the first colossus of the Spanish language

It was in August 1713. Home of the Marquis of Villena , in Madrid's Plaza de las Descalzas , a group of heroes came together in the spirit and commitment to defend and maintain the Spanish language. They created the Royal Spanish Academy whose constitution a year after King Philip V sealed .

Positions the first foundations of the company, those illustrated decided it was to go from words to action and went to work in a dictionary to fix , clean up and give glory to our language .

For thirteen years , between 1726 and 1739 , were drafted that work that eventually would reach the thirty-seven thousand references of Spanish words , all endorsed by a top-notch author ( Lope , Quevedo , Cervantes, among many others) , ie an 'authority' . Therefore, the work would be called Dictionary of Authorities . A top-notch work that even today, three hundred years later, is a real treat , a gift , our culture .

Thus, coinciding with the hundred birthday of the Royal Academy , the institution has put on sale a facsimile edition of the book (published by JdeJ Editors ) in two versions, the popular and luxury .

The popular consists of six volumes , the publication will take place as follows : Volumes I and II , October 2013 , volume III , November; volume IV, February 2014 : Volume V, March 2014 , and Volume VI , April 2014. The price per volume is 29.90 euros . Its binding is rustic . Each issue is between six hundred and eight hundred pages .

As for the deluxe version , the release schedule is as follows: Volumes I and II , October 2012; volumes III and IV , November , and volumes V and VI , December. The price of the complete work is of 1,188 euros. The binding is in imitation leather, hard cover , sewn with yarn plant , stamping old gold ingots and aniline dyed edges , halters and keep fantasy .

The popular version can be purchased in bookstores and www.facsimilesrae.com , website where there is also an introductory offer for the deluxe version.

Spanish Language in continuous transformation, Congress concluded

The Spanish language is fertile and alive but maimed and vulnerable to pollution, concluded on Wednesday scholars and linguists to lower the curtain of the sixth International Congress of the Spanish Language .

The Spanish language "remains fertile as were the roots of your birth, your users must understand that he is alive and so is vulnerable to contamination and mutilation " said Bern Perez Ayala , director of the Panamanian Academy of Language Spanish .

During four days of the congress, which is held on a triennial , discussions focused on issues relating to the history and contributions of the book on the links between Spain and Latin America , as well as the state of reading and education. Among the hot topics included the challenges and opportunities facing the language of Cervantes to the flourishing of social networking , the Internet and media.

The concern about teaching and learning " correct language , well managed , with beauty, with care and love " was captured during the meeting in Panama , José Manuel Blecua considered , Director of the Royal Spanish Academy and president of the Association of Spanish Language Academies .

Not speaking Spanish has become a 'crime' for Indians

The lack of structure and understanding of the Spanish language is the biggest obstacle for indigenous people in Mexico . What has cost them at least 502 indigenous 8000 have been unjustly imprisoned in 2012 , not knowing defend before a public prosecutor , according to the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples ( CDI ) .

What do you think about the discrimination experienced by indigenous people in Mexico ?

" Because I had a translator at the time and nothing engaged to say 'yes ' or 'no' at the time and are judged because they gave his statement and said yes , they take ," said Mayorga Nubia , owner of CDI CNN.

With the Release of Prisoners program , the CDI has achieved so far release year nearly a thousand Indians , aged between 18 and 40 years , illiterate or only a primary education , unjustly accused and could not defend themselves let alone Spanish . Others out by not having the money to bail " from 5000 and 12 thousand dollars ," said the official.

Data of the National Social Policy Evaluation ( Coneval ) notes that there are currently 5 million Mexico 100 000 Indians in poverty , of those 2 million 500 thousand are in extreme poverty.

The program has national coverage through the administrative units of the Commission in the states.

In 2013 , the program had a budget of 26.8 million dollars, for the payment of bail, grant 2000 462 consultants , conduct surveys and hire 26 to 259 performers .

There is a type of crime for which indigenous people are dams with the highest incidence in particular. The charges are both common law crimes and the federal , for crimes against life and physical integrity , property crimes , against health or sexual assault issues , details Mayorga.

This was the case of indigenous Nahua of Puebla José Ramón Aniceto Gomez and Pascual Agustin Cruz , who in 2012 was sentenced to six years in prison for stealing a van, which could not defend themselves for not speaking Spanish .

After 10 months in prison , the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation granted an injunction brought them out of prison and in which it was recognized that there were violations of due process because it did not have translators .

Oaxaca , Chiapas and Guerrero with , is one of the states in which the CDI has more indigenous cases unjustly imprisoned .

The CDI Holder said ideally in Prosecutors had interpreters but it does not. " There are some cases where it does its work who have to make the function that corresponds , in this case in the public ministries . It's easy to put them in jail , that injustice can not give, " Mayorga said .

An emblematic case is that of Alberto Patishtán teacher , who was arrested in 2000 for allegedly engaging in an ambush that killed seven police in Chiapas . International organizations such as Amnesty International ( AI ) have lamented the "serious irregularities" in his opinion .

On September 13th of Chiapas court rejected an appeal by the defense of professor of ethnic Tzotzil thus exhausted their options within the Mexican justice system .

" It is a matter of grave concern that the justice system makes the decision to ignore the serious irregularities against Alberto Patishtán process and keep the denial of the right to a fair trial ," explained AI in a statement after the judge's decision .

