Association of Spanish Language Academies

The Association of Academies of the Spanish Language (ASALE) is the entity and international institutional organization in charge of bringing together the different Academies of the Spanish Language in order to promote unity, integrity and development of the Spanish language.

It was formed in Mexico in 1951, originally made up of the twenty Academies already existing in sovereign countries where Spanish is both the official and vehicular language (plus the Philippines, which already had its own Academy). There are currently twenty-four Spanish Language Academies that make it up, with incorporations from institutions founded later in countries with a strong presence of the Spanish-speaking community (for example, the United States) and historical links with Spain.

Its permanent commission is located in Madrid (Spain), a city where the headquarters of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) and the headquarters of the Instituto Cervantes are also located. ASALE's motto is "One lineage, one language and one destiny".

History

Building of the headquarters of the secretariat and study center of the ASALE and RAE, in Calle Serrano 187-189 de Madrid.

In April 1951, at the initiative of the then President of Mexico, Miguel Alemán Valdés, the I Congress of Academies was convened in what would be the first of the sixteen ordinary congresses of ASALE to date. Precisely the Royal Spanish Academy, for political reasons, was not present at that first call. Held between April 23 and May 6, 1951, the ASALE Association and Permanent Commission was created within the framework of the congress, in which Spain did participate that year. Since the II Congress, held in 1956 in Madrid, ASALE's permanent headquarters, the RAE has regularly participated in its congresses and sessions.

This collaboration between the RAE and the language academies is expressed in the co-authorship, from the XXII edition (2001), of the Dictionary of the Spanish language, the Ortografía< /i> in its 1999 and 2010 editions, considered a pan-Hispanic work, and the Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Dudes (2005).

Joint works are the writing by the Grammar Association and the preparation of a Dictionary of Americanisms. Since 2000, she has organized the School of Hispanic Lexicography, which has scholarships granted by an agreement between the RAE and the Carolina Foundation for the training of experts in Spanish lexicography.

The Association, together with the Royal Spanish Academy, was awarded the 2000 Prince of Asturias Award for Concord for their collaboration and consensus efforts.

Organization of the Association

The Association holds a Congress every four years, although various circumstances have prevented it from fulfilling this aspiration at times. The Association is directed by the Permanent Commission, made up of a president (position held by the Director of the RAE), a general secretary (who falls to an academic from any of the associated academies, except the RAE, elected by Congress), the treasurer appointed by the RAE and four members of the associated academies who take turns annually. Since 1970, at the III Congress of Academies held in Bogotá, Colombia, a multilateral agreement has been approved by which the governments of the countries that have a language academy commit to supporting it and providing it with the physical and financial means for the carrying out their activities. These measures also apply to the Association of Spanish Language Academies.

Member Academies

The following Spanish Language Academies are part of the Association (ordered by year of creation):

Country	Academy	Year of establishment	Headquarters	Photo of headquarters
Spain	Royal Spanish Academy	1713	Madrid
Colombia	Colombian Academy of Language	1871	Bogotá
Ecuador	Ecuadorian Academy of Language	1874	Quito
Mexico	Mexican Academy of the Language	1875	Mexico City
El Salvador	Salvadoran Academy of Language	1875	San Salvador
Venezuela	Venezuelan Academy of Language	1883	Caracas
Chile	Chilean Academy of Language	1885	Santiago de Chile
Peru	Peruvian Academy of Language	1887	Lima
Guatemala	Guatemalan Academy of Language	1887	Guatemala City
Costa Rica	Costa Rican Academy of Language	1923	San José
Philippines	Philippine Academy of Spanish Language	1924	Manila
Panama	Panamanian Academy of Language	1926	Panama City
Cuba	Cuban Academy of the Language	1926	Havana
Paraguay	Paraguayan Academy of Spanish Language	1927	Assumption
Bolivia	Bolivian Academy of Language	1927	La Paz
Dominican Republic	Dominican Academy of Language	1927	Santo Domingo
Nicaragua	Nicaraguan Academy of Language	1928	Managua
Argentina	Argentine Academy of Letters	1931	Buenos Aires
Uruguay	National Academy of Letters of Uruguay	1943	Montevideo
Honduras	Honduran Academy of Language	1949	Tegucigalpa
Puerto Rico	Puerto Rican Academy of Spanish Language	1955	San Juan
United States	American Academy of Spanish Language	1973 — Integrated in the ASALE since 1980.	New York
Equatorial Guinea	Ecuadorian Academy of Spanish Language	2013 — Integrated in the ASALE since 2016.	Malabo
In the process of incorporation:
Israel	National Academy of Judeo-Spanish	2018 — Recognized by the ASALE in 2020, the year in which its presidency was incorporated into the association's chairs panel.	Jerusalem

Interior of the AAL, Buenos Aires.

