2019 language congress: when, where and who will be the main protagonists

In the district of Retiro in Buenos Aires, in the great palace of San Martín, where the Chancery is located, a group of journalists was summoned to announce the first news of the VIIIth International Congress of the Spanish Language, which will be held in Cordoba. Whenever it is missing, this iconic meeting will take place from March 27th to 30th. "America and the future of Spanish, culture and education, technology and the spirit of enterprise" are the topics that will be addressed.

In the green room, under an imposing lamp, according to the palace, Sergio Baur It's him who started talking. The Special Representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Cultural Affairs stressed the importance of this event. "This is not just a convention for congressmen, but there will be an approach with parallel cultural programming," he said, referring to different activities open to all audiences, such as presentation of Luthiers or the tribute that the Spanish actress Núria Espert go do Federico García Lorca.

There will also be tributes to Atahualpa Yupanqui, Manuel de Falla, Víctor García de la Concha and Joaquín Sabina. It will be all free. Following a survey of the National University of Córdoba, an atlas of the speech of the population of Cordoba will be published, as well as a commemorative edition of Rayuela, the iconic novel of Julio Cortázar.

Next to Baur, Sonia Pérez Marco of the Cervantes Institute, Marcelo García, executive coordinator of the organizing committee, and Ana Cernusco, Coordinator of Institutional Relations with the National Academies of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Technology of the country. Authorities confirmed last week that 3,500 registered people were short on many tables. They calculate that at the time of the Congress, there will be ten thousand more people in Córdoba.

The opening ceremony will take place on Wednesday 27 in the morning at Teatro San Martín de Córdoba. They will be present on King Felipe from Spain and the president Mauricio Macri with the director of the Cervantes Institute Luis García Montero, director of RAE and president of ASALE Darío Villanueva, the secretary general of SEGIB Rebecca Grynspan and writers Carmen Riera and Mario Vargas Llosa. The inaugural speech will be delivered by the Brazilian Nélida Piñón, which is entitled "Spanish, universal language." The closing, Saturday, March 30 at the same place, will be in charge of María Teresa Andruetto.

There will be more than 250 members of Congress. Among them will be Soledad Puértolas, Martín Caparrós, Joaquín Sabina, Elvira Sastre, Sergio Ramírez, Pablo de Santis, Julio Villanueva Chang, Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Alejandro Dolina, Claudia Piñeiro, Eduardo Halfon, Photographer, Photo Marsimian, Pilar Reyes, Juan Cruz, Guillermo Saavedra , Santiago Kovadloff and Carlos Schilling. In addition, the director of the National Library Mariano Moreno Elsa Barber, the former vice president of Spain Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega and the director of the Chilean Academy of Language Adriana Valdés Budge.

It will take place at five venues, including the San Martín Theater, an emblematic restored and enhanced building, as well as other architectural gems from the city of Córdoba, especially for this event, which will "give Cordoba remarkable visibility in besides, a cultural and tourist heritage, "said García. This is the second time that Argentina is the host country. In 2004, Rosario hosted the 3rd International Congress of the Spanish Language. Now, it is the city of Cordoba. "For Rosario, the Language Congress was like the Barcelona Olympics and it's not an exaggeration," he added.

Gender parity and the opportunity to make women's voices heard in literature are among the priorities of this congress. "For the first time, the presence of women is important," said Pérez Marco. Also, the inclusion of Aboriginal look and Aboriginal peoples. A campaign called "Reading in Motion" was launched to encourage not only the Spanish language but also literature in general. As for funding, it is between nation and province. What private capital contributes, it is not money in itself, they said, but transfers, sponsorships and accessibility.

As we said, it's the second time in Argentina. Others were Zacatecas (1997), Valladolid (2001), Cartagena de Indias (2007), Valparaíso (2010), Panama City (2013) and San Juan de Puerto Rico (2016). Always big cities, but never the main cities of each country. Could it be that the richness of the language is found in the big cities which, even if they are capitals, still preserve their "inner" identity? Córdoba, they say, is a great place.