Animals

Cabestros: Cabestros are male castrated bulls or steer, of a different breed than the fighting bulls. They are tamed and used to help on toro bravo ranches. They are also trained to be used in encierros and bullfighting rings to guide the herd through the streets and into their corrals. They are easily identifiable by the bells they wear around their necks.

Tienta: Both female and male toros are tested at age two to see if they are suitable for breeding, bullfighting, or meat. Males are judged based on their aggression towards horses, as they are not allowed to confront a human on the ground until the day they enter a bullfighting ring. Females are often fully tested by a bullfighter and capes to determine their courage and suitability for breeding. Male bulls who pass the<em> tienta</em> will return to their pastures and females who pass will be used to bear offspring. Those who do not pass are slaughtered.

Novillos: Novillos are those male bulls that are less than 3 years old or do not pass the bravery and stamina test to become first rank fighting bulls. These bulls are used in novilladas to train novilleros.

Toro: a Bull - an Iberian cattle breed. Fighting bulls are selected primarily for a certain combination of aggression, energy, strength, stamina and intelligence. They reach maturity slower than meat breeds as they were selected to be athletic with massive muscles, especially the morillo, a complex of muscles over the shoulder and neck which gives the bull its distinctive profile and strength with its horns. The horns are longer than in most other breeds and are also present in both males and females. Mature bulls weigh from 500 to 700 kg (1100-1600 lb).

Toro de Lidia/Toro Bravo: male “macho” fighting bulls selected and bred to be used in encierros (running of the bull) and corridas de toro (bull fights).

Vaquillas/Novillas: female wild cow of the same breed as the fighting bulls between two and four years old. They are traditionally used in place of fighting bulls or novillos for capeas or encierros in village celebrations because they are much smaller and less likely to cause grave damage.

Bullfighters

Banderilleros/Rejoneadores: Each matador has 3 banderilleros or “Flagmen” who are also considered as toreros.

Cuadrilla: The  6 assistants of  a matador are collectively known as a cuadrilla, or an entourage: 2 picadores, 3 banderilleros, and 1 mozo de espada.

Matadores: Matador de toros literally translated as “bull killer” is the professional level of a bullfighter.

Mozo de espadas: The matador’s assistant or “sword page”. The mozo de espadas prepares and hands the matador all the equipment necessary during the corrida.

Novillero: a junior bullfighter who is still in training and has not yet been declared matador de toros. Novilleros fight novillos to gain experience. These fights usually take place in small towns and villages during their celebrations.

Picadores: Bullfighters or “Lancers,” mounted on horseback with varas (lances). During the first stage of the bullfight the picador enters the arena on horseback armed with a vara. The horse is protected from the bull by a petro, a protective mattress-like covering.

Torero: The term torero or “bullfighter” includes matadores, picadores and banderilleros.

Bullfight

Banderillas: Translated literally as "little flags" which are harpoon-pointed colorful sticks that are jabbed into the bull's back.

Capote: gold and magenta dress cape used in the first third of the corrida

Descabello: The act of severing the bull’s spinal cord with a vedugo.

Estocada: a quick sword thrust between the bull’s shoulder blades and through the heart. This movement is intended to result in a quick and clean death.

Faena: The third stage of the corrida performance with a muleta consisting of a series of tandas.

Indultado: A few times a year a bull will be indultado, or 'pardoned', meaning his life is spared due to 'outstanding' behavior in the bullring. The audience petitions its pardon by waving white handkerchiefs.  If pardoned, the bull is returned to the field where he will live up to 20 to 25 years and be used as a stud.

Lidiar/Torear: Verb “to bullfight” until death.

Muleta: small red cape used in the third stage of the Spanish bullfight

Paseíllo: A parade of all the toreros through the arena before a corrida.

Tanda: Series of passes between the bull and torero: a typical tanda might consist of three to five basic passes and then a finishing touch, or "remate", such as a "pase de pecho", or "pase de desprecio".

Tercios: A corrida is divided into three tercios or “thirds.”

Traje de luces: custom-made matador costume embroidered with silver or golden thread inspired by 18th century Andalusian clothing.

Vara/rejones de castigo: long lance / lances of punishment used by the rejoneadores.

Verdugo/Puntilla: a second type of sword used to severe the bull’s spinal cord to kill it instantly in the event of a failed estocada.