Latest additions

Meeting of scholars of the Ecuadorian Academy of Spanish Language.

From the statutes of 1859, it is regulated that the Royal Spanish Academy can designate foreign personalities from countries linked in one way or another with the Spanish language as corresponding academics. These academics, upon reaching a certain critical mass, will coordinate to give rise to the appearance of new Academies from 1871, first in countries where it was an official language and later, from the second half of the century xx, in countries with a strong presence of the Spanish language, in all its varieties, such as the founding in 1973 of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language and its incorporation into ASALE in 1980.

In 2009, the Royal Spanish Academy included five members from Equatorial Guinea on its faculty, an African republic that was part of the group of countries that, despite its close historical ties to Spain and having a significant portion of its population integrated into a Spanish-speaking cultural environment, did not have a proper academic institution of the Spanish language. Consequently, at the end of 2013, the President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang, inaugurated the Equatorial Guinean Academy of the Spanish Language, officially announced by the then director of the Royal Spanish Academy, José Manuel Blecua Perdices. Since March 19, 2016 it belongs to the Association of Spanish Language Academies. The procedures for admission to this academy had begun a year earlier.

In process of incorporation

Judeo-Spanish Academy

The last academy recognized by ASALE has been the National Judeo-Spanish Academy (proper: Academia Nasionala del Ladino), based in Jerusalem, although to this day it is not yet integrated into the ASALE (however, its president is part of the panel of presidents of the ASALE academies).

The foundation of a Jewish-Spanish academy has been considered a pending task for years, considered a priority and promoted by personalities such as the president of ASALE, Santiago Muñoz Machado, and by the Jewish-Spanish community itself, which has expressed its interest in the formalization of such relationships. The Sephardic institute was founded in February 2018. In January 2020, the first plenary assembly of the twenty-two academics of the institution took place, in October of the same year it was formally recognized by ASALE, and in December, in In the middle of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, it officially presented itself as the National Judeo-Spanish Academy, agreeing on the official name of the institute in both languages, namely Ladino and Spanish. In January 2021, linguist and professor Ora Schwarzwald was confirmed as the Academy's first president.

Seen by a certain part of the linguistic community as a language of its own with its own —and heterogeneous— features, Judeo-Spanish is nonetheless considered by ASALE as a variety of the Spanish language, which retains many features of pre-century Castilian XVI. Its incorporation into the family of language academies is certainly interesting from a regulatory point of view, being the the first Academy that would be exempt from the ASALE recommendations regarding the development of the modern Spanish language. Nor is it clear what would be the position of variants such as haquetía within this institution, which have moved away from Ladino, and therefore from Spanish (with strong influences from local languages, especially Moroccan Arabic), but which nevertheless continue to be Judeo-Spanish languages.

Ordinary congresses

No.	Date	City	Country	Notes
I	23 April-6 May 1951	Mexico	Mexico	The SAR was not present for political reasons.
II	22 April-2 May 1956	Madrid	Spain
III	27 July-6 August 1960	Bogotá	ColombiaColombia
IV	30 November-10 December 1964	Buenos Aires	Argentina	The delegation of Cuba did not attend
V	24 July-19 August 1968	Quito	Ecuador	The delegations of Cuba and Venezuela did not attend.
VI	20-29 November 1972	Caracas	Venezuela
VII	13-23 November 1976	Santiago	ChileChile	The delegations of Cuba and Mexico did not attend.
VIII	20-27 April 1980	Lima	Peru Peru	The delegation of Cuba did not attend
IX	8-15 October 1989	San José	Costa RicaCosta Rica	The delegations of Cuba, Paraguay and Honduras did not attend.
X	24-29 April 1994	Madrid	SpainSpain
XI	15-19 November 1998	Puebla	Mexico Mexico
XII	12-15 November 2002	San Juan	Puerto RicoPuerto Rico
XIII	21-24 March 2007	Medellín	ColombiaColombia
XIV	21-25 November 2011	Panama	Panama Panama
XV	22-25 November 2015	Mexico	Mexico Mexico
XVI	4-8 November 2019	Sevilla	SpainSpain

Other entities of the Spanish language in the world

The Hispanic National Cultural Center in New Mexico (United States), created in 2000 to preserve and promote Hispanic world culture in the United States.

