Albares reminds in Puerto Rico that “Hispanic identity has been an integral part of the US since its founding”

Eduardo González Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares took advantage of his trip to Puerto Rico to defend Hispanic culture and the Spanish language against the immigration and language policies of US President Donald Trump: “Hispanic identity has been an integral part of the US since its founding,” he asserted. Albares began the first leg of his new Latin America and Caribbean tour on Monday, which includes Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico. In San Juan, the minister spoke at the conference “Spanish, a Global Language, a Language of the Future” at Inter-American University and met with Pablo José Hernández, Puerto Rico’s Resident Commissioner to the US Congress, and with Puerto Rico’s Governor, Jenniffer González Colón. In statements to the media, Albares emphasized that his tour “could not omit Puerto Rico, which contributes so much to Spanish and to the Hispanic world.” “Nowhere is the weight and strength of Spanish, a global language, felt as strongly as here in America,” and therefore, “nothing is more natural or obvious to me than to address the students of Inter-American University here in Puerto Rico about our common language,” he continued. According to Albares, “the United States is, after Mexico, the second country in the world with the most native Spanish speakers.” “I want to remind everyone that it is an original language since the founding of the United States and that Hispanic culture has been part of the independence of the United States since its very founding; it is part of its identity,” he added. “There is no debate about that, neither inside nor outside the United States, and certainly not here in Puerto Rico, where Spanish is an official language,” he asserted. During the meeting with the governor, he explained, they discussed the full scope of bilateral relations, including, of course, Spanish, the shared language, investments, Puerto Rico's participation in the 2027 International Tourism Fair (FITUR) with a very important central role, air connectivity, Puerto Rican investments, and Spain's role as Puerto Rico's gateway and voice in the European Union. However, the conversation with the governor did not touch on Spain's participation in the 250th anniversary celebrations of the founding of the United States (with which Puerto Rico is linked as a commonwealth) nor on U.S. domestic politics. "The role and contribution that Spain played to the independence of the United States is not up for debate; it is well known, and there is an agreement in place between the Spanish Embassy in Washington and the State Department to participate in the activities," but "it is the U.S. authorities who must decide what kind of commemorations they wish to hold," he asserted.

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