Bull events

Capeas: Organized events in which vaquillas are released in a plaza and the public can interact with them. Vaquillas are aggressive although much less dangerous than bulls.

Novilladas: Bullfights in which novilleros fight novillos to gain experience.  These fights usually take place in small towns and villages during their celebrations.

Encierro: Consists of a running of the bulls through the streets. Runners run down fenced lined streets in front of a small heard of toros, novillos or vaquillas on their way to the plaza where they will await the afternoon´s bullfight in the stalls. Cabestros are often present to guide the herd and often suffer aggressive attacks from the bravo untamed bulls.

Corrida de toros: A public spectator bullfighting event which occurs in a bullfighting ring. Normally three bullfighters confront 3 bulls each in a corrida.
 

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The corrida starts with a parade called paseíllo in which the participants enter the arena to salute the presiding dignitary.

Stage 1 - Tercio de Varas ("third of lances"). In the first stage, the bull enters the ring where it will be tested by the matador and banderilleros with the required tanda ("series of passes") using the capote. During this phase the matador observes the bull's behavior, how it charges and its ferocity.

Next, two picadores enter the arena armed with a long lance or varas and mounted on large heavily padded and blindfolded horses. When the bull attacks the horse the picador stabs just behind the morillo, a mound of muscle on the bull's neck. The manner in which the bull charges the horse also provides important clues to the matador regarding which side the bull prefers. If successful, the combination blood loss and the force exerted by the bull to lift the horse up with its neck and horns will strain the bull enough to cause it to hold its head lower during the following stages of the bullfight. This is a mandatory step in the corrida which makes the bull's charges less dangerous and more reliable, enabling the matador to perform.

Stage 2 - Tercio de banderillas (“third of flags”). In the next stage, the tercio de banderillas, the three banderilleros each attempt to plant two banderillas, or sharp barbed sticks, into the bull's shoulders. The banderillas further weaken the bull but also anger it, cause it to make more ferocious charges. Sometimes the matador places his own banderillas.

Stage 3 - Tercio de Muerte ("third of death"). In this stage, the matador re-enters the ring with a red cape or muleta stretched over a wooden dowel in one hand and a sword in the other. From the moment the first pass is performed, the matador has a total of 15 minutes to kill the bull.

The matador will perform a series of tanda, different series of passes all with specific names that make up the faena, or entire performance with the muleta. The faena ends with a series of passes in which the matador attempts to maneuver the bull into a position to kill it with an estocada, or the thrusting of the sword between the bull's shoulder blades and through the heart. A clumsy estocada can raise loud protests and destroy the whole performance.

If the matador is unsuccessful in the estocada, a descabello must be performed in which the matador uses a verdugo sword to lower the bull's head by pricking its nose and then delivers a quick thrust to the back of the bull's neck with the intention of severing its spinal cord to kill it instantly. If the bull does not die immediately a coup de grace s performed by a puntillero or cachetero in which a dagger is used to completely pierce the spinal cord.

The bull's body is then dragged out by a team of mules or horses. If the residing official is impressed with the animal, it may be drug around the arena as an honor. Very rarely, a bull may be granted an indulto, or pardon for an outstanding performance. The indulto is requested by the public by waving handkerchiefs before the estocada and must be approved by the president. If pardoned, the bull will be symbolically freed by the matador, which is a great honor. The bull will never fight again as no bull with any experience can ever be used more than once because they learn from experience and thus would be too dangerous.

If the matador has performed particularly well, the crowd may petition the president to award the matador an ear of the bull by waving white handkerchiefs. If his performance was exceptional, the president will award two, and in some rings a tail can also be awarded. If the matador won at least two ears during the corrida then he is eligible for salida en hombros, to be carried out on the shoulders of admirers.

Bullfighter Gorings

Bullfighting has gotten much safer over the years, especially with the introduction of padded protection for the horses and special medical surgical units for the toreros. For toreros, the most dangerous part of the corrida is when they perform the estocada. With no protection, one error can cost life of the matador. Cogidas is the word used when the torero is “gored” by the bull.

Bullfighting Controversy

Bullfighting has generated controversy in many parts of the world, including Spain, Portugal, Peru, Mexico and Ecuador. It was even recently prohibited in Catalonia, an autonomous region of Spain. Supporters argue that it is a cultural tradition and an important source of tourism while animal rights advocates consider it a blood sport that tortures both bulls and horses.

