<h6><strong>The Diplomat</strong></h6> <h4><strong>Relations between diplomacy and Hispanists were the focus of the second day of the Cervantes Institute Annual Meeting, being held this week at the University of La Laguna.</strong></h4> Antonio Niño, professor of Contemporary History at the Complutense University of Madrid, gave a lecture in the university's Central Building entitled "Spanish Cultural Diplomacy and International Hispanism." In this lecture, he reviewed the evolution of Hispanism since the 1920s, when the Spanish administration attempted to promote it by creating cultural services and a network of lectureships, chairs of Spanish Language and Literature, and Hispanic institutes. The objective of those Spanish leaders, according to the professor, was to "combat what was considered the age-old Hispanophobia" that prevailed abroad and improve an image abroad that had been greatly weakened, especially after the so-called "Disaster of '98." In those years, both during the Second Republic (with names like Dámaso Alonso, Jorge Guillén, and Luis Cernuda) and during the Franco regime, the objective of Spanish diplomacy was to ensure that Hispanists became "natural allies" in promoting Spain's image abroad, he continued. According to Niño, today, Hispanists "continue to play an important role, even though the rules of the game have changed." "Every time there is an important event in Spain, such as the 15-M or the 'procés,' the international media appeal to Hispanists to explain to their audiences what is happening in the country," he explained. For this reason, the Complutense professor called for the design of appropriate and sustained policies, along with the creation of an "appropriate narrative," as the key to the success of these cultural policies. "This has extraordinary value for Spain's image abroad, as a role for analysts and opinion makers, and that's why we must ask ourselves what investment is worthwhile to facilitate their work," he added.
