The Diplomat
Cadiz officially assumed yesterday the organization of the IX International Congress of the Spanish Language (CILE), which initially was to be held in Arequipa (Peru) but was requested in late December by the Andalusian city as a result of the political crisis that erupted in the Andean country after the self-coup of former President Pedro Castillo.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, together with the director of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) and president of the Association of Spanish Language Academies (ASALE), Santiago Muñoz Machado; the director of the Instituto Cervantes, Luis García Montero, and the mayor of Cádiz, José María González (popularly known as Kichi), signed yesterday, at the ministerial headquarters of Marqués de Salamanca in Madrid, the Institutional Declaration for the organization in Cádiz of the IX CILE, to be held from March 27 to 30, 2023 under the theme Spanish language, miscegenation and interculturality.
Since 1997, the Instituto Cervantes, together with the RAE and ASALE, have promoted the holding of the International Spanish Language Congresses, which are aimed at academics, journalists, students, publishers, the cultural, political and economic world and, in general, all those interested in the development and promotion of the Spanish language and culture.
Previous editions were held in Zacatecas (Mexico, 1997), Valladolid (Spain, 2001), Rosario (Argentina, 2004), Cartagena de Indias (Colombia, 2007), Valparaíso (Chile, 2010, held online due to the previous earthquake), Panama City (2013), San Juan de Puerto Rico (2016) and Córdoba (Argentina, 2019). Therefore, the one in Cadiz will be the second International Congress of the Spanish Language to be held in Spain and the first in 22 years.
The current edition was initially going to be held in Arequipa between March 27 and 30 this year, but this city was forced to give it up as a consequence of the serious crisis that broke out last December 7 in Peru, following the decision of the then president Pedro Castillo to dissolve the Congress and decree a government of exception, which led to his dismissal, his arrest and his replacement by the vice-president Dina Boluarte.
Prior to the signing of the Institutional Declaration, the Monastery of Yuste, in La Rioja, hosted several working meetings of the Instituto Cervantes’ cultural managers throughout the week to address the challenges of the 2023-2026 quadrennium. During these meetings, the first of their kind organized by the Instituto Cervantes outside its headquarters in Madrid, those responsible for the Institute presented the activities that will be carried out in the framework of the Language Valley initiative, a strategic project of the regional government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to promote the language as an element of development and tourist attraction.
La Rioja will host the headquarters of the Global Observatory of Spanish, the organization that will serve as a guide for the Instituto Cervantes in the promotion of the language around the world and which will be chaired by José Manuel Albares. On the other hand, last Thursday, the King and Queen presided over the Plenary Session of the Board of the Royal Spanish Academy, which addressed, among other issues, the program of the IX CILE.