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Since the appearance of the work in 1605 and the second part in 1615, Don Quixote of La Mancha began to be translated into most cultured European Languages which led to its increased fame year after year. Different versions of Cervantes' masterpiece began to appear in other countries like in France. Here, in 1677 a translation of Quixote by Filleu de Saint-Martin included a change of the story's end opting to prolong the ingenious gentleman's life and the title was also modified to History of the admirable Don Quixote of La Mancha.

The novel Don Quijote de La Mancha became so famous that it made the jump to other artistic outlets. Perhaps the most famous examples were the illustrations done by Gustav Doré that can be seen adorning the book covers of many current editions of the novel.

Don Quixote in Music

There are also many famous versions of the Don Quixote musical. In 1614, in the Louvre Palace in Paris, a ballet was presented called Don Quichotte dansé par Mme. Sautenir; one year before the second part of the novel! Following the first ballet, many operas appeared including: The Comical History of Don Quixote by Purcel, Don Chisciotte alle nozze di Gamace by Antonio Salieri, El Retablo de Maese Pedro by Manuel de Falla and more recently, Don Quijotes Abenteuer by Jean Kurt Forest. In 1895 the symphonic poem “Don Quixote” by Richard Strauss was done and in 1968 the album L'Homme de la Mancha by Jacques Brel was composed.

In 1998 a Spanish rock group called Mago de Oz (Wizard of Oz) recorded an album called La Leyenda de la Mancha (The legend of La Mancha). The record was entirely inspired by Cervantes's protagonist and includes songs such as “Molinos de Viento” (Windmills) or “La ínsula de Barataria” (Barataria Isle).

Don Quixote in Film and Television

Don Quixote's movies have also been inspired since the beginning of film. In 1898, French producer Gaumon filmed a short scene titled “Don Quixote” but the images were lost. The first Spanish film production of Don Quixote of La Mancha appeared in 1908 and was carried out by Narciso Cuyás.

In 1933 a Franco-British film adaptation of Don Quixote was produced. The film was directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst and would become a classic in cinema. In 1972 a cinematographic version of Quixote called Man of La Mancha was released, directed by Arthur Hiller and Peter O'Toole and Sofía Loren. In Spain, a miniseries appeared, directed by Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón and actors Fernando Rey and Alfredo Landa playing Don Quixote and Sancho Panza respectively. Following this television series was another called El caballero Don Quijote (2002), directed by the same director and starring Juan Luis Galiardo and Carlos Iglesias.

The best Don Quixote of La Mancha was undoubtedly the cartoon series done in 1979 by Carmen Delgado. According to Televisión Española (Spain's national TV channel) the cartoon series is among the top 100 best in Spanish history, a faithful adaptation that delighted generations of young people. The main characters' voices were performed by Fernando Fernán Gómez and Antonio Ferrandis.

Don Quixote in Comics

The Don Quixote novel has also been a protagonist in the comic world, most notably in the version done in 2000 by Will Eisner called Quixote. In the year 2005, during the 400 year anniversary celebrations of the novel, the board of Castilla-La Mancha edited the comic book Lanza en astillero. Many authors contributed to the book with the objective of spreading the fame of the famous gentleman from La Mancha.

In 2005 the great Spanish comic (known as “"Tebeos - Spanish Comics" in Spain) writer Francisco Ibáñez published Mortadelo de La Mancha. In this work, the catastrophic secret agent Motradelo takes on the role of Don Quixote, fighting just like him in a more modern Spain. Throughout its pages, various famous Spanish politicians can be identified. The comic was a success and sold over 100,000 copies.

Surely Don Quixote of La Mancha will continue to inspire all the arts for another 400 years.

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Spanish and Latin American Literature Nobel Prize Winners

1904 Jose Echegaray (Spain)

Echegaray was a truly multitalented man: engineer, playwright, politician and mathematician. In mathematics, he introduced Chasles geometry, the Galois Theory and elliptic functions into Spain. As a politician, Echegaray worked in the Ministry of Finance and Development. However, h received the Nobel Prize for his work as a playwright, having written 67 plays such as The Great Galeotti (1881). The choice to award the Literature Nobel Prize to Jose Echegaray was widely criticized by other Spanish writers such as Leopoldo Alas (Clarin) and Emilia Pardo Bazan.

