The Diplomat Barcelona will host for the first time, between July 22 and 25, the Annual Meeting of Directors of the Instituto Cervantes, as announced yesterday by the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, and the director of Cervantes, Luis García Montero, after the signing of a collaboration agreement. The summit, at which Queen Letizia is usually present, will bring together nearly seventy directors of the Instituto Cervantes in Spain and in all its centers around the world who will study the progress and challenges of the organization in charge of promoting the Spanish language and languages. co-officials and to disseminate the culture of Spanish-speaking countries. Since 2005, the Cervantes directors' meetings have been held every year (except in 2020 due to the pandemic) in various cities in a total of ten autonomous communities: Andalusia, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Madrid, Cantabria, Extremadura, La Rioja, Galicia, Basque Country, Valencian Community and Principality of Asturias. Therefore, this will be the first time it is celebrated in Catalonia. García Montero and Collboni signed a collaboration agreement yesterday, which includes, among its clauses, the development of joint activities and projects that allow the cultural richness and diversity of Barcelona to be shown at the headquarters and centers of the Instituto Cervantes abroad. To this end, the text provides for the promotion of projects related to the purposes of both institutions in the cultural and academic fields. It will be valid for four years, extendable for another four years, and does not imply the transfer of economic resources between the signatories, nor expenses for any of the institutions. In addition to holding the opening, closing and work sessions of the Annual Meeting of Directors in the City Hall itself -except for one of the work meetings, which will take place at the University of Barcelona-, the agreement contemplates the development of cultural activities in all their manifestations and forms of artistic expression (exhibitions, concerts, seminars, meetings, etc.) that allow improving the cultural positioning of the city abroad. Collboni noted, after the signing, that "Barcelona wants to fully exercise its dual Catalan and Spanish cultural capital, as well as its status as a bridge with Latin America and Europe." “With this agreement, the Instituto Cervantes and Barcelona join forces in favor of our creators and the excellent creative moment of the city,” added the mayor, who assured that Barcelona is “the most Cervantes city.” For his part, García Montero declared that, “for the Institute, it is very important to be in Barcelona and remember that Spanish culture is full of richness and diversity, and is proud of its plurality of languages.” In this sense, he made reference to the Institut Ramon Llull, with which the Cervantes has been collaborating since its first agreement in 2004 and with which, together with the institutions that promote Basque and Galician languages and cultures—the Etxepare and the Consello da Cultura Galega, respectively—, in 2020 the Institute signed a memorandum whose main objectives are support for the linguistic diversity of Spain and respect for its multicultural reality through dialogue and understanding.
