Happy Birthday Real Academia Espanola!

Real Academia Espanola: Three hundred years is no small feat

When builders prepare themselves for work, they can analyze and assess their tools, the materials and the space in which they’ll work, calculating the quantities of sand, cement, water and bricks that they’ll need and making a prediction of the final product of their work, which is something physical, tangible…

When Spanish as a Foreign Language teachers prepare themselves for their work, they very quickly reach the certainty that their profession basically consists of something intangible, evanescent, air-like… Language, the logical system of signs that we use in daily communicative exchanges, is something that can so easily slip through our fingers and, of course, we miss having some kind of clear benchmark that can serve as a reference to keep us grounded and anchor us to reality.

We have different types of grammar at our disposal, books in which brainy investigators delve into stirring topics… for linguists, of course.

Last week, one of those stories that fills the news programs when there is nothing more juicy to report, was aired, and it reminded us that our Royal Spanish Academy, abbreviated to the RAE, was approaching 300 years in existence. The story was surrounded by controversy prompted by a television advertisement in which a public agency congratulated the Real Academia Española, treating it as if it were a detergent or cleaning product, using the Academy’s well-known slogan ‘Clean, polished and glorious’. The problem is that the congratulatory video created a parallel between the Academy and a housewife who tries to get her child to speak well. The sexist element hidden behind this identification of women with household cleaning was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Spanish Language

It is true that the Spanish language, and its reflection on the academic standards which ruled the land until very recently, displays the main character of the people which speak and use it. It is also true that Spanish culture is a traditionally masculinist culture, which is connected to the Judean-Christian heritage we carry with us, which is not very egalitarian either, it might be said.

The RAE, as a standard reference for Spanish-speakers, has spent some time in making important efforts to modernize and cover all speakers of Spanish, ALL of them, under its maternal wings. The orthographical and grammatical revisions, the constant updates of the online dictionary to include Americanisms and other such considerations, confirm that enormous effort.

Now, regarding the pretext of the tercentenary anniversary of the institution, they inform us that the RAE is preparing an edition (which will be the twenty-third) of the physical Spanish Dictionary, which promises to be a tool of essential enquiry.

As a teacher and constant user of all the materials that the RAE puts at my disposal - which are set to increase, according to the promises of Professor Blecua, its director - and as a constant questioner and consultant of websites like la ‘Fundéu’ (the ‘Urgent Spanish Foundation’), I have to recognize that without the RAE and all that it entails, my work wouldn’t even be a shadow of the –greatness or smallness- that it is.

I can only join the chorus of congratulations and ear-bending that the great “lady” is going to receive in the coming days and say with all my gratitude and affection:

“¡Muchas felicidades y que sea por muchos años, RAE, guapa!”