where are going the spanish language?

The Fourth International Congress of the Spanish Language held in Panama a few days away to go unnoticed and be accused of " outmoded " in the digital age , it was the busiest of the so far performed . He threw interesting debates that complicate and above a little more than mere rivalry between books vs. paper . the eBook.

In the four days of the Congress passed nearly two thousand visitors and more than 200 academics among writers , publishers and booksellers speaking and also from the United States, Italy , Japan and others. All discussed under the theme " The Spanish in the book : the South Atlantic Ocean " and what was clear is that the best home for discussion is Latin America. There is an idea that was imposed on the rest : the future of the Spanish language largely passes through the region .

The delegation represented the Argentina was small but participatory . The integrated , among others , the president of the Academia Argentina de Letras, José Luis Moure , the director of the National Library , Horacio González- who had a health complication and had to stay in Panama - boarding ; writer Abel Posse and Guillermo Martinez , and artist Miguel Repiso , Rep.

To project the future of the Spanish language , before listing the new devices and changes in cultural consumption habits , which slides into the Latin American debate are the asymmetries between those who can read , and do not understand what they read , and those who can not read for not being able to go to school . You can not ignore this cultural inequity in the region.

Among academics present consensus was that in Latin America, one of the main shortcomings of the education system is that " it has been emphasized in learning to read instead of reading to learn , hence the low rates academics ," said Juan Carlos Vergara Silva , representative of the Colombian Academy .

Endorsing the idea of the role poor education in the region and its consequent impact on the weakening of the Spanish language , added Lucy Molinar , Minister of Education of Panama : " We wanted to impose an education like ours and we have forgotten the students. Today the student not only wants to be receiver of information , wants to build knowledge. "

Peruvian writer and Nobel Literature Prize Mario Vargas Llosa closed Congress and full of euphoria optimistic : " We need to defend and care for our language, not locking us into foreign languages ​​, but opening the windows to enrich our language from other languages ​​, as they they do with us. language must prevent impoverish and degrade it . "

" The Spanish language is spreading in recent years for various reasons . On the one hand , there are cultural reasons : many Spanish speakers , especially American , still have large families , a phenomenon that seems not verified in some European communities. On the other hand , the growth of the Spanish speaking population in the United States also mobilized some fashion and market changes . But also, I think one can not ignore the fact that many Spanish speakers on both sides of the Atlantic are highlighted in the sport, in the art and science , which acts as a diffuser interesting of our language, explains Silvia Ramirez Gelbes , Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Buenos Aires ( UBA ) and Director of the BA in Communication from the University of San Andrés .