 7.7 percent in 2050. The data shows that the future of the Spanish language is bright in the short term and will continue to spread globally despite the dominance of English and the rise of Chinese.
Despite this, experts warn of the dangers that the Spanish language is currently facing and therefore call for defending the principles of the language in order to avoid its loss of identity in the face of new idioms.
The defense of the language, its care and its correct use lead to preserving the traditions of a people as they are an element of cultural identification. Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez warned that the Spanish language must prepare, it is a historical right.
(Recorded by Caribbean Channel)
