The agreement between the two entities envisages a number of cooperation initiatives

The Cervantes Institute and the Higher Sports Council will promote the image of Spain, its language and its culture abroad

photo_camera Luis García Montero, Director of the Cervantes Institute, and Irene Lozano, President of the Spanish National Sports Council (Consejo Superior de Deportes)

The director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero, and the president of the Higher Sports Council (CSD), Irene Lozano, have signed a collaboration agreement which includes multiple joint initiatives for "the dissemination of the image of Spain, its language and its culture through Spanish sport and the network of Instituto Cervantes centres". 

The two organisations will be able to organise events "with literary authors in Spanish who have used sport in their work" and international meetings on sport in literature. There will also be programmes to promote reading among children and young people, film cycles and theatre, dance and music activities to tell stories linked to sport, as well as a major exhibition on the arts (architecture, sculpture, painting, photography, video, etc.) as forms of expression of sporting activity.

The agreement, which has been signed in person at the CSD headquarters, foresees other possible joint actions. Thus, the Cervantes centres will be able to host activities to mark the presence of prominent Spanish athletes and teams in the country. Marathons, races or matches will be organised on the occasion of international events; conferences to disseminate the importance of sport as a tool of public diplomacy in Spanish foreign action, or campaigns to promote pan-Hispanic sport and the Spanish language as a means of disseminating its values.  

With regard to education, it will be possible to organise courses and produce materials in Spanish on sport, such as, for example, specialised dictionaries on certain disciplines. 

"Boosting the drive of our sportsmen and sportswomen"

García Montero recalled the historical interaction between culture and sport, which dates back to classical Greece, and added that "they are two sides of the same coin", which is why he said that joint work should be strengthened and encouraged "taking advantage of the pull of our sportsmen and women" to promote the Spanish language. 

For the Director of Cervantes, the general action protocol signed "will be a reference framework for working towards the major world sporting events", including the Olympic Games. In this regard, he pledged to use "the very broad possibilities for collaboration that major sporting events give us". 

Irene Lozano stressed that "this agreement puts Spanish sport at the service of the promotion and dissemination of our language. Moreover, it brings together two worlds, sport and culture, which are obliged to cooperate given the media, social and international relevance that Spanish sport has achieved". "The most universal things we have in Spain are sport and language," he added. 

Submitted by José Antonio Sierra, Hispanismo advisor

More in Culture
Two Spaniards, a doctor and a journalist, forge their relationship on a journey on the mythical train that anchored Siberia in the Empire of the Tsars and definitively associated it with the dramatic history of the Soviet Union

Sara and Eva on the trans-siberian