Author Name: Carribean Channel, Cuba TV.
This story was originally published on canalcaribe.ict.cu. [1]

Spanish Language Day: why is it celebrated?
['Please Enter Your Name Here']
Date: None

By historical coincidence on this date of the same year three top figures of universal literature died: Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, William Shakespeare and Garcilaso de la Vega.

Miguel de Cervantes, maximum figure of the Spanish letters cultivated brilliantly all the narrative genres that predominated in his time. In honor of Cervantes, on April 23, the Spanish Language Day is celebrated worldwide.

William Shakespeare, English poet and playwright, author of a theater that has become classic, where all the facets of the heart of man, all the passions and all the impulses, from love and filial piety to jealousy, ambition, greed and the doubt. Shakespeare’s contacts with the author of Quixote are constant and his work has never stopped being represented on Spanish-language stages.

Garcilaso de la Vega wrote works such as the famous Royal Commentaries and the General History of Peru. His works are rich in autobiographical elements.

Precisely to honor these three great letters, this day also celebrates World Book Day. As a posthumous offering in 1995 the General Conference of UNESCO chose April 23 as International Book Day, considering that historically, it has been the most powerful element of concentration and dissemination of human knowledge and the most effective means to conserve it.

The Spanish speakers also adopt the date to celebrate the World Day of the Spanish Language. Because, perhaps, the perspective of our language did not magnify that Cervantes masterpiece, El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha.

The origin of our language is debated in several theories

What is the future of the Spanish language in the world? Although today the Spanish language is the second most important language in the world and the third most spoken on the planet, it faces enormous challenges and the linguistic hegemony of English invites us to reflect on the use we make of this language. Experts have raised the alert about the dangers that currently run the Spanish language so they call to defend the principles of the language to avoid losing their identity to the new idioms. Until November 2018, more than 577 million people speak Spanish in the world, of which 480 million have it as their mother tongue. 7.6 percent of the world’s population is Spanish-speaking. Nearly 22 million people study it in 107 countries. Spanish is also the third most widely used language on the Internet and the most studied foreign language in the United States. Recent estimates affirm that the Spanish-speaking population will increase to 7.7 percent in the year 2050. The data show that the future of the Spanish language is promising in the short term and will continue to expand throughout the planet, despite English proficiency and the boom of the Chinese But the Nobel Prize for Literature, Gabriel García Márquez, warned, “the Spanish language has to prepare itself for a big job in a future without borders. It is a historical right. ”

(C) Cuba TV, Cuban state owned media.
[1] Url: https://www.canalcaribe.icrt.cu/en/spanish-language-day-why-is-it-celebrated/