Language Congress: Vargas Llosa rivals Mac …

From Cordoba. Diversity is proclaimed at the VIIIth International Congress of the Spanish Language (CILE) as a slightly worn mantra. But what prevails in the speeches, it is a dangerous political uniformity, a defense close to Spain, a cultural capitulation without criticism, without questioning nor dissent. The words of the Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa, at the Teatro del Libertador General San Martín, will ignite the controversy. Nobody can be indifferent to his interpretation of the story. The Peruvian writer said that historians, linguists and sociologists do not agree on the number of languages ​​in America at the arrival of Spanish and Portuguese. The numbers range from 1500 to 3000 languages. "The Americans did not understand each other and that is why they committed suicide.America was a tower of Babel when the Europeans arrived and it was literally bathed in blood," Vargas Llosa said at the time. the opening of CILE, where King Felipe VI was present. President Mauricio Macri and Governor of the Province of Córdoba, Juan Schiaretti. "The controversies generated by the conquest disappear in terms of language and no one disputes the importance of bringing together in one language the extraordinary diversity that characterized this continent", added the author of Conversación en la Catedral, which fills today the following goals: 83 years, and announced that the next congress – the ninth – will be held in his hometown, Arequipa, in 2022.

Unlike Macri, who screams and loses that kind of false calm that characterized him, the Peruvian writer speaks with exceptional cordiality and decides to intervene in the controversy sparked by the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, for the letter sent to the King of Spain and the Pope. In this letter, he suggests to the monarch to apologize for "the violence committed during those years that Sor Juana Ines called" rudos "", recalled Vargas Llosa, the epithet of the great poet of the Golden age of literature in Spanish. "The Mexican president has deceived the recipient, the letter must be sent to himself and answer the question of why Mexico, incorporated five centuries ago in the western world thanks to Spain and 200 years ago, is independent and sovereign, has marginalized, poor and exploited Indians It is an issue that all Latin American presidents can ask because no country has solved the injustices committed against the Indians in America, "warned the Peruvian writer. "This problem is not in the past, it is alive here, we are struck by consciences that strike us, Latin Americans, who have not been able to solve it," admitted Vargas Llosa. "I hope that when López Obrador's term ends, the Indians of Mexico will enjoy better living conditions and will have more opportunities to remove that slab that has discriminated against them and exploited them for so many centuries. "

The Peruvian writer spoke out against the Mexican president. "Mr. López Obrador does not seem to know that the great mbadacres of Indians were not only during the colonial period, independent countries such as this one or Chile have committed mbadacres against the Indians.This problem It's not in the past, it's not a problem for the Spaniards Today, it's a problem that basically affects the Spaniards who came here, the grandparents and the López Obrador's great-grandparents, as well as the millions of Americans of Latin origin who are proud to have Spanish ancestors.He made citizens of a culture that introduced democracy, freedom, the idea of ​​a contradictory culture that is debated, which puts itself to the test of historical facts, a culture capable of criticizing itself ", praised Vargas Llosa and underlined this vitality. undeniable Spanish language is not the product of academies. "The academies do not create the language, the language is created by the speakers and the scribes," he said, recounting the story of what happened to Ricardo Palma, a Peruvian philologist who was returned to Spain with the hope that the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) will incorporate Peruvians in the dictionary. But he came back frustrated because the Academy did not accept it. "This would not happen today, today, the Academy is so likely to be accused of imperialism that Americanisms introduce it into the dictionary even before it. to be born or pbad the academic test, "said the Peruvian writer.

