Eduardo González
The Instituto Cervantes has been awarded by the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) for its work in disseminating Hispanic heritage in the United States.
Next June, the director of the Instituto Cervantes in New York, Richard Bueno, will receive the Lawrence Wilkins Founder’s Award, the highest recognition granted by the AATSP, an institution founded in 1917. The award recognizes people and institutions that have played a role fundamental in its work to improve and strengthen the teaching of Spanish in the United States.
In this specific case, as reported by the Institute last week in a press release, the AATSP jury has unanimously awarded Cervantes for promoting the training of Spanish teachers at all levels and knowledge of Hispanic heritage in the United States through the study of the Spanish language and Hispanic cultures. In the words of its director, Maria Carreira, the Instituto Cervantes “perfectly represents the spirit of the award.”
The AATSP congratulates the Instituto Cervantes for its “excellent” academic and cultural programs, which include a wide range of training options for schools, universities and companies. It also recognizes their contribution to the professional development of Spanish teachers, their training and their accreditation.
The association makes special mention of the leadership of Richard Bueno Hudson, director of the Instituto Cervantes in New York and coordinator of the network of centers in the United States: New York, Chicago, Albuquerque, Los Angeles and the Spanish Observatory at Harvard University.
Doctor in Philology from the University of Salamanca and Graduate in Philology from the University of Oviedo, Richard Bueno Hudson (Leicester, United Kingdom, 1963) has been director of the Instituto Cervantes in New York since September 2019. In September 2022, Bueno joined as a member of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language (ANLE), an institution that serves 60 million Hispanics in the United States and one of 23 Spanish language academies that serve almost 600 million Spanish speakers worldwide. In addition, he is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Observatory of the Spanish Language and Hispanic Cultures in the United States at Harvard University.
The American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese promotes the study and teaching of these two languages and their corresponding literatures and cultures (Hispanic, Portuguese-Brazilian and other related ones) at all educational levels. Likewise, it contributes to a better understanding between the United States and Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking nations (the two most used languages on the American continent, apart from English).
The award will be presented during the 106th Annual AATSP Conference to be held in Portland, Oregon from June 29 to July 2 of this year. The award is named after Lawrence Wilkins, author of fourteen books on teaching Spanish, who in 1914 began organizing Spanish language teachers in New York City and, three years later, founded the American Association of Spanish Teachers. (AATS), predecessor of the current AATSP.