1922 Jacinto Benavente (Spain)

Jacinto Benavente was one of the most important playwrights of the early twentieth century. He also worked as a director, writer and producer in the Spanish film industry. His sharp pen told the stories of all types of human tragedies, comedies, dramas and skits. Jacinto Benavente's theatrical works were realistic, natural and plausible, albeit with certain ironic touches that livened up each play. This Spanish playwright was well appreciated in Spain during the first half of the 20th century, overshadowing the fame of Jose Echegaray.

945 Gabriela Mistral (Chile)

Lucila de Maria del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga, known simply as Gabriela Mistral, was a poet, diplomat and educator. She also played an important role as a feminist activist in Chile. She established a very important diplomatic career in both European and American countries. The news that she had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature came when the Chilean poet was serving as a consul in the city of Petropolis, Brazil. In 1945, Gabriela Mistral became the first Latin American to ever win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

1956 Juan Ramon Jimenez (Spain)

Juan Ramon Jimenez was a great Spanish poet, author of the magnificent lyrical narrative called Platero and I. He was an influential author to the avant-garde youth who revered Juan Ramon as their master. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, the author found himself in exile, first in the United States and later in Puerto Rico. It was here that he became a university professor and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Three days after learning that he had won the coveted award, Jose Ramon's wife passed away, a loss he would never fully recover from. The Spanish poet would die two years later, in the same clinic as his wife, while suffering from a deep depression.

1967 Miguel Angel Asturias (Guatemala)

Miguel Angel Asturias is an important writer who emerged during the Latin American Literary Boom alongside figures like Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa. Among his many important novels, some of the highlights are Mr. President (1946) about a Latin American dictator and Men of Maize (1949), considered to be a masterpiece of the Magic Realism genre that achieves a perfect balance between language and narration. Miguel Angel Asturias, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, died in Madrid at the age of 74 and was buried in the famous Parisian cemetery Père Lachaise.

1971 Pablo Neruda (Chile)

Pablo Neruda was a Chilean author who wrote romantic poetry and won the Literature Nobel Prize in 1971. He dedicated himself to classical writing and avoided the avant-garde movements of the time. Neruda's political activism in the Chilean Communist Party led him to exile. When he returned to Chile, he was appointed as the ambassador to France by Salvador Allende in 1970. In 1973, Pablo Neruda resigned from the position due to health problems. That same year, the Chilean author died in the Santa Maria Clinic of Santiago, when the Allende government had already been overthrown by the coup of Augusto Pinochet. In fact, some theories suggest that Neruda had been assassinated via lethal injection.

1977 Vicente Aleixandre (Spain)

Vicente Aleixandre was a poet of the famous Generation of '27, one of the most famous Spanish literary groups of the 20th Century with other important authors such as Federico Garcia Lorca and Miguel Hernandez. Aleixandre was a member of the Spanish Royal Academy since 1950 and held the "O" chair. Throughout his life, the Spanish poet's work would adopt different styles, from surrealistic poetry to anthropocentric and social poetry. One notable example of his surrealistic work was Destruction or Love (1935).

1982 Gabriel García Marquez (Colombia)

Gabriel Garcia Marquez was without doubt the most important Latin American author of the 20th century due to his masterpiece One Hundred Years of Solitude. He was born in Aracataca, Colombia in 1972 and was a writer, novelist, short story writer, screenwriter and journalist whose work exemplified the genre of Magical Realism. One Hundred Years of Solitude is considered a classic in Latin American literature and is probably the second most translated Hispanic work after Cervante's Don Quixote.

1989 Camilo Jose Cela (Spain)

Camilio Jose Cela was one of the most prolific Spanish writers of the second half of the 20th century. His career took off with the jarring novel The Family of Pascual Duarte, a terrifying portrait of Spain after the Spanish Civil War. Cela's work as a writer includes long novels, short stories, essays, travel books, literary magazine pieces and more. His Majesty Juan Carlos I bestowed Camilio Cela with the title of Marquis of Iria Flavia (his birthplace). In addition to having won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1989, Cela also received the Cervante's Prize in 1995 and the Prince of Asturias Prize in Literature in 1987. In addition to all this, the Spanish writer was a member of the Royal Spanish Academy.