The obsecuencia king – a word that the RAE defines as "submission, kindness, condescension" – was President Macri. "We do not want them to leave," he told Spanish kings Felipe VI and Letizia Ortiz. "We want them to come back soon, we will miss them." The lack of culture can not be disguised. "Imagine if the Argentineans here spoke Argentinian and Peruvian, Peruvian and Bolivian, and we needed translators to talk to Uruguayans," Macri proposed in an erratic intervention, sown with furcios. "Let's not forget the first big world tour (SIC)." One of the great exploits of humanity was a Spanish feat, since the Juan Sebastian Elcano expedition for the death of Ferdinand Magellan was funded by the Spanish crown. This expedition marked a before and after in communications and trade and may have been the beginning of what we call today's globalization, "interpreted the president without realizing his concordance problem Linguistics between the noun and the adjective Towards the end, he evoked the potential of language transformation: "Our language is alive, it changes as we change, it is now wasapea, tweet, cat, viral it moves in all the directions in which our society and culture are evolving, "said Macri, rejoicing that this eighth meeting will be held" an excellent opportunity to discuss and continue to reflect on how to take advantage of the whole potential we share, to improve the world we live in and the lives of our peoples. "

Felipe VI, meanwhile, read his speech and changed the name to Borges. "Your José (SIC) Luis Borges, our, also, by the universal, is written that" language is not only an instrument of expression and communication, but a tradition and a destiny "The King of Spain said that 480 million people had Spanish as their mother tongue." We know its long history, one of its most delicate moments was undoubtedly the one of the independence of overseas territories. The voices were not lacking to demand independence in the field of language. "The voice of Don Andrés Bello was sufficient, that José Martí qualified as" best of our people ", to recall that this language was also typical from America only to Spain, "recalled Felipe VI who added that, paradoxically, the Spanish had its greatest expansion" with the birth and consolidation of young US republics. "

Carme Riera, an academic occupying the position of President N of the RAE, pointed out that it was "the first time that a writer is invited to speak at the opening ceremony" and shared a text in which he emphasized the importance of translation. "The chroniclers and the religious who came into the new world with the spirit of evangelism often referred to the impossibility of not understanding, we know that the brothers were more interested in the 39, learning mother tongues. " The introduction of the Castilian language has been slow, very slow and hence the importance of translators.The language of Castile is only imposed in the eighteenth century, "said Riera, before declaring that at from the independence of the different American nations, Castilian became hegemonic. "Languages ​​for me are crystals through which we contemplate the world: the world is becoming more and more global, it is perhaps why it is important to preserve the characteristics that identify us. "Despite the diversity of nations that already speak Spanish, Spanish glbad sweats us in a particular way," said the first writer to usher in a Spanish-language congress. "We do not speak a language but the language speaks for us," said Octavio Paz. Riera took up this sentence from the Mexican writer at his mill: "Women, in all languages, were spoken instead of speaking, with the exception of Sor Juana, but that changes at a forced pace and unstoppable ".

Santiago Muñoz Machado, director of the RAE and president of the Association of Spanish-speaking academies, said that the Congress – which will end next Saturday with the speech of the writer of Cordova María Teresa Andruetto – It is proposed "to valorize the Spanish as an American language ". In his opening remarks, he stated that they had tried to "demonstrate inclusivity to address the different sensitivities and specific situations evoking the problems of our society," adding that the goal was " to give a voice and a presence to the original languages ​​of America that live in harmony with the Spanish ". Luis García Montero, director of the Cervantes Institute, affirmed that "the challenges of language are related to those of democratic coexistence". The poet said that the International Congress of Languages ​​"was organized a thousand years ago, but our true commitment is the next thousand". "We are meeting here to talk about the future as a common commitment.Culture and education share their bread with technology and science on a horizon where language will undoubtedly play a role. decisive role. " The director of the Cervantes Institute has appealed to his memories. "In preparing these words, I was moved by the words of Julio Cortázar, published by the newspaper El País on July 25, 1978. The author of Rayuela said:" Like so many Latin Americans who have written and written in Spanish for thousands of kilometers I stay in touch with my fellow prisoners, I write to them because I write in their language which will always be mine. "The philology student who cut and recorded this article in the last few months of his own dictatorship did not know that these affirmative words were waiting for the inauguration of a congress in Cordoba over forty years ago. later, I was aware that poetry and the mother tongue are the gulf of the experience where human beings can reconcile their lies with the word truth, Garcia Montero acknowledged: a few verses from Cordoba's poet Arturo Capdevilla: "Speak for me the language of my grandparents, do not let me miss you, do not let me lie And let them fall, do not leave me, no. "