<h6><strong>The Diplomat</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Instituto Cervantes and the Chamber of Deputies of the Congress of the Union, the Lower House of the legislative power of Mexico, have signed a cultural and artistic exchange agreement establishing an annual chair to which the winner of the Cervantes Prize of each call will be invited.</strong></h4> The signing took place last Friday at the San Lázaro Palace in Mexico City, home of the Chamber of Deputies, in the presence of the director of the Instituto Cervantes, Luis García Montero, and the general secretary of the Mexican legislative chamber, Mauricio Farah Gebara. The new chair agreed upon will also invite the winner of the Recognition of Excellence in Human Letters, an award granted by the Chamber of Deputies, to each edition. According to the Instituto Cervantes in a press release, the objective of the agreement is to strengthen the international projection of Hispanic culture through initiatives such as the program of the Seminar of Human Letters, of the San Lázaro Cultural Space, with speakers from countries where Spanish is the official language or where there are a large number of Spanish speakers. Other clauses of the agreement include collaboration in the Jornadas Cervantinas (on the cultural and artistic legacy of the author of Don Quixote) or the publication of selected texts resulting from the Seminar Letras de Humanidad (in collaboration with the Editorial Board of the Chamber of Deputies of Mexico). This agreement has entered into force as of the date of this signature and will conclude on August 31, 2027 (date on which the LXVI Legislature of the Mexican legislative chamber concludes). The collaboration activities will be carried out through other specific agreements. After the signing, Luis García Montero declared that Spanish is the fourth language in the world in terms of its use and the second in native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese. He also urged to “reaffirm the will to collaborate from our area of culture so that this agreement is not only a symbol of friendship but also an effective element to put the 101 centers of the Instituto Cervantes at the service of Mexico.” For his part, Farah Gebara stated that this agreement is in line with the objectives of the San Lázaro Cultural Space, which seeks to integrate culture and politics in a single process of building citizenship. He also highlighted that Spanish is the fourth most spoken language in the world with nearly 595 million people and that Mexico is a fundamental pillar in this vast community, with 127 million. “We are a power in the use of language and in the creation and dissemination of cultural and artistic expressions,” he added.