1990 Octavio Paz (Mexico)

Octavio Paz was a writer, essayist, diplomat and, most importantly, Mexican poet. He first came into contact with literature as a young boy through his grandfather. By adolescence, the future writer had discovered European poetry, especially from Spain. These poets, such as Juan Ramon Jimenez (mentioned above), would influence Octavio Paz throughout his career. During the Spanish Civil War, Paz visited Spain with an Antifascist Mexican delegation to show their support for the Republican cause. As time passed, the writer lost hope in the idea of a Marxist utopia and eventually denounced Stalin's Soviet concentration camps. Later, Octavio Paz was the Mexican Ambassador to India but resigned from his position in 1968 after the Tlateloco massacre. The Mexican author then moved to the United States where he became a university professor. Octavio Paz died in Mexico City in 1998. Paz is known for producing poetry that is difficult to classify but, as he himself admitted, his work was greatly influenced by Surrealism.

2010 Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru)

Mario Vargas Llosa, a Spanish language writer and latest Spanish speaking winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, is also one of the most prolific novelists of all time. His very experimental prose envelops readers with the contradictions of the individual in the fight for survival. Llosa's novels are carefully structured, which the titles of his works imply: Conversation in the Cathedral, The Green House, The Time of the Hero; structures that encase the individual. They are also works that investigate history, from his own past in Lima (Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter) to more general history (The Feast of the Goat or The Dream of the Celt), but they are always centered around the individual. Mario Vargas Llosa is also a member of the Royal Spanish Academy.

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Born in Moguer, Huelva of Andalucia, on December 24th, 1881 Jiménez had constant contact with the sea, acting as his muse, water was ever-present in his work.

During his youth he attended a Jesuit academy in Cadiz (1891-1896) before studying at the University of Seville. At Seville, Jiménez studied law and simultaneously developed an interest in art and painting.

At age 19 he moved to Madrid and forgot about law and concentrated full time on developing his poetry and writing style. In the capital city, Jiménez met Rubén Dario, a Nicaraguan poet, who would become his lifelong mentor and friend. Jiménez drafted many early poems with romantic themes published around 1900 in one of his fist poetry volumes titled Almas de Violeta (Souls of Violet).

When Mr. Jiménez´s father died in 1905, the poet returned to his home town of Moguer and spent 6 years writing and battling depression. The poet was said to be very sensitive, emotional, and susceptible to illness. Elejilas, Baladas de primavera, and La soledad Sonora, were produced during his time back home and reflected is dejected state. Pale, neutral colors dominated his work, instead of his usual vibrant greens and yellows. It was also during this time that Jiménez created his most popular work, Platero y yo, poetry that became a classic, especially for children.

After Platero y yo, Jiménez published 9 volumes of poetry. It´s said his style became more confident at this time, in his mid to late 20s, moving a way from structured verse.

In 1916 Jiménez traveled to the United States, really, he chased after Zenobia Camprubí to marry her. Camprubí was a Spanish writer and poet, born in Barcelona. She is most noted for her translated works of Rabindranath Tagore, an influential Bengali author, also a winner of Nobel Prize in Literature (1913). On the voyage across the Atlantic Jiménez put together Diaro de un poeta reciencasado, a work that focuses on symbols of the ocean and the sky.

Over the next fifteen years, back in Madrid, Juan Ramón Jiménez faded from public life to concentrate on poetry. Four major works come from this period of an “intellectual tone, stripped of verbal music,” Eternidades (1917), Piedra y cielo (1918), Poesía (1923), and Belleza (1923).

When the Spanish Civil War erupted, Jiménez was appointed as the cultural attaché to the United States by the Republican government. From 1939, he and his wife remained abroad teaching and lecturing at universities in New York and Maryland before settling in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

In 1956 Mr. Juan Ramón Jiménez was award the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his lyrical poetry, which in Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistical purity”. Camprubí died two days later. Jiménez never fully recovered from the loss of his wife and died two years later on May 29th, 1958 in San Juan.

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There is no official birth date on record for Cervantes but Michael, the name he was given, after St. Michael, suggests September 29th, the feast of St. Michael the Archangel. It is noted that Cervantes was christened on October 9th, 1547 and born in Alcala, a city near Madrid.

