The Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, did not want to enter into the clash between the director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero, and that of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), Santiago Muñoz Machado. Urtasun, before participating in a round table on the publishing sector at the International Congress of the Spanish Language (CILE) in Arequipa (Peru), said in response to repeated questions from journalists on this matter: “I’m sorry for not giving you bait.”
Urtasun, also questioned about the tweet of the writer and academic Arturo Pérez-Reverte, in which he said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “through its mediocre and conniving director of the Cervantes (creature of Albares) intends to get a hand there too; colonize the natural environment of the RAE”, has only stated: “I am not going to get into that type of controversies”, despite the fact that it is known that he has a close friendship with García Montero.
Regarding the work of Muñoz Machado at the head of the academy, he concluded on this issue: “I am perfectly aware of the controversy that has occurred, but the important thing is the congress. When it comes to defending Spanish, you will not find me in controversies.”
Of course, the minister has been “very satisfied” with this CILE, “which has demonstrated very good organization”, “a success” for which he has thanked “Cervantes, the RAE, the Peruvian universities and their institutions.”
However, he pointed out that the congress “serves to identify some pending challenges for Spanish, such as gaining weight in scientific publications, increasing its presence in the use of artificial intelligence and improving learning possibilities through the excellent work of Cervantes.”
Finally, he referred to the situation of this language in the United States: “The sixty million Spanish speakers is a trend that, whether the Trump Administration likes it more or less, is unstoppable.” In this sense, he has stated that he has not “liked at all the decisions of recent months” of the US Government, “such as removing Spanish from government communications.”