The relevance of Spanish in the World

by Elisa Picon Curiel on October 12, 2020

Today at Bravo! Spanish we bring you a new blog about the Spanish language and its relevance in the world.

The 12th of October

As you may know, the 12th of October is a crucial date in the Spanish speaking culture. Why is this day so relevant? How has the Spanish language developed so far? And, will it continue developing? Stay with us to find out!

From the more than 7.000 languages spoken in the world, Spanish has managed to become the 3rd most spoken with 559 million speakers, and the 2nd with more native speakers (470 million!), after Chinese, of course. It is spoken in 21 countries and in 3 different continents. In Africa is the official language not only of the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, but also of Equatorial Guinea where more than 74% of the population speaks it as native language. It is even the official language of 2 locations in New South Greenland, Antarctica!

The future of the Spanish language

The future of Spanish is to keep growing. It is calculated that Spanish will be spoken by 7,8% of the world population in 2050 and by 10% of the world population by 2080. Actually, the prospects are that the USA will have the largest Spanish speaking population by 2050, where they already have 53 million people who speak Spanish, from which 41 million do it as natives.

However, we can see the exponential growth of Spanish best on the internet, where it is already the 3rd most used language (2nd on Facebook and Twitter, by the way). Between 2000 and 2011 the Spanish grew 807% on the virtual world. I don't know about you, but this number makes me dizzy!

The arrival of Christophorus Columbus

It all started when Christophorus Columbus, who was Italian, arrived in Guanahani, Bahamas, the 12th of October of 1492. However, he and his sailormen thought that they were somewhere in Asia… What a trip!

Since then, there have been many attempts to make this date a representation of the Spanish relevance in America. Here is where the problems begin, though. From the European perspective, Columbus has been seen and studied as a visionaire and almost as a hero, but, from the American vision the story changes. After the Spanish Kingdom of Castilla arrived in America there was a genocide of 90 million indigenous. This gives an idea about why America is not that fond of this celebration.

Finding an appropriate name

Through the years its name has been changed to try to be inclusive and a representation of the diversity of the Spanish speaking world: It was first called “El día de la raza”, The race day, and it was described, and I quote: “as a date to commemorate the discovery of America and to exteriorise the spiritual intimacy that exists between the discovering and civilizing nation and the ones [nations] founded on the American ground, today prosper states”. I prefer not to enter any discussion about the possible interpretations of this statement. I will only add that it was said in 1914 by the conservative minister and president of the then ad hoc formed Iberoamerican Union Faustino Rodríguez-San Pedro. America was not that happy with this name and kind of decided not to celebrate this date much.

In Spain, the idea continued and in the 30’s the Spanish writer Ramiro de Maeztu proposed to change it to “Día de la Hispanidad'', Hispanity Day, because in this way “all the men from the white, black, indian and malayan races and their combinations would be included in the celebration”. It became an official celebration of the Spanish nation in the 50’s, under Franco’s regime. The name remained the same for long and it was not until the 80’s, already in democracy, when it was again changed into “Fiesta Nacional de España”, Spain’s National Festivity. Nowadays, the celebration consists of a huge military parade where all the military corps present their respects to the Royal Family, nothing to do really with cultural diversity or inclusivity.

Current situation

But...how is it now on the other side of the ocean? Still ignored? Well, there are discrepancies. Some countries are celebrating this date, some others recognise it but it is still not celebrated, and some others condemn it and use the date to vindicate their indigenous heritage and reject the Spanish colonization.

Here are some interesting examples of the official names for this date in America:

México y Colombia: “Día de la Raza”, Day of the Race.
Venezuela: “Día de la Resistencia Indígena”, Day of the Indigenous Resistance.
ONU: “Día de la Lengua Española”, UN: Spanish Language Day.
Chile: “Día del Descubrimiento de Dos Mundos”, Day of the Discovering of Two Worlds.
Argentina: “Día del Respeto a la Diversidad Cultural”, Day of Respect to Cultural Diversity.
Uruguay: “Día de las Américas”, Day of the Americas.
Estados Unidos: “Día de Colón”, USA: Day of Columbus.
Perú: “Día de los Pueblos Originarios y del Diálogo Intercultural”, Day of Original Peoples and of the Intercultural Dialogue.
Ecuador: “Día de la Interculturalidad”, Day of Interculturality.
Bolivia: “Día de la Descolonización”, Day of the decolonization.
Cuba y Panamá: Do not celebrate the date.

Día de la Descolonización, Bolivia Day of Columbus, USA

Fiesta Nacional de España

Studying Spanish

To conclude with our blog, let’s talk about the growing community who chooses to become part of the Spanish speaking world: the students of Spanish. There are around 21million students of Spanish as a foreign language in more than 106 countries. Nonetheless, it’s calculated that 68 million people have some sort of competence in the Spanish language even though they are not studying it “officially”.

Do you need any more reasons to start learning it? Have a look at our courses and memberships. Not feeling like having classes yet? Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. At Bravo! we will be very happy to welcome you in the amazing Spanish speaking community!