Cervantes´ childhood was somewhat nomadic and very unsettled. His father, Rodrigo de Cervantes is recorded as being a barber-surgeon or pharmacist-surgeon. The family was constantly moving around in search of towns in need of his services. And quite a large family it was, Cervantes was the 4th of 7 children, Cervantes mother was named Leonor de Cortinas.

In terms of education, Cervantes had very little, or perhaps formal coursework was simply never recorded. He was a student of the Spanish humanist Juan Lopez de Hoyos in Madrid, from 1568-1569 only to go to Rome the next year under the watch of Guilio Acquavita. Acquavita was ordained as a cardinal in 1570.

Cervantes, with many other Spanish men, next went to Rome to find a better life and seek opportunity to fund his writing. Cervantes ended up joining the Spanish infantry in Naples instead. It should be noted that throughout his military experiences Cervantes enjoyed his time and was popular amongst the ranks.

In 1571 the headwaters of war met at Cyprus. In the Mediterranean, on the Gulf of Lepanto, the Ottman Empire was moving to expand power and land control. Cervantes´s company was called to fight. Cervantes fought honorably as many accounts have stated. However he also sustained a wound to the chest, and a debilitating wound to the left hand that earned him the nickname Manco de Lepanto (Maimed of Lepanto).

Shortly after the Gulf of Lepanto, Cervantes was on passage home when his vessel was captured by pirates. Cervantes was taken to Algiers and kept in slavery for 5 years despite several failed escape attempts.

In 1580 with the help of family and enormous sums of money gathered by the Trinitarian monastery, Cervantes was released. It is speculated during his captivity Cervantes gathered material and inspiration for his first works and Don Quijote characters. His first play, Los tratos de Argel (The Treatment of Algiers) was based on his time held captive in Africa.

In 1584 Cervantes married Catalina de Salazary Palacios, the couple did not have any children although Cervantes did have a daughter through an affair with an actress. Cervantes would leave his wife and face unrelated financial difficulties that landed him in jail several times, once suspected of murder (he was never tried).

In 1605, now in Madrid, the first installment of Don Quijote was released and was met with immediate success. In 1615, the second and final installment was published and also had great success; both pieces were translated into English, French, and Italian. Unfortunately Cervantes had sold the rights to his work and although some of his financial burdens were eased he never managed his money well enough to be a wealthy man. The silver lining for Cervantes could only have been the literary recognition for his talent, the majority of which came after his death.

Cervantes also wrote dozens of plays and short stories though none as popular or as heralded as Don Quijote. For example, 12 Novelas Ejemplares (12 Exemplay Novels) published in 1613. In Ocho Comedias y Ocho Entremeses (Eight Comedies and Eight Interludes, 1615) Cervantes says his farewell to his readers in the prologue as he knew death was approaching. His final novel, Los trabajos de Persiles y Segismunda (The Exploits of Persiles and Segismunda) was published at the end of his life in 1616.

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This last statistic makes Spanish the second most spoken language in the world, ranking higher than both Hindi and English. Spanish is also the world’s third most used language in the media in its various formatting: radio, television, paper and internet. Spanish also makes up 10% of the language used on the internet.

Despite the current financial crisis, Spain is still ranked as having the thirteenth highest GDP (gross domestic product in the world). Also among the 50 countries with the highest GDPs are Mexico in 14th place, Argentina (24th), Colombia (27th), Venezuela (28th), Chile (33rd), and Peru (45th).

The importance of Spanish as a language of business has been increasing in the last few decades, due in large part to the constant economic growth Latin American countries have been experiencing –many of these countries have taken huge leaps forward in terms of their international economic positions. Latin America is a rich source of raw materials, which has helped make knowledge of Spanish a necessity in seemingly distant countries such as Japan, where international trade is done with Spain and Latin America.

Spanish-speaking culture has been steadily attracting greater interest on all different levels in the last twenty years, particularly in the arts: distinguished Spanish language writers have revolutionized the narrative world through their writing, Spanish language music is no longer only heard in Spanish speaking countries (where it’s still heard more than English language music), and dance academies teaching salsa, merengue, and flamenco (Spain is also a part of the Hispanic boom)have been filling up around the world.

530 million Spanish speakers from around the world make up a group of consumers that no company can ignore. The increase in this group’s buying power, slow but steady, makes it a market that is just too attractive to overlook, which is why Spanish and Spanish speakers are increasingly being considered by companies when promoting their products.

