Congregating over 200 delegates, the 50th International Congress of the European Association of Spanish Teachers (AEPE), held from 20-24 July in Burgos, focused on promoting the Spanish language and culture and El Quijote.
The European Association of Spanish Teachers (AEPE) is a well-established organization founded 48 years ago, being the "oldest in the world" and with members "now aged 80 who have been there since its advent," said Pilar Celma, the association’s president.
According to Celma, Spanish is currently spoken by 400 million people and is second only to English as the world’s most studied language. "We represent a market of millions of people and Asians want to learn it so as to have access to this market."
Under the slogan "Spanish culture: from its origins to the 21st century," the congress included 100 communications, 50 conferences and nearly 100 workshops, with the aim of not only discussing the language, but also its rich universal culture.
The Mayor of Burgos, Javier Lacalle, thanked the organizers for choosing Burgos as the congress’ host city, since "Burgos is a place that can boast about being the cradle of Castilian and where, according to the Royal Academy, Spanish was born, and this is our distinguishing mark."
According to the president of the AEPE, Burgos was chosen to host the congress not only because of its historical importance but also because of the ideal conditions offered by the city. The congress got under way with a keynote delivered by Fernando Iwasaki, the Chilean writer of Japanese extraction residing in Seville, who referring to Cervantes, recalled all those people who give kudos to Spanish, even though it is not their mother tongue.
For the Burgos Convention Bureau, the congress is an extremely relevant event for Burgos, since it consolidates the city’s position as a business tourism destination, while promoting it as a language destination. The delegates has the opportunity to discover the historic city centre and other beautiful heritage sites such the Monastery of Silos, the Ducal Palace of Lerma, the ruins of San Pedro de Arlanza, and the Monastery of San Quirce, among other places.
The Monastery of Silos
