The
Instituto Cervantes celebrates its anniversary. The Princess of Asturias, Leonor, was commissioned on Wednesday morning with inaugurating the celebration of the
30th anniversary of the creation of the public institution, under the slogan ‘30 years forging Hispanists’. Three decades which have turned it into the indisputable benchmark, not just in Spanish language teaching, but also in the promotion of the cultural strengths of Spain and of the Spanish-speaking world.
Language and culture to enhance Spain’s international projection
The Instituto Cervantes was set up in 1991 through Law 7/1991, of 21 March, as a tool to enhance Spain’s permanent and active foreign presence through the spread of teaching, the study and use of the Spanish language and to boost Hispanic cultures abroad. Given its external vocation, it is attached to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation – specifically to the State Secretariat for International Cooperation – although it has strong ties with the Ministries of Culture and Sport, and of Education and Vocational Training.
It takes its name from the
writer Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra – the most emblematic author of Spanish literature - whose
masterpiece Don Quixote (1605 and 1615) is - after only the Bible - the most read book ever and marks the start of the modern novel.
Since 2018, its Director has been Luis García Montero (Granada, 1958), a Professor of Spanish Literature, poet, narrator and essayist, National Literature Prize-winner in 1994, among other awards and recognitions. Prior to Luis García Montero, the position has been held by Nicolás Sánchez-Albornoz, Santiago de Mora-Figueroa, Fernando Rodríguez Lafuente, Jon Juaristi, César Antonio Molina, Carmen Caffarel, Víctor García de la Concha and Juan Manuel Bonet.
Aside from its management, the King of Spain and the President of the Government hold the Honorary Presidency and the Executive Presidency of the institution, respectively.
Its main operating headquarters is in calle Alcalá, in Madrid, in the ‘Cervantes building’ previously known as the building ‘of the Caryatidades’. This was the former headquarters of the Central Bank, designed in 1918 by Antonio Palacios and Joaquín Otamendi. The other central headquarters, which is used as a teacher-training centre, is located in Alcalá de Henares – the birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes – in the Colegio del Rey [King’s College] building in calle Libreros.
Main figures on the Instituto Cervantes
The extensive network of the Instituto Cervantes on the five continents is made up of 75 representations – six in North America; eight in South America; 12 in Africa; ten in Asia and Oceania; 36 in Europe, and three in the Middle East – and it is present in 88 cities in 45 countries through its centres, classrooms and ancillary facilities.
It currently has
954 employees, of which 218 work in Spain and 736 form part of the international network of Cervantes centres. It also has 835 collaborators, according to the institution’s
2019-2020 Annual Report.
The Instituto Cervantes, on behalf of the Ministry of Education, is tasked with examining and issuing the
Spanish as a Foreign Language Diploma (Spanish acronym: DELE) – the official qualification
accrediting the degree of competence and proficiency in the Spanish language. Close to 60,000 people sat the exam in 2019-2020.
Over the year,
15,333 courses were taught around the world, which 135,736 people signed up to. Both in situ and online training was taught, the latter through the
Aula Virtual del Español [Virtual Spanish Classroom] – a platform on which the Instituto Cervantes organises its courses in a digital format and offers both students and teachers all manner of learning resources.
This Spanish-language teaching not only takes place beyond our borders – the Instituto Cervantes has a database with more than 400 Spanish-language teaching centres for foreigners in more than 100 Spanish cities, through the portal El español en España [Spanish in Spain].
Much more than language teaching
Photo: José Manuel Ballester
The activity of the Instituto Cervantes is not limited to teaching Spanish, but goes much further than that. Over the academic year 2019-2020, close to 5,000 cultural events were held, which were followed by almost 2 million people in situ and online.
The Instituto Cervantes has also set up the
Hispanism Portal – the benchmark online Hispanism centre – which hosts
information on research and university department centres, associations of Hispanists and Spanish teachers, information on congresses, seminars, workshops and conferences, as well as public job and grant offers, among other activities.
Together with the Royal Language Academy and the Association of Language Academies, the Instituto Cervantes also
organises International Spanish Language Congresses, which take place every three years in one of the countries in the Spanish-speaking community and constitute an
international forum for reflection on the situation, problems and challenges of Spanish. Its eighth edition was held in Cordoba (Argentina) in 2019.
Precisely with the aim of analysing the state of the Spanish language around the world, the public institution publishes its yearbook
El español en el mundo [Spanish around the world] each year, the
main academic publication of the Instituto Cervantes , which gives a snapshot of the main figures on the Spanish language around the world, together with other important issues on the international presence of Hispanic culture in the world.
This is in addition to its strong presence on the social media, where in total – between both the main account and the accounts of each of its headquarters – it has more than 1.5 million followers, almost 1 million on Facebook alone and some 425,000 on Twitter.
La Caja de las Letras: the Cervantes time capsule
Princess Leonor has deposited two books in the Instituto Cervantes' Caja de las Letras. EFE/ Casa Real/Francisco Gómez
One of the most striking features of the Instituto Cervantes is its Caja de las Letras: its own cultural time capsule. Harnessing the presence of a strong-room in the basement of the headquarters in calle de Alcalá in Madrid, due to its past as the Central Bank, leading figures from Spanish Hispanism have deposited a cultural item in one of its safety boxes since 2007, which cannot be opened until the date they choose.
The first depository was the writer Francisco Ayala, on 15 February 2007, while the latest was the Princess of Asturias, who, during the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the institution, left a copy of the Spanish Constitution that she read in 2018 in the Caja de las Letras, together with a copy of Don Quixote, which she read from with her sister, Princess Sofía, on 23 April 2020. Both books were deposited in the 2021 Box, located between the boxes of the writer Miguel Delibes and the scientist Severo Ochoa. After making her deposit, Princess Leonor received a symbolic key to the safety box they will be stored in henceforth.