Another pertinent phenomenon has also occurred in the last few years: the Spanish language itself has become a significant economic resource. The various courses that cater to the different needs of Spanish learners have helped elevate the number of people studying Spanish around the world to nearly 20 million, including study on an official level in high schools and universities, as well as education on a private level in schools that specialize in Spanish as a foreign language instruction and study abroad experiences.

The United States, the European Union, and China are all placing great interest in Spain and Latin America (including Brazil). Investment in these regions is increasing rapidly.

While English has been, and continues to be, a language of fundamental importance in terms of international communication, it is also true that in our constantly globalizing world Spanish has become an obligatory second language for anyone who wants to be “someone” in the international business sphere.

It may be a fact that today the international community speaks English, but considering the latest estimates from the U.N. and its various organizations on population and economic growth in Spanish speaking countries, in the future it will also speak Spanish.

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Every Spanish word has an accent, or a syllable which is stressed, but they do not always need to be written. The rules of knowing where accents fall and why can be quite difficult for non-native speakers to understand. Hopefully these rules will help clear things up:

• If a word ends with an s or n or any of the 5 vowels, a, e, i, o or u, the stress falls on the second to last syllable of the word. The accent does not need to be marked. Most Spanish words fall into this category.

  Examples: me-sa, za-pa-tos, pa-dre

• In other words, which do not end in an s, n or a vowel, and do not have any written accent, the stress falls on the last syllable of the word. This also does not need to be marked.

  Examples: co-mer, pa-pel, or-de-na-dor

• If the stress of a word falls anywhere else (other than where the rules above say it should be) a written accent is used to show where it is.

  Examples: di-fí-cil, ár-bol (as both of these words end in l, they would normally be in the second category, with the stress falling on the last syllable. However, as this is not the case, an accent is written to show which syllable is stressed instead.)

• This includes when the stress falls on the third to last or fourth to last syllable of a word, for example, which is common in compound words.

  Examples: dí-me-lo (an imperative plus two pronouns), du-chán-do-se (present participle plus reflexive pronoun), fan-tás-ti-co.

Foreign words used in the Spanish language can be exceptions to these rules.

There are also other special cases for the use of written accents:

• Some accents are actually not used for pronunciation, but simply to differentiate them from other words which are spelt the same but have different meanings, such as:

  tu (your) tú (you)
  si (if) sí (yes)
  este (this, adjective) éste (this one, demonstrative pronoun)

  There is no difference in pronunciation, but the written accents help avoid misunderstandings in written texts. These accents are called orthographic accents.

• Vowels can be split into strong vowels (a, e and o) and weak vowels (i and u). When a weak and a strong vowel, or two weak vowels come together, it creates a one syllable sound, called a diphthong.

  In the case of a strong and a weak vowel, the emphasis should fall on the strong vowel.
  In the case of two weak vowels, it should be on the second vowel.
  When these rules are not followed and there is emphasis on the other vowel, an accent needs to be written, for example: río, vía.

Another point to remember is that, due to the change in spelling, nouns can gain or lose accents when they change between singular and plural. The same can occur with adjectives when they change from masculine to feminine.
Examples: can-ci-ón à can-ci-on-es, inglés à inglesa

The letter ñ is a letter of the Spanish alphabet, but can be sometimes considered as an accent too. The mark above the n signifies that the letter should be pronounced like nya, as in español (pronounced espanyol).

How to write Spanish accents on your keyboard

The accents on Spanish words are an important part of the spelling, so make sure you don't forget to use them. Here are the codes that you need to press in order to type them on a non-Spanish keyboard. Simply hold down Alt and type in the required number on the number pad:

• Á Alt + 0193 á Alt + 0225
• É Alt + 0201 é Alt + 0233
• Í Alt + 0205 í Alt + 0237
• Ó Alt + 0211 ó Alt + 0243
• Ú Alt + 0218 ú Alt + 0250
• Ñ Alt + 0209 ñ Alt + 0241

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In the early years of its history, Spanish King Fernando VI conceded the Academy certain royal privileges such as allowing scholars to publish their works without previous censorship.

Later, when the Spanish colonies of the Americas gained independence from Spain, various other academies emerged nationally. These additions include the Philippine Spanish Language Academy and the North American Academy of Spanish. Finally, all twenty-one Academies created the Association of Spanish Language Academy in order to work side by side in the unification of the great legacy that is Spanish.

