The Diplomat in Spain

García Montero with Guirao, Borrell, García Calvo and Celaá. / Photo: @InstCervantes 

The Diplomat. 02/08/2018

The Granadan writer and poet Luis García Montero took over yesterday as director of the Cervantes Institute, an institution that should promote, according to his words, «a cultural diplomacy of pan-Hispanic energy, with the language as a bridge between Spain, Europe and Latin America».

«In my responsibility, the vocation, the demand and the illusion are embraced at the same time», said García Montero during his speech at the event, which was attended by the Vice President of the Government, Carmen Calvo; the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell; the Minister of Culture, José Guirao; the Minister of Education, María Isabel Celaá; and the Minister of Justice, Dolores Delgado, as well as several ambassadors and numerous personalities from the world of art and culture.

«I appreciate the opportunity that I am given to share in my office a civic vocation and a new time for Spanish democracy», in which «the greatest challenge, from very different perspectives, is the effort to be good, good at good sense of the word good, in front of those who work to create times conducive to hatred», he continued, paraphrasing the poets Antonio Machado and Ángel González.

«In the Cervantes Institute, the State brings together the presence of Spain in the world, international cooperation, recognition of the value of education and its commitment to support and disseminate culture», he said.

«I dare to say that the Ibero-American perspective is a necessity in the Europe of Brexit, in the trance of Hispanic culture in the United States and in the defense of human rights anywhere in the world”, García Montero added.

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Cervantes’ director defends to open new offices in Washington and Miami

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Therefore, he warned, it is necessary to launch «a cultural diplomacy of pan-Hispanic energy, with language as a bridge between Spain, Europe and Latin America», which invites him «to dream of the opening of a Cervantes in Washington, it is a dream, not a promise; and another in Miami and with our extension for sub-Saharan Africa and Asia».

«Due to its ability to generate self-financing through its academic and cultural activities, Cervantes is very cheap to the State, since each Spanish pays a little more than one euro» to maintain the institution, said García Montero.

Despite this, said, «there is nothing more poetic than the numbers and I confess that I will be one more of all public positions that, after years of cuts, will be in the queue and ask the State a little oxygen to fulfill the task entrusted». This task includes, he warned, the defense of «the dignity of our greatest patrimony, which is human, the men and women of Cervantes who unite in a single task the employment and vigilance of the vocation».

During his turn of intervention, García Calvo declared that the Spanish language is «the great passport of all the men and women of this country, with which we make free routes anywhere in the world». «It is more than a language, it is an asset in Europe», she added.