Spain's Cervantes Institute To Start Moscow Branch

The Cervantes Institute will establish a branch in Moscow toward the year's end, Jon Juaristi, Institute director, announced to a second international Spanish language congress, which finished in Madrid today. Senor Juaristi, prominent linguist and essayist, is congress Secretary-General. The Cervantes Institute is a government agency for global promotion of the Spanish language and culture. Its Russian analogue, the Pushkin Institute, has been active in Madrid since the 1980s. The congress, which gathered 300 experts from Spain and Latin America, was a landmark in the lift of Spanish-speaking countries. King Juan Carlos opened it in a gala attended by the Presidents of Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and the former Spanish Guinea. The global Spanish-speaking community is 400 million-strong to make the language the world's third, coming after Chinese and English. The congress agenda focused on efforts to make the language a "cultural industrial tool"--not only a spiritual value but a commercial through publishing, teaching and the world web. A first Spanish-language congress was convened in Mexico three years ago. The next will gather in Argentina, 2004.