<h6><strong>The Diplomat</strong></h6> <h4><strong>Queen Letizia praised this Monday the role played by the directors of the Cervantes Institute in continuing to promote the Spanish language as a "tool of seduction."</strong></h4> Queen Letizia spoke these words during her participation in the first working session of the Cervantes Institute's Annual Meeting, which is being held until Wednesday in Tenerife and is attended by more than 70 officials and the institution's management team. In her brief speech following this first session, held behind closed doors and dedicated to the situation of Spanish in countries such as the United States and Brazil, the Queen thanked all the center directors for their work "for continuing to believe" that Spanish is a language and culture that serves as a tool for understanding, harmony, and communication, "in short, a tool of seduction." “Thank you for your patience and effort in going to each of the centers every day, opening them, and managing a thousand problems you can't even imagine, pulling aces out of your sleeve beyond your capabilities,” she continued. She also announced that she hopes that on her next two state visits after the summer, there will be some institutional action linked to the Cervantes Institute. “We must continue to focus so that Spanish society continues to be aware of the significance of an institution like the Cervantes Institute and the work that everyone does at each center,” she concluded. In addition to the Queen, the Queen also attended this working session: the Director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero; the President of the Canary Islands Government, Fernando Clavijo; and the State Secretary for Ibero-America and the Caribbean and Spanish in the World, Susana Sumelzo. The opening ceremony took place beforehand with an event in the Auditorium of the University of La Laguna, with speeches by Luis García Montero, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares (via telematics); the president of CIDOB (Barcelona Centre for International Affairs) and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell; and the rector of the University of La Laguna, Francisco Javier García. In his speech, García Montero recalled the importance of certain key words today, such as "freedom," "canoe," "genocide," and "mixed race." Borrell highlighted some of the progress Cervantes has made in the last five years, from the opening of new centers in Dakar, Los Angeles, and Seoul to a "profound" increase in the number of Spanish speakers. Finally, José Manuel Albares praised the work of the Cervantes staff, which "goes beyond language teaching, as it fosters mutual understanding and turns Spanish into a tool for global dialogue." Since 2005 (except in 2020 due to the pandemic), the Instituto Cervantes has held annual meetings with the directors of its centers abroad and its entire management team, where they discuss their lines of action for the international promotion of the Spanish language and culture. This is the first time it has been held in the Canary Islands. So far, eleven autonomous communities have hosted these sessions: Andalusia, Catalonia, Castile and León, Castile-La Mancha, Madrid, Cantabria, Extremadura, La Rioja, Galicia, the Basque Country, the Valencian Community, the Principality of Asturias, and Catalonia.
