As part of the celebrations for Spanish Day, I had the opportunity to participate at the University of Nebrija in Madrid, in an event organized by the chair of modern languages, in which I shared with citizens from Ukraine, France, Italy, Russia , Kazakhstan, or the Congo, among others. These people from such different and distant places are learning our language. There, at the university named after the great Spanish humanist, I once again witnessed the unifying power of a language.
Learning another language is opening a door to new cultures and ways of thinking that enrich your life, your spirit. A few years ago I myself was a participant in a similar process that allowed me to learn French, which is why I identified a lot with the difficulties that these people were going through in being able to express themselves in Spanish. But for me, that time of learning Voltaire's language allowed me to realize how wonderful it is to be part of the Hispanic community.
Spanish is a common language in more than 20 nations, mainly in Latin America and Spain, in addition to being an official language in many other places, such as Equatorial Guinea. It is one of the official languages of the United Nations and the European Union.
According to the latest yearbook of the Cervantes Institute, today there are almost 493 million people who have Spanish as their mother tongue, and if we add those who are studying it, we exceed the 591 million souls who have the “Ñ” in our lives. Not to mention that Spanish is the third most used language on the Internet.
Think that you can travel almost an entire continent without changing languages, and even participate in an economic market as large as the North American one. For example, now I, who am Venezuelan, write these words from Madrid, and someone who may be in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador or Paraguay, reads them without it being necessary to make any translation.
Our language is the second most spoken in the world after Mandarin Chinese, which is why our union is an important cultural and commercial market. Due to our number and similarities, Spanish speakers can become a brotherhood capable of achieving very positive things for everyone.
Spanish is a very rich and diverse language, which has a long history. Nebrija published his work, Castilian Grammar, in 1472, being the first treatise on a modern European language. Since then and until today, we have thousands of writers and poets who certify it. The poetry of authors such as Federico García Lorca, Jorge Luis Borges, Octavio Paz or Rafael Cadenas, as well as the prose of writers such as Rómulo Gallegos, Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende or Mario Vargas Llosa, are just some examples of the richness of literature. in Spanish.
Our language is one of the most valuable legacies we have, an invaluable heritage that we must preserve. Our mission is to transmit the language of our parents to new generations, especially if we do not live in Spanish-speaking countries. Well, it is part of our history, and a bridge that unites regions separated by roads, mountains or oceans, bringing us closer to millions of people around the world through its use and our shared culture.