New York City, NY – The North American Academy of the Spanish Language (ANLE in its Spanish acronym) has expressed its solidarity with the Chilean people and especially with the Chilean Academy of the Language in the aftermath of the earthquake that shook the sister republic.The Chilean Academy was going to host the V International Congress of the Spanish Language (CILE) in Valparaíso in early March.
“We send our heartfelt feelings of solidarity to the people of our sister nation and our wishes for their speedy recovery from the ravages of the earthquake,” said Gerardo Piña-Rosales, President of ANLE.“In addition to the human and material losses, we regret very much that the Congress in Valparaíso was canceled.”
In fact, Piña-Rosales and seven other ANLE members were preparing to travel to Chile, when the earthquake struck, and some of them had already arrived.They all returned without incident.
A Significant Presence
The delegation from ANLE, whose Academy has witnessed unprecedented dynamism recently, had prepared presentations and other forms of participation that deserve to be communicated.
Piña-Rosales, ANLE President, was going to chair a panel at the Congress devoted to the subject of Migrations and the Communications Media.The Academy was also going to present as first parts of the book Gabriela Mistral y los Estados Unidos (Gabriela Mistral and the United States) in recognition of the fact that the Chilean writer of worldwide fame had spent her last years in the United States where she died.The book will appear in late March.
ANLE believes that the book is of keen interest not only to the lovers of the Chilean poet’s work, but also to scholars, given that it contains the results of new original research.ANLE plans to send the cover, the index and the introduction of the book so that they can be included in the web page of the Congress.
With regard to publications of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language, ASALE, which coordinates the joint projects of the Academies, ANLE, through its special committees, collaborated on the writing of the Nueva Gramática de la lengua española (New Grammar of the Spanish Language) and the Diccionario de americanismos (Dictionary of Americanisms).A talk on El español in telenovelas (Spanish in Soap Operas) that Academician Jorge I. Covarrubias was to give will be published on the website of the Congress.
ANLE, through its Spelling Committee, had already begun to collaborate on this project.Suggestions of this committee on the first chapter of the work, a pillar of the Spanish language, were going to be presented at the Congress.
A Virtual Congress
Given the importance of the Congress and of the presentations of all the academies, the option of holding a virtual congress was raised so as to take advantage in some way of the work of those who planned to participate and the funds invested.Because of the difficult circumstances in Chile and the return of the majority of the participants, it was possible to gather only some interviews, roundtables and presentations, now available at http://blogs.elpais.com/papeles-perdidos/congreso-de-la-lengua-espanola.html.
