The Cervantes Institute will present its latest report on Spanish in Brazil in São Paulo

The Diplomat The Cervantes Institute will participate from this Friday, September 4, in the São Paulo International Book Biennial 2026, which will take place until September 13 in the Brazilian city. Spain will be the Guest of Honor, with a program that includes an exhibition of two photographers exiled during the Spanish Civil War and the presentation of its latest report on Spanish in Brazil. The program, according to a press release from the institution, begins with the exhibition "Palmira Puig / Marcel Giró. Humanism in Brazilian Modernist Photography," which will open on Saturday, September 5, at the Cervantes Institute in São Paulo. "It is an exhibition deeply linked to Brazil and, at the same time, deeply linked to Spain and Catalonia," said the Institute's director, Luis García Montero, during the presentation of the Spanish presence at the book fair held in Barcelona last July. Members of the Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante, Palmira Puig and Marcel Giró made decisive contributions to the renewal of modern photography in Brazil, combining formal innovation with a profoundly humanist perspective on social reality. The exhibition brings together more than one hundred photographs, from Palmira's early work in Lleida, through their exile in Colombia, and their arrival and consolidation in Brazil. Spanish and Portuguese, languages "embraced" Alongside this major exhibition, a broad literary program has been organized that will extend beyond the fairgrounds. The Cervantes Institute has organized a professional breakfast on September 6th, bringing together Spanish and Brazilian publishers with the directors of its eight centers in Brazil. Furthermore, on the same day, the Cervantes Institute's Global Observatory of Spanish will host the conference "Spanish and Portuguese: Languages Embracing, Cultures in Conversation," featuring the director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero, and the director of the Observatory, Francisco Moreno Fernández. This colloquium will feature the presentation of the study "Brazil as a Spanish-Speaking Territory: A Microlinguistic Analysis," published by this center for research on the Spanish language. The report, prepared by Francisco Moreno Fernández and Héctor Álvarez Mella, offers a microlinguistic analysis of the presence of Spanish in the world's largest Portuguese-speaking country. On the exhibition front, the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum will also be present in São Paulo with the exhibition "The Thyssen Visits You," a collaboration with the Cervantes Institute. The opening will take place on Saturday, September 5, in the Pinacoteca do Estado square. Among the musical activities, Carles Margarit will perform at the Blue Note São Paulo on Saturday, September 5. Additionally, the Portuguese translation of the poetry anthology *Completamente viernes*, by Luis García Montero, will be presented at the Martins Fontes Paulista bookstore on Sunday, September 6. Spain's program at the Biennial has been organized by the General Directorate of Books, Comics, and Reading of the Ministry of Culture, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), and the Cervantes Institute. Within this framework, the eight centers of the Institute's Brazilian network will host meetings with some of the Spanish writers participating in the Biennial, fostering direct dialogue with readers, students, translators, and universities. A Cervantes Space will also be set up at the University of São Paulo Library, where the centers' own libraries will showcase a selection of their collections and services.

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