Cervantes Institute promotes the ideal of community in Cuba

Havana, February 17 (RHC) The director of the Cervantes Institute of Spain, Luis García Montero, this Friday took advantage of his presentation at the 32nd Havana International Book Fair to promote the ideals of community in the promotion of the Spanish language.

In the Professional Book Hall of the San Carlos de la Cabaña fortress, García spoke on the topic at the conference Read in Spanish. The Cervantes Institute as ambassador of the Spanish language in the world.

He stated that it is the purpose of the institution to maintain community work, enriching the language not from arrogance, but from respect for the particularities of each Spanish-speaking nation.

He recalled that the speakers are the owners of the language, much more so in a large community that represents the second international language in cultural relations after English.

The director of the institute also specified that Spanish today has millions of speakers around the world, especially in Latin America; eight million in Spain; and a large community in the United States that speaks Cervantes' language.

He highlighted the close relationship they maintain with numerous universities and institutes in Latin America, and also with Cuban professionals.

He believed that teaching a language is much more than teaching vocabulary, because there is a whole series of values within and beneath the words. In that sense, it is about communicating the characteristics of a community, history and tradition.

In the context of this edition of the fair, García praised the benefits of reading and the value of writers and poets who are today classics in the Spanish language, such as Federico García Lorca, Rubén Darío, Antonio Machado, Pablo Neruda, Pablo de la Torriente, Miguel Hernández, among others.

For his part, the president of the Cuban Book Institute, Juan Rodríguez Cabrera, urged the director of the Cervantes Institute to count on Cuba and the Havana International Book Fair as a platform to continue expanding the learning and promotion of Spanish, taking into account that almost 50 nations come together at the forum every year.

This conference was attended by the Cuban Minister of Culture, Alpidio Alonso; the ambassador of Spain in Havana, Ángel Peccis; the prominent Cuban poets Nancy Morejón and Waldo Leyva, and numerous intellectuals and language scholars. (Source: PL)