USA speaks Castilian

United States has become a laboratory for the language of Cervantes . Powered by Hispanic immigration , the Spanish live an unprecedented expansion . This growth , as tabled in the Spanish Language Congress of Panama held two weeks ago, involves challenges and some other danger.

With nearly 50 million , is the first Spanish -speaking country most populous Spanish-speaking . The advance is such that it seems that in 2050 Mexico surpassed and will have the absolute record of Castilian speakers .

With 900,000 students , is the most studied foreign language in universities. And there are some that offer courses and language studies only .

"It is our wet tongue entering the United States hidden in cargo vans , crammed onto the roofs of the carriages of the train of death in Chiapas trip to Sonora , which transfers the smart wall , which mocks infrared detectors ".

With its literary description of the way and the conditions under which language comes Juan Rulfo , Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramírez was the first to talk in Congress of a reality which employs linguists and sociologists.

Behind him were others in the Convention Center Atlapa approached a phenomenon that is a direct response to the recent opening of a branch of the Instituto Cervantes in Harvard University .

" Throughout the Spanish history there have always been areas where there have been mixed , but with a large geographical spread not, and communication with a capacity as large as the U.S. ", said the director of the center Cervantes , Francisco Moreno Fernández .

Hispanics are consolidated as the largest minority in the land of John Steinbeck and Spanish stands in the language of a speech community stable. So far , however , we can not talk of a U.S. Spanish . Each community partners there still remains very high awareness of its origins.

" In Chicago, for example, the Castilian is Mexican , Florida is the Caribbean ', exemplified the director of the Spanish Academy , Jose Manuel Blecua . There is a variety , as there is no single profile of Hispanic , but several.

But there is an ongoing convergence interhispánicos elements that eventually forging a U.S. Spanish sooner or later, says the professor Moreno Fernández , head of the Harvard Observatory Cervantes Spanish language , studying everything that has to do with that expansion in the North American country.

"For example , all speaking call yard and patio . Processes are occurring balancing between Spanish varieties that will end in U.S. Spanish . "

Fear of ' Spanglish '

One aspect that some look with fear is Spanglish , Spanish pollution by giving expressions like English 'll call you back, the literal translation I call you back .

The Peruvian writer and critic Julio Ortega , who has lived for 30 years in the land of Stars and Stripes , sees no problem.

"The Spanish history is made by those processes of mixing and contamination from the Italian Garcilaso 's work until Darius French and Quechua of José María Arguedas ' he said. "Do not be afraid , will cease to exist when no longer observed , as in the imaginary diseases ."

"There are many social, linguistic, political , economic, that will make the Spanish go to one side or another. USA is a laboratory , "said Moreno .

The U.S. is the great laboratory for the Spanish language, as dean of Harvard

The U.S. has become a " fascinating laboratory " for studying the relationship between Spanish and English and anticipate the future of both languages ​​, in the opinion of the Dean of Arts and Humanities at Harvard University , Diana Sorensen .

In a conversation with Efe, held this week in Cambridge ( Massachusetts ) at the launch at Harvard the "Observatory of the Spanish language ," Sorensen said the " important role " that is serving in the U.S. Spanish .

Could it be said - asked - that the future of Spanish is being played in this country?

" I dare not make a judgment as blunt " answers Sorensen, "but I think in the U.S. the Spanish is fulfilling an important role , affecting both English and Spanish being affected as a language , so that, rather than gamble with the future of language , I think we are witnessing a migration lab and Crosses is fascinating and very vital. "

The two most widely spoken languages ​​in the world live in the country at the forefront of science , economics , technology and entertainment, and that relationship will largely condition the transformation of both languages.

From Argentina , Diana Sorensen is Professor " James F. Rothenberg " of Romance Languages ​​and Literatures and Comparative Literature at Harvard , and a renowned specialist in Latin American literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries .

Thanks to their efforts, just starting your career at Harvard on " Observatory of Spanish language and Hispanic cultures in the United States " , a new center of the Instituto Cervantes which intends to investigate the evolution of the Spanish and the Hispanic in this immense country.

The Centre is directed by Professor of the University of Alcala de Henares Francisco Moreno Fernández , until recently, academic director of the Cervantes .

When asked if the U.S. will end up becoming a bilingual nation , Sorensen responds with a dart of reproach to the politicians in Washington.

" I do not know if ( bilingualism ) may occur in an official manner , because you all have witnessed the unfortunate lack of political cohesion that are there in Congress , in the government. 's A public embarrassment ," he says , referring to the recent dispute between the two major parties has remained paralyzed and the federal administration to the brink of bankruptcy.