The Royal Spanish Academy is made up of
 

• 46 numerary members
• A maximum of 60 Spanish-born members
• The corresponding amount of foreign-born members
• Numerary members coming from the academies in the Americas
• Honorary members
   

The scholars who become members in RAE are elected by the rest of the active members, and upon being chosen, they become members for life. Each member occupies a letter-assigned seat within the Academy: the letter comes from the Spanish alphabet, with uppercase and lowercase letters differentiated and given separate seats. A current member of the Academy is writer Arturo Pérez Reverte (holder of uppercase letter "T"). The Academy also holds other notable famous writers as former members, which is the case of Nobel laureate Camilo José Cela.

El Diccionario de la Lengua Española, El Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas o la Ortografía de la Lengua Española are part of the important publications done by the Academy.
 

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He headlined in some fifty performances, appearing on showbills with important figures such as R. Nureyev or Maya Plisetskaya. At this point, Canales had become an international dance celebrity.

In 1988, he received the Navisela award in Italy for best dancer. In 1990, Canales was also joint recipient of the Best International Dancer prize in Mexico with Julio Bocca.

The following turning point  came in 1992, when he created his own company with which he offered two choreographies in Bilbao: one was entitled “A ti, Carmen Amaya”, which paid tribute to famed flamenco dancer Carmen Amaya  and the other was called “siempre flamenco”. These pieces marked a change in direction in the dancer’s career, moving from classical and modern dance to the world of flamenco-fusion.

From this period on, Antonio Canales’ artistic catalogue features a nearly endless string of works, awards and critical praise for his unique vision of the flamenco arts and dance.

In 1992, the 500 year anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ first voyage to America provided a reason for holding a great deal of cultural events all over Spain and America. That year, Canales performed at the World Financial Center of New York, in the Holland Festival and in the Heiki (Tokyo).

His next show, “Torero” premiered in Montreal (Canada) in 1993, after which an extensive and successful tour followed. Just one year later, the show opened in Madrid, where it was so successful that to date, the show has been performed on more 1,000 occasions.

Antonio Canales received the National award for Dance in 1995.

One year later, the show entitled “Gitano” premiered in the Teatro Central of Seville during the Flamenco Biennial Festival celebrated in that city. In 1998, he teamed with the Catalan stage designer Lluis Pasqual to present “Bengues” in the Madrid Autumn Festival. As a result of a commission from the National Ballet of Spain, he created the choreography “Grito”, which premiered in New York’s city center.

1999 was a good year for Antonio. He had just opened the school that bore his name, his “Fuerza Latina” opened in Avila, he received the Max Award for Best Dance Performer, he filmed the movie “Vengo” and he was given the Medal of Andalusia, his homeland. Nice year!

In 2000, the Theatre Festival of Merida invited him to premiere his “Prometeo” in the Roman theatre in the Extremadura capital city.

Over 2001, he toured Latin American and Spain with “Bailaor”. The following year he celebrated the tenth anniversary of his company with the reopening of “Torero”. In 2003 he offered a show in Seville that paid tribute to Fernando Villalon called “Ojos Verdes”, also receiving another Max Theatre Award for Best Dance Performer.

The choreography “Carmen, Carmela” (2004 )showed Canales’ vision of Carmen de P. Merimee. He also took part in the Seville Biennial Flamenco Festival along with flamenco giants such as Paco de Lucia, Tomatito and Eva Yerbabuena. He also participated in the Festival of Classical Theatre in Merida in 2005 with “Sangre de Edipo”.

In 2006, he presented “Musical Flamenco Los Grandes” in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, touring with that show until 2007.

In Caracas, Venezuela he presented in 2009 his personal version of “The House of Bernarda Alba”, the timeless play written by Federico Garcia Lorca.

In the last few years, Antonio Canales has worked in Guanajuato, Mexico participating in events related to the bicentenary of Mexico’s independence. He has also taught lessons at the Theatre of Madrid, collaborated with the Cervantes institute and continued offering his shows in different European and American capital cities.

Aside from his somewhat stormy personal life, Antonio Canales’ almost unlimited creativity and versatility has helped make him an emblematic figure in the history of Spanish dance and flamenco.

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