At the annual general meeting (AGM) of the Board of Trustees of the Instituto Cervantes, Spain’s King Felipe announced that Spanish is “so alive” in America that it can be said, “without fear of exaggeration,” that the global evolution of the language “will depend to a large extent” on the continent.
During his traditional speech at the closing of the event, the king emphasized that the Spanish linguistic community not only includes all Spanish-American countries but also Spanish speakers residing in other countries, referring particularly to the US, where in the year 2050 there will be almost 100 million speakers. With this in mind, King Felipe described as “striking” the decision of the US government to remove the Spanish language as “an instrument of communication” from the White House).
“Surely it will be temporary, because due to demographic and democratic events, it will end up being the second most used language and with political influence,” he argued.
He also made it clear that the teaching of Spanish is “inseparable” from the dissemination of culture, celebrating the fact that last year, the institute held more than 7,800 events around the world. Spain’s president Pedro Sánchez, as well as its ministers of foreign affairs, José Manuel Albares, and culture, Ernest Urtasun, also attended the meeting at the Royal Palace of El Pardo.
The king also celebrated the “sustained” growth of Spanish students around the world, 2% annually, attributing it “not only to demographic growth but to economic and professional incentives.”
Spanish Exam Registrations Grow up to 20%
One of the stats highlighted at the meeting was the 20% increase in registrations for the DELE Diploma of Spanish as a Foreign Language (almost 160,000). There have also been more than one million candidates for the CCSE test of Spanish nationality since its establishment in 2015.
Cervantes’s director, Luis García Montero, highlighted that the institute self-generated 43.5% of its budget of 143 million euros in 2024. The staff has also grown to a total of 1,012 employees, of which 243 work in Spain and 769 in the international network of centers. Looking to 2025, García Montero proposed “one of the most ambitious plans” of the institute in recent years, that of digital transformation. He also referred to the economic situation, noting that although “things have improved in recent years… we cannot rest on our laurels.”
In addition to the16,551 candidates for the test of International Spanish Language Evaluation (SIELE), the institute welcomed 11,833 attendees to its Spanish teacher training courses.
In a meeting with the press prior to the AGM, García Montero said that he regretted the change in position of the US government toward Spanish after the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House, stating that “it is not only about defending the prestige of the language but about not humiliating people for being migrants or poor.”
“I find it very derogatory and that it is a dynamic that spreads throughout the world, something very worrying,” added García Montero. He continued by saying that the decision was “sad news” that ties in with Trump’s record in his first term that he hoped would not be repeated “after the support he had had in elections from a large part of the Latin population.”
“I thought that perhaps he would change his attitude and be neutral, also taking into account that the Latino population is now a very significant part of the United States economy, but that has not happened,” he added.
Similarly, he referred to the confrontational situation between the US and Mexican governments, saying, “Mexico and Spain, like all of Latin America, share interests which imagine the future. I am very sorry for the arrogance with which Trump treats not only Spanish speakers but also the Mexican authorities.”
Regarding Cervantes’s position in the US, the director proposed that it will focus some of its efforts on “consolidating the prestige of Spanish” as a language of culture, science, and technology, accompanied by projects to “consolidate” the presence of the institute in the US.
He indicated that he is considering opening an extension and subsequently a possible center in Miami, as well as joining a proposal from the Royal Spanish Academy to hold their next Language Congress, after the one in Arequipa (Peru), in the US.