Beyond the Academies of the Spanish Language, which are the regulatory entities belonging to ASALE in each country, and the Instituto Cervantes, a Spanish entity with offices in different countries, there are other entities with official status in their respective countries that are part of the network of institutions whose mission is to preserve and disseminate the Spanish language. These institutions, recognized by ASALE as disseminating entities of the Spanish language, are:

Country/Region	Association
Africa	African Association of Spanish Teachers as Foreign Language South African Hispanic Association
Germany	German Association of Spanish Teachers — 1970 Instituto de Estudios Latinoamericanos de la Universidad Libre de Berlin — 1970 German Association of Hispanics — 1997
Latin America	Latin American Language and Philology Association — 1964
Algeria	Association of Spanish Students in Algeria — 2018
Argentina	Instituto de Literatura Hispanoamericana de la Universidad de Buenos Aires — 1935 Asociación Argentina de Hispanistas — 1986 Centro de Estudios Hispanoamericanos de Santa Fe — 1990 Argentine Association of Spanish Teachers — 2003 Fundación Instituto Internacional de la Lengua Española
Asia	Asian Association of Hispanics — 1986
Australasia	Association of Iberian and Latin American Studies of Australasia — 1993
Australia	New South Wales Spanish Teachers Association — 2006
Austria	Austrian Association of Spanish Teachers — 1987 Austrian Spanish Language and Culture Group
Belgium	Belgian Society of Spanish Teachers — 1975
Benelux	Benelux Hispanic Association — 2004
Benin	Association of Spanish Teachers in Benin — 1997
Bolivia	Bolivian Institute of Lexicography — 1995
Brazil	Association of Spanish Teachers of the State of Rio de Janeiro — 1981 Association of Spanish Teachers of the State of São Paulo — 1983 Association of Spanish Teachers of the State of Bahia — 1987 Pernambuco State Spanish Teachers Association — 1989 Brazilian Association of Hispanics — 2000
Bulgaria	Association of Spanish-speaking Journalists of Bulgaria
Cameroon	Asociación Camerunesa de Hispanistas — 1994 Association of Spanish Teachers of Cameroon — 2016
Canada	Canadian Association of Hispanics — 1964 Canadian Association of Latin American and Caribbean Studies — 1969 Association of Spanish Teachers of Quebec — 1971 Association of Hispanic-Canadiense Teachers — 2004
Chile	Chilean Association of Spanish Schools — 2010
China	Asociación China del Estudio de la Literatura Española, Portuguesa y Latinoamericana — 1979 China Society for the Teaching and Research of Spanish and Portuguese Languages
Cyprus	Association of Spanish Teachers of Cyprus — 1993
Colombia	Instituto Caro y Cuervo — 1942 Colombian Association of Spanish Teachers — 2001
South Korea	Korean Association of Hispanics — 1981 Korean Association of Latin American Studies — 1986
Ivory Coast	Ivorian Association of Spanish Secondary Teachers — 1998
Costa Rica	School of Philology, Linguistics and Literature of the University of Costa Rica — 1974
Croatia	Asociación Hispano-Croata — 2021 Croatian Association of Spanish Teachers
Cuba	Instituto de Literatura y Lingüística José Antonio Portuondo Valdor — 1965 Centro Hispanoamericano de Cultura — 2004
Denmark	Danish Association of Spanish Teachers
Ecuador	Ecuadorian Association of Spanish Education Centers — 2009
Egypt	Egyptian Hispanic Association — 1968
United Arab Emirates	Association of Spanish Teachers in the United Arab Emirates — 2012
Slovenia	Slovenian Association of Spanish Teachers — 2010
Slovakia	Slovak Association of Spanish Teachers — 1993
Spain	Official Language School — 1911 Casa de Velázquez — 1920 School of Hispanic-American Studies — 1942 Cultural Action Miguel de Cervantes — 1983 Association for the Teaching of Spanish as a Foreign Language — 1987 Association of Spanish Teachers of Official Language Schools of Castilla y León — 1988 Duques de Soria Foundation — 1989 Andalusian Association of Spanish Teachers "Elio Antonio de Nebrija" — 1990 Asociación de Profesores de Español «Francisco de Quevedo» de Madrid — 1991 Instituto Cervantes — 1991 Asociación Española de Estudios Literarios Hispanoamericanos — 1992 Fundación Comillas — 1993 Academia Canaria de la Lengua — 1999 International Federation of Spanish Teachers — 2001 Instituto Castellano y Leonés de la Lengua — 2002 Universidad Virtual de la Lengua y la Cultura Españolas — 2003 Fundéu BBVA — 2005 Conde de Salia Association — 2021 International Association for the Study of Hispanic Manuscripts
