• Language: The new objective of the Cervantes Institute is to expand Spanish for Africa in the face of the brake in Europe and the US

The director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero, has argued in the US controversy about whether Christopher Columbus's arrival in America should continue to be celebrated as the 'Columbus Day' ('Columbus Day'), which is how he has been recognized since 1971, or the 'Day of Indigenous Peoples' , which is what a growing number of activists and leftist groups defend.

"I don't think there is innocent civilization . When we celebrated the 'Day of Indigenous Peoples', did we celebrate the custom of burying children alive in the snow to offer them to the gods? Indigenous cultures were as brutal and as cruel as culture Spanish, "said García Montero who, precisely, was in New York presenting the institution's annual report, 'Spanish in the world'.

Speaking to the media, García Montero said that "the important thing is to commit ourselves to the future , and the future is Human Rights. What is the point of demanding accounts from Hernán Cortés from the 16th century when in the 20th century we invented the Atomic bomb and we have generated coups, dictatorships, world wars ...? "

García Montero also expressed his opposition to Spanish being identified with Spain. "I do not believe that Spanish can be defended for the good of Spain as 'Spain brand'. For the good of Spain in globalization we have to learn that 'Spain brand' is olive oil or Basque , because one is produced in Spain and the other is spoken only in Spain. " The 'Marca España' initiative was launched by the Government of Mariano Rajoy to promote the image of the country in the world. Pedro Sánchez has changed the name of the project to 'Global Spain'.

The reason why the head of Cervantes does not want the Castilian to be used to promote the image of Spain is because "we share the language with 21 other countries" , not counting precisely the US. And there García Montero did not hide his concern about what he called "outbreaks of intolerance and racism" and "the use of languages ​​to fuel the conflict," for example, when "it is said that the Founding Fathers of a country that falsifies History only spoke one language. " It was a hard and direct attack on the US Government and its president, Donald Trump. One of the first things the US president did when he came to office was to remove the Spanish section of the White House website.

Apart from the assessments of García Montero on current issues, the act confirmed the vigor of Spanish in the world , where it is still the second language by native inhabitants, after Mandarin, and by international use, after English, and the third In Internet. But those responsible for the Cervantes also made a call for attention to the future. Because, as Bueno Hudson said, "if we fall into complacency, we can reach a situation in which the Spaniard does not advance."

This caution is due, more than to the rejection of Spanish by the Government and part of the US population - which in the end is the second country with more Spanish speakers in the world, after Mexico and tied with Colombia - but to the evolution Demographic of the world.

If the statistics of the World Bank and the United Nations are taken, it is found that last year the world population grew by 1.08%. If you take 'Spanish in the world', the population of Spanish speakers only grew by 0.62% . In other words, despite the glorification of the spread of Spanish in the world, the demographic trend is negative in the long term, as the population of India and Sub-Saharan Africa increase their weight in the world population. These regions are predominantly Anglophone and, to a lesser extent, Francophone. But in none of it is Spanish the mother tongue . If the trend does not change, in two or three decades the Castilian will enter a demographic decline worldwide.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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