Juan Villoro: "It is absurd to subordinate to the Spanish of the so-called 'motherland'" – 03/29/2019

Unlike other intellectuals who defend inclusive language, the Mexican writer Juan Villoro judges valid and necessary the statement that there exists in the Spanish-speaking countries a modification of the languagealthough he warns that changes must be natural and progressive, not imposed by decree, or simply artificial or demagogic.

On the eve of his arrival in Córdoba to participate in the VIII International Congress of the Spanish Language, this author of novels, tales, chronicles, essays and plays, dialogues by mail. Recognizes that the cultural colonialism of Spain persists in Latin America; he defends his permanent political activism as a form of resistance and considers as absurd the polarization that reigns in Mexico around President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to whom, he says, he can hardly be considered a leader of the left.

Clarin Bulletins

Books to share | We recommend two titles and we tell you why you can not lose them.

Every Monday.

-The Congress is taking place at a time when there is a big debate about the use of inclusive language. What is your position? Are you worried or upset about promoting these changes to incorporate the diversity of excluded genres into our language? Are they necessary, inevitable?

-The inclusive language debate seems very legitimate. The history of language is the story of the problems, limitations, illusions and misunderstandings of the species that uses it. One of the great paradoxes of language is that it is an imperfect instrument with which, however, jewelry is made. We say a lot of inaccurate things, we are talking about a "benign" tumor when we should say that it is harmless, we are talking about "organic" salads as if the others were plastic, and so on. Male dominance is part of this arbitrary use of language and fits into a tradition where women have played a subordinate role. Having said that, I think that the language has to change itself, with our decisive cultural influence, not by decree. It seems ridiculous to me that politicians who are not at all inclusive speak of "citizens" to simulate fairness. This is demagoguery. We can not subject language to artificial prescriptions or prohibitions dictated by an ideology and not by the transformation of customs. The ideal would be to demystify the language progressively through playful and creative uses, adopted spontaneously by the users. This process of transformation, which goes through education, seems fascinating and necessary.

Look also

And with the feminist revolution, how does it take? In Cordoba, for example, we are going to criticize tables or billboards in which only men participate or to whom only male authors are spoken.

-It is important that the absence of a woman be indicated at all times. A few months ago, I attended Mexico at a table on Mexican literature in which five women and I participated. Unfortunately, this is an exception today, but I hope it is natural for the future. I was a member of the civil society that nominated the indigenous Marichuy Patricio to the presidency and, in all of our acts, 80% of the speakers were women suffering from Dual subordination: bad and race. In Mexico, only 6% of the public posts in the Directorate-General are in the hands of women. It is something intolerable.

-Participate in a painting paying tribute to a century of cultural relations between America and Spain, but complaints about "cultural colonialism" are still common, for example, most books are translated into Spanish Spanish. Or the impositions of the language that the RAE does. How do you oppose these criticisms?

– Colonialism exists: we become independent of Spain but not Fundéu BBVA (responsible for standardizing the language). Most publishers and leading language newspapers are in Spanish hands that meet metropolitan criteria. Many Spanish publishers, translators and academics continue to use the language in a colonial way. When you publish a book in Spain, it is common that someone from the publisher tries to correct Mexican expressions only because they are not used in Spain. This never happens with a Chilean or Argentine publisher. Neruda said: "The Spaniards took our gold and left us their gold", referring to the language. It's a wonderful legacy, but one that admits arguments. The subordination to the linguistic usages of the "motherland" is as absurd as the wholesale repudiation of everything that is Spanish. 500 years after the arrival of Cortes in Mexico, it is still not accepted as an essential part of our culture. Moreover, in this aspect, you must dissolve complexes.

Look also

Travel and transportation
Join this table Villoro, Jorge Edwards (Chile) and Juan Manuel Bonet (Spain), among others, Saturday 30 at 9:45 at Teatro San Martín.

GO.