The President of the Government of Spain presides over an event at the University of California to promote Spanish in the USA

Sánchez promotes Spanish culture and language in Los Angeles, the city that will host a new Cervantes Institute

President's News - 2021.7.22

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University of California, Los Angeles (United States)

Sánchez was accompanied by UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, the director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero, and a large representation of people from the world of culture and the Spanish language.

The President of the Government of Spain stressed that the new Cervantes Institute "is a firm commitment to Spanish and to the values transmitted by our culture and our language, and a firm commitment to maintaining ties with this city and this country". The president said he hopes that this new centre will be "a true home of the Hispanic in this region". Spain and the US are linked by deep historical ties and a common language, with some 43 million people in the United States having Spanish as their native language.

In 2060, the USA will be the country with the most Spanish speakers in the world after Mexico. During the event 'Presencia del español y sus culturas en Estados Unidos', the president pointed out: "To think of California is to think of progress, and Spanish is a language of progress and modernity, of the future and of entrepreneurship. Spanish is our best ambassador, as it is an avant-garde language in all fields: audiovisual, literature, diplomacy, economics, culture and communication in the 21st century". In this sense, Sánchez praised the "silent daily work" of those who contribute to the enrichment, modernisation and vitality of Hispanic culture.

Foto: Pool Moncloa/Borja Puig de la Bellacasa He also congratulated the Hispanist Barbara Fuchs, who has just been awarded the Ñ Prize by the Cervantes Institute for her "work in the dissemination and international promotion of Spanish".

The procedures for the start-up of the new Cervantes Institute will begin immediately and it is expected to be up and running in 2022. The new centre in Los Angeles will join the other Institutes that Spain has in New York; Chicago; an Observatory of Spanish in Cambridge, Mass., within Harvard University; the Aula de Cervantes in Seattle, and the one in El Paso, part of the Albuquerque centre.

Non official translation