The Cervantes Institute will open its doors next year in the county where Spanish is most widely spoken in the US.

They seek to strengthen the presence of Spanish in Los Angeles

Carmen Pastor (i), Juan Pablo de Laiglesia, Nina Lucine Hachigan, Luis Garcia Montero, Marcela Celorio and Richard Bueno, during the presentation in Los Angeles of the report “Spanish in the world 2019”. (Aurelia Ventura / The Opinion)

Photo:
Aurelia Ventura / Impremedia / La Opinion

With the aim of initiating a dynamic to strengthen the image and presence of Spanish in the United States, a project was announced on Monday that will unite several countries and cultures under the same language.

The Cervantes Institute, with two locations, one in Madrid and one in Alcalá de Henares, Spain, aims to promote the teaching, study and use of Spanish. There are currently 86 centers distributed in 45 countries across five continents.

Of the total, five are in the United States in the cities of Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Albuquerque and New York.

However, planning has begun to create the next Instituto Cervantes in Los Angeles and is expected to open its doors by the end of 2020.

Nina Lucine Hachigian, deputy mayor of international affairs in Los Angeles, said she hopes that with the opening of the Cervantes Institute the angel city will be an example of bilingualism in the nation because of its history.

"Spanish is the first non-native language most spoken here," Hachigian said in the presentation held at the Los Angeles Central Library (LAPL). "In Los Angeles County, Spanish is the second most widely spoken language."

The consul of Mexico in Los Angeles, Marcela Celorio Mancera, thanked that the Instituto Cervantes has thought of Los Angeles for this project. She said that for many immigrants like her, English is a borrowed language but Spanish is her mother tongue.

“As a diplomat I have learned that exiles can be painful. For many of us, the language is so powerful that it allows us to connect with others, ”said the consul during the presentation.

“I remember when I was in Israel the Cervantes (institute) was my home, there I could read the great authors, watch movies. So far from home you (the institute) were my home. ”

Spanish in the US

The yearbook presentation was also made Spanish in the world 2019, with special emphasis on Spanish in the United States.

Yesterday Monday, 21 October in the Angels, be did the presentation of the report "He Spanish at world 2019 ”. (Aurelia Ventura / La Opinion)

It is the first time that the Cervantes Institute presents the figures of this yearbook outside of Spain choosing the cities of New York and Los Angeles. This double initiative aims to refute the "anti-Hispanic dynamic" that exists in the United States and defend the strength and prestige of the Spanish language and culture in the 21 countries that have Spanish as their official language.

Spanish is considered an international communication language. The yearbook announced that there are 483 million Spanish speakers that make up 8% of the world's population. In the United States there are approximately 8 million students of Spanish.

Although states like California, New York and Texas have a significant number of Latinos, other states are already beginning to increase their Latino population.

The yearbook found that between 2000 and 2017 the Latino population of states such as Oklahoma, Maryland, Nebraska and Massachusetts doubled.

Luis García Montero, general director of the Cervantes Institute, said that Los Angeles is a bilingual city where diversity is respected and therefore, "a great house of Hispanic cultures with the company of other sister countries", so it is a Very good project, he emphasized.

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