In 2010 the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation ordered released by inconsistencies in the process to three indigenous women Jacinta Francisco , Alberta Alcántara and Teresa González , after nearly four years in prison.

The challenge: convert the language in a development tool

In the not recommended Elysium , currently in theaters, the hero played by Matt Damon malvive a devastated Earth and miserable , abandoned to the terrible plight of the poor who dream of escape to space colony where the rich fled . In paradise millionaires inaccessible speak English and French . In the Land of the ragged and needy , the main language is Spanish .

The fantasy of Elysium is located in the year 2159, but do not make great efforts of imagination to suppose that , in a possible future marked by extreme social and economic differences , the Spanish language would identify the most disadvantaged. If you consider that today the language of Cervantes is the second in the world in number of native speakers ( 457 million ) , but the third in terms of global literate population (5.47 % of total) , one might think that , not to shrink the gap between Spanish speakers and literacy origin who speak the language, the ugly future that is described in Elysium would be closer than it might seem.

Do speaking societies are prepared to admit that the Spanish could become the universal banner of the humble ? The language is a homeland , a feeling and a destination. We further determined that even as we say in our dreams also speak Spanish .

The popular sayings , idioms and the "lines " are the cultural archive of a country and shape the thinking of its citizens. You can not think "outside " of the language , its boundaries are those of our thinking , ie draw the only border crossing impossible . So the richer your background , is that boundary further . Today, Spanish is spoken in at least 35 countries , and each brings miles of linguistic miscegenation put even more distance between the speaker and the confines of contemporary language. But the wealth of treasure that unites nearly 530 million Spanish speakers does not correspond to the social and economic status that the Spanish could be on track to represent.

The challenge of the VI International Congress of the Spanish Language , which these days is celebrated in Panama , is simply to convert the language in a development tool . The main road is the promotion of reading as a recreational activity ( " reading is a pleasure and that is what is to be transferred ," said the Colombian writer William Ospina ) now supports multiple platforms and media. The day speaking societies bearing a comparable wealth to their language, Spanish will be the passport to be grain in customs where he hopes the future. To make this change is put in place , the states and the book industry must commit to education. In Elysium , the poor of the earth try an escape impossible and are intercepted by the space police , communicating in English. Even in a movie so bad it is clear that the best future is in their own language .

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 .

Yuqing Deng, the Chinese who speaks a perfect spanish

She has 21 years , a few months ago he returned from Barcelona , and today has awakened as the girl who speaks better Spanish than China. Yuqing Deng is the winner of the first contest that celebrated the Chinese national television , CCTV , to find the brightest person in the management of this language in the Asian country , which ended this weekend .

"No way I imagined it would be the winner ! " Exclaims Deng phone today , remembering the time when the national competition jury chose her as the winner on Saturday night , after being among the three finalists that were presented to 170 students from around the country and had to spend a " tough but interesting " evidence .

Among them - and as if the contest were The Voice , ' performing a song from Shakira, ' This is Africa ' , which she chose to stage talent , one of the first tests of this program where the contestants had to demonstrate their skills with the Spanish with some original proposal and that other fellow took to dance a quickstep or recite " Platero and I " by Juan Ramon Jimenez.

After singing , bending movies live or comment videos like the Madrid bid for the 2020 Olympics or the Inca culture in Peru , Gabriela Deng - or , as the Spanish name that she got to start Philology Hispanic in Beijing , which now is in his fourth and final year , rose on Saturday night as the winner of the prize: a trip to Peru for two, for about ten days.

With the same humble attitude that characterizes throughout the conversation , Deng talks about his two competitors , two young people, one of his own career at the University of Beijing Language and Culture , and the other , a student at Valencia, where he decided go to study and after starting with the Spanish at the early age of 12 years apart from English.

"They were much better than me , I think the only thing I might differ is that, as was so clear he would not win , I was less nervous ," said Deng , whose interest in Spanish was born after studying French and get to know the European culture .

" When it came time to choose a career opted for the Spanish to have another language and because the Spanish speaking population in the world is the largest after the Chinese, and is also one of the official languages ​​of the UN," explains the student who intends to continue his studies to finish this language by teaching or work in another government entity , which , given the increase in their international relations increasingly needs more people who can speak several languages.

To increase your level , she does not rule out a stay abroad, as he was enjoying until this June in Barcelona, ​​now longs .

And that is where the young winner gave a " boost " to his study of the language of Cervantes , talking to classmates, in school or on the street, where he also learned a word of Catalan as " bon dia " or " bona takes " .

"It was like a dream ," says the student, who between Mexico and Spain , decided to study the third year of studies in our country.

" We had three options : Barcelona, ​​Santiago de Compostela and Almería . Barcelona I opted for because for the Chinese is the most famous , has important works of Dalí and is located on the Mediterranean ," said Deng , who took advantage of his stay to visit other Spanish cities such as Valencia in Fallas - time and where you fell in love with the ' ninots' - to Madrid in full National Day parade , which impressed him " riding the military ."

Now , the program allows you to continue your study of Spanish Peru to discover knowing what for her is " the unknown world of the Mayas and Incas " , but admits that he would like the trip did their parents.

" But, of course , need a translator " laughs Deng , who rejoices , not winning the first " Spanish Quiz " CCTV , but this was concluded .

" Before we had a contest official or as important in China on Spanish , English only . And I think that is transcendental : it makes people know that in China there are many people who speak this language , there is more interest , and the students here , it gives them an incentive . "

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 .