Spain and Portugal	Ibero-American Institute of Legal Studies
United States	American Association of Spanish and Portuguese Teachers — 1917 Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana de la Universidad de Pittsburgh — 1938 American Academy of Research Historians on Medieval Spain — 1974 National Association of Hispanic Journalists — 1984 Hispanic National Cultural Center — 2000 International Association of Hispanic Poets and Writers — 2007
Estonia	Estonian Spanish Teachers Association — 2014
Europe	European Association of Spanish Teachers — 1968
Philippines	Hispanic-Philippine Circle — 2001 Cebu Spanish Teachers Association — 2014 Philippine Education Association of Spanish as Foreign Language — 2019
Finland	Association of Spanish Teachers of Finland — 1980
France	Sociedad de Hispanistas Franceses — 1963 French Association of Spanish Teachers — 1973 Centro de Estudios Ibéricos e Iberoamericanos de la Universidad Federal de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées
Gabon	Association of Spanish Teachers of Gabon — 2016
Ghana	Ghanaian Hispanic Association — 2009
Guam	Guam Cervantine Circle— 1958
Equatorial Guinea	Centro Cultural Hispano-Guineano — 1982 Centro Cultural de España en Malabo — 2003
Greece	Association of Greek Hispanists — 1997 Association of Spanish and Hispanic Teachers in Greece — 1991
Hungary	Hungarian Association of Spanish Teachers — 1998
Ibero-America	Asociación de Estados Iberoamericanos para el Desarrollo de las Bibliotecas nacionales de Iberoamérica — 1989 Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture — 1949 Ibero-American Network of Terminology — 1988
India	Association of Spanish Teachers in South India
Indonesia	Ibero-American Association of Jakarta — 1978 Jakarta Nebrija Institute — 2018
Iran	Instituto de la Lengua Española Alborz — 1999
Ireland	Association of Irish Spanish Teachers — 2013
Iceland	Association of Spanish Teachers in Iceland — 1992
Israel	Israel Association of Spanish Teachers — 1992 Israel Hispanic Association — 2007
Italy	Association of Italian Hispanists — 1973 Italian Association of Ibero-American Studies — 2009
Jamaica	Jamaica National Association of Spanish Teachers
Japan	Japan Hispanic Association — 1955 Japanese Association of Latin America and the Caribbean — 1959 Japanese Association of Latin American Studies — 1979 Japanese Society of History of Spain — 1979
Kenya	Kenyan Spanish Teachers Association — 2007
Liechtenstein	Spanish Language and Culture Group of Liechtenstein
Madagascar	Association of Spanish Teachers of Madagascar — 1996
Malaysia	Malaysian Spanish Teachers and Students Association — 2017
Malta	Centro Cultural Hispano-Maltés — 1984
Morocco	Asociación de Escritores Marroquíes en Lengua Española — 1997 Asociación de Hispanistas Marroquíes Asociación Marroquí de Estudios Ibéricos e Iberoamericanos — 2017
Mexico	Mexican Association of Spanish as Foreign Language — 1981 Mexican Association of Language and Literature Teachers, A. C. — 1997 Mexican Association of Spanish Institutes — 2005 Instituto Digital César Chávez para el Español en North America — 2021
World	International Association of Hispanics — 1962
Arab world	Association of Arab Hispanists — 2011
Norway	Norwegian Association of Spanish Teachers — 2000
New Zealand	New Zealand Spanish Teachers Association — 1996
Netherlands	Association of Spanish Teachers of the Netherlands — 1983
Peru	Peruvian Association of Spanish Teachers — 2020
Poland	Polish Hispanic Association — 1985
Portugal	Asociación Portuguesa de Hispanistas Centro de Estudios de Español de Portugal — 1990 Portuguese Association of Spanish Teachers — 2000
Puerto Rico	Institute of Caribbean Studies — 1958 Puerto Rican Association of Spanish Teachers — 2001
United Kingdom and Ireland	Association of British and Irish Hispanists — 1955
United Kingdom	United Kingdom Spanish Teachers Association — 1994
Czech Republic	Association of Czech Hispanists — 2009
Romania	Asociación de Estudios Iberoamericanos de Romania — 2012
Russia	Russian Hispanic Association — 1994 Asociación de Estudios sobre el Mundo Iberoamericano — 2004
Western Sahara	Union of Saharan Journalists and Writers — 2005
Senegal	Association of Spanish