ES+ | No.3 | 2025/2026 “At the root of it all we can find the need for human understanding and respect for diversity and shared dreams” which is why he was such a perceptive es- mixtures do not hinder growth; rather, they viduals and their creations. But it is also sayist when it came to assessing the litanies are strengthened by diversity and under- good to feel united by a culture that makes of our lord Don Quixote, noble pilgrim of standing, as Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala us strong on the international stage and pilgrims, who sanctified all roads with the demonstrated. We must learn to celebrate that sustains an ancient brotherhood of august stride of his heroism, as León Felipe spring, as José María Arguedas urged of us, shared words. Spanish was born alongside so beautifully sang. This poet, a disciple of and to recognise the powerful themes inEl Latin and Basque in La Rioja, and then es- Rubén Darío, was Rafael Alberti’s teacher Señor Presidente, as Alejo Carpentier sug- tablished relations with the world, crossed when he identified the pilgrimage of exile gested in Paris. seas, united territories, and spread the in- with the figure of a defeated knight who saw The speaker, an Andalusian who made fluence of the IberianPeninsula through- himself passing by, passing by once again, an effort to pronounce his "S"s, expressed out the world. As poets discovered in the with his burden of pain across the American his gratitude at this point that Andrés Bello,word folklore, only that individual truth lands, from Callao to Guanajuato. Venezuelan and Chilean, from Madrid and which leaps like a spark until it becomes But the audience, accustomed to sad- London, had written in the 16th century, universal has value. ness, called out for love poems. And the while fighting for the political independence The speaker becomes serious as he re- speaker immediately quoted Pablo Neruda’s of his homeland, about the different ways calls a study by Emilio Alarcos, The Origins Canto Espiritual, woman’s body, white hills, of speaking the same language, in Seville of Castilian Spanish . He hesitates, wonder- white thighs,you resemble the world in your or Salamanca, in Caracas or Santiago de ing silently, now unsure whether Alfonso attitude of surrender, and Jorge Luis Borges’ Chile, in Havana or Medellín. It is a treas- Reyes was actuallythe author. It is possible. Diván del Tamarit, no one understood the ure, he said, to share a language across so But perhaps it does not matter. The point perfume of the dark magnolia of your belly. many kilometres and the nuances of a di- is that, at the root of it all, we can find the After these verses, and through Luis versity that does not break the common need for human understanding and respect Cernuda’s most transparent region, the culture and mutual understanding. Those for diversity andshaeddrmsAdhr ea. n e speaker talked about Octavio Paz, explaining who have tried it know, as Sor Juana Inés has the courage to say I have spoken, even that traditions are a series of ruptures and de la Cruz declared last year. though he knows all that remains to be said. that time becomes entangled in the bonds The dates are correct, as are the copy- He makes as if to drink some water while that weave Spanish culture, moving from the rights, the voice of nations and centuries, they applaud him, but pauses before lift- vanguard to romanticism and from contem- the dedication of each solitary individual ing the glass. He wants to keep an eye on porary experience to the golden ages. The with their elbow on their desk and their himself.Don’t give the enemy anything, poets of Quechua and Guaraní add that ad- hand on their cheek, the audacity of indi- not even water. 131