" These same gentlemen, as this gentleman Cruz ( Ted Cruz, Republican Senator ), which unfortunately has a Hispanic name , I guess they are people who are willing to enact legislation that is so open , but I think we are actually sailing two languages ​​" .

The Dean reveals to Cambridge, where he is based university "is a city where English is rarely heard in the street."

"If you're standing in line at the post office, will hear Russian, will hear Arabic, Spanish course , much Portuguese ... , so here inhabit a sort of polyglot sea , which I find fantastic. But I think it becomes official ( bilingualism ), I think is going to happen maybe in practice . "

According to Sorensen , both the president of Harvard as the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences are delighted with the project of the Spanish Observatory .

Testing has shown that acquired the project is the fact that at the first faculty meeting of the academic year , on September 25 , the dean announced to the entire faculty building of the new center .

Being only one among many other projects of this university , considered the first in the world, is the only one that has been announced publicly.

The Observatory is also the best illustration of the new dynamics of "opening the doors to the international world " that pursues Harvard over other models used by other private universities in the prestigious Ivy League.

" Harvard seeks international attention , wants to receive foreign forces in the most positive sense of the word ," recalls the dean .

" While NYU built a campus in Abu Dhabi , or Yale in Singapore , we are creating a different model that is much more agile and flexible : we have an observatory, we can create a study center in São Paulo or Bombay , but we are trying to create agile international presence with institutions that are not new campus, " he explains.

The plan is that the first activities of the new Observatory begin immediately upon termination of the International Congress of the Spanish Language which is being held these days in Panama

A new form of the Spanish language was born in the United States

The United States " is setting " a form of Spanish with a cultural sign itself , although still far from comparable with lexical varieties exhibiting other Spanish-speaking countries , according to experts at the Sixth Congress participaronn International Language in Panama .

Projections suggest that by 2050 the United States could become the first Spanish-speaking nation , ahead of Mexico , if migration and demographic trends continue, according to participants in the Congress, which has already completed .

The director of the Instituto Cervantes , Victor Garcia de la Concha , said in an interview with Efe in Panama City has been the progressive growth of the number of Spanish speakers , because the flood of migration, what is driving this new form of Spanish , one language , however , is still seen as a " language of migrants" in the United States.

"I actually , sociolinguists , say that you are setting a modality States ( of Spanish ) , but you are setting , yet is distinct from a configuration as fixed such as the Colombian or Mexican ," said Garcia de la Concha .

For the director of Instituto Cervantes , " we do need to consider this whole phenomenon " , but stressed that " still not yet fully as to specifically define .

Garcia de la Concha , however , noted that if anything stands out to Spanish is his " very strong unit ," which is clear from the fact that " 91% of the vocabulary used by all Spanish speakers, in any country , it is common " .

" Everything is Spanish , but Spanish varieties , some syntactic construction but lexical mainly reduced to the customs ," he said .

The president of the American Academy of the Spanish Language, Gerardo Piña Rosales , also told Efe that you can start talking about the existence of " Spanish in the United States."

This nascent form " has not so much a syntax, a structure " , but a " lexicon that responds to the cultural life of the United States," said Pina , who explains the phenomenon in a book he published with Professor Dominita Dumitrescu .

The U.S. Spanish "undoubtedly already happening " in a process that is also improving quality due to social promotion of Spanish speakers , said the president of the American Academy of the Spanish Language since 2008.

"People said , has a very wrong notion of what the Spanish in the United States, which is now the Spanish corrupted , as it somehow happened before . And for a social issue ."

"Simply put, there is a Hispanic middle class and , on the other hand, children of immigrants realize that being bilingual worth two ," said Piña Rosales.

In this process "we must take care " that the new Spanish American is being born " is as accurate as possible " , which is entirely linked to education, said Professor University of New York.

" To the extent that children , especially Hispanics, Anglos but also , have access to education , that Spanish is getting better ," he said .

In that sense, García de la Concha said the recent launch of an Observatory of the Spanish language and Hispanic cultures in the United States, driven by the Cervantes Institute and Harvard University , under the sponsorship of Banco Santander.

The Observatory " will be giving us information of how you're doing " everything Hispanic in the United States, including the phenomenon of the new form of Spanish in this country .

The director of the Cervantes also referred to the social progress of the U.S. Hispanic migration , and how this can help the Spanish no longer seen as a " language of migrants " and go to be considered one of " excellence."

"As immigrants are boosting their social role grows also the consideration of the language , but if they stay true to that language " and not limited to use it " in the family " , then that Spanish will also progress , said Garcia de la Concha .

" At the time when the Spanish started now into social areas and then begin to have more extensive references , more universal , then I can acquire that language recognition of excellence ," he added .