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Argentina: Aboriginal Peoples

Regulate and you will reign: 3rd International Congress of the Spanish Language

Michael N. Escobar 29 Nov 2004 10:17 GMT (translated by Michael N. Escobar)
 


From the 17th to the 20th of November the 3rd International Congress of the Spanish Language will be held in Rosario (Argentina), organized by the Royal Spanish Academy and the Cervantes Institute, with the support of the the national, provincial and local governments. The senator and First Lady of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, was named honorary president of this event, which will cost 500,000 euros per day, and will have a security detail of 1,100 police officers. Under the theme of "Linguistic Identity and Globalization," it is no accident that among the principal sponsors of the Congress are the Spanish multinationals Repsol YPF and Telefónica, some of the companies who have most enriched themselves during the last few years in Argentina. President Néstor Kirchner and His Majesty the King of Spain, Juan Carlos I, will give the inaugural speeches next Tuesday. In parallel fashion and in ideological opposition, between the 15th and 20th of November, the 1st Congress of LanguageS will take place in various independent spaces. This meeting, free and open to the public, will gather together academic institutions, cultural organizations and indigenous communities to discuss, among other subjects, the causes and consequences of imposing linguistic policies, and declaring that languages are not marketable products: their only owners are their speakers. According to the announcements of the organizers of the event, "we are not going to speak 'about' the indigenous peoples, the poor, the marginalized, and the people of the historic autonomous communities of Spain, but rather speak 'with' them. We are all social agents, with a totally complex reality such as that of Iberoamerica which we declare to be linguistically and culturally plural."

As for the coordinating group Indigenous Peoples in Struggle, which gathers sectors of the indigenous population of Rosario, it will hold a protest next Monday in the Consulate of Spain located in front of the 25th of May Square. Meanwhile a very wide network of organizations will mobilize on Wednesday towards a place which is still TBA, due to the limitations imposed by the security services. This last activity is the result of an initial convocation by the Rosario Debate Roundtable space, and the local chapter of the teachers union AMSAFE.

The Language International

La Municipalidad de Rosario gastó 4 millones de pesos para 'embellecer’ la ciudad. En los últimos meses se restauraron grandes fachadas, se arreglaron calles y veredas y se instalaron garitas de colectivo en las avenidas. Sólo en la refacción del teatro El Círculo, principal sede del Congreso, se utilizó casi 3 millones de pesos que se recaudaron apelando a la conciencia del empresariado local y nacional. De la limpieza no se salvaron ni los perros de la calle, que desaparecieron del centro de la ciudad según denuncian entidades defensoras de los animales. En tanto, el Concejo Municipal penalizó las pintadas callejeras y limitó la distribución de volantes en la zona urbana, al exigir que se solicite autorización.

The City of Rosario has spent 4 million pesos to 'beautify' the city. In the last few months great façades have been restored, streets cleaned, and bus stops installed. In the Teatro El Círculo district, where the provincial congress is located, almost 3 million pesos were spent, collected by appealing to the consciences of local and national business owners. The street cleaning spared not even the dogs, which have disappeared from the city center according to animal-rights groups. The city has penalized streetwalkers and limited the distribution of flyers, by requiring prior approval.

While the activities in contradiction to the 3rd Congress of the Spanish Language are perhaps held in different spaces, all of them coincide in indicating that the various government authorities intend to use the international reverberations of this event to project, just as occured with the Congress of 1978, a new image for Argentina overseas.

Indymedia and the Counter-Congress





Two collectives of the Indymedia Argentina network will participate in the 1st Congress of LanguageS. The Indigenous Peoples Bus will coordinate a panel on Tuesday made up of indigenous communicators, while the Rosario Collective will hold an online newswriting and publishing workshop on Wednesday and Thursday. To conclude both groups will be in one of the Friday debate panels on alternative and community media. Learn more here.







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ayudante 28.Nov.2004 17:40

The coordinating organization, Pueblos Originarios en Lucha, which functions as a convergence for various indigenous groups of Rosario, is organizing a protest in front of the Spanish Consulate, located on the Plaza 25 de Mayo for this Monday. Additionally, a large group of organizations will also be holding a march Wednesday, but the location has not yet been set due to the security for the summit.
The World of Language
The city of Rosario has spent 4 million pesos for the ‘beautification’ of the city. In the last few months they have restored facades, fixed streets and gardens, among other projects. A project to restore the theater El Circulo, where most of the Congress will be taking place, has cost 3 million pesos in itself, financed by donations from local and national businesses. Not even the street dogs were saved from the ‘beautification’ project, according to animal protection groups who said the dogs had all disappeared from the city center. The city council also exercised penalties against street advertising and limited postering in the zone, requiring authorization to post.
Even though the activities against the 3rd Congress of the Spanish Language happen in various locations, together they will show that the government authorities are attempting to use the international perceptions of this event, like they used the World Cup of 78, to create a new image for Argentina.