The VII Week of the Spanish Language values ​​Spanish in the Moroccan identity

2023-05-09 10:09:24

«In Morocco there are more Spanish speakers than in Uruguay, Equatorial Guinea and Panama. Spanish is part of the Moroccan identity”, explained Abderrahman El-Fathi, professor of Spanish literature at the Abdelmalek Essaadi University of Tetouan, at the ceremony held at the Instituto Cervantes in Rabat.

The Hispanist congratulated himself that his country is part of the community of 600 million Spanish-speakers in the world and recalled the importance of Morocco in Spanish heritage and culture and cited the city of Tetuan as an example, one of the routes mentioned by Miguel of Cervantes in his works.

Mohamed Abrigach, professor of Spanish literature at the Ibn Zohr University of Agadir, stressed that Spanish “was the first European language” that began to be used (socially and officially) in Morocco since the 16th century, referring to the letters written between Sultan Ahmed al Mansur and King Philip II.

Among other data that mark the importance of Spanish in Moroccan culture, Abrigach highlighted the traces of this language in Moroccan spoken Arabic (dialect) and Berber, as well as the introduction of journalism in the Maghreb country through Spain with the publication of The echo of Tetouanthe first publication to be printed in Spanish in northern Morocco in 1860.

The Moroccan university professor insisted on the importance of Spanish to “understand the history of Morocco and its relations with the peninsula and Latin American countries.”

The inauguration was attended by the royal advisor Omar Azziman, as well as a dozen ambassadors from Latin American countries, Spain and Equatorial Guinea.

At the ceremony, the Salvadoran tenor Napoleón Domínguez sang and then seven ambassadors began the traditional reading of fragments from the Quixote.

After the reading, an exhibition of posters alluding to the work of the Mexican writer Juan Rulfo (1917-1986), one of the figures of Latin American literature of the 20th century, was inaugurated.

The VII Week of the Spanish Language, which will end on the 12th, will continue with talks, exhibitions, musical performances and plays organized by the embassies of the different Spanish-speaking countries present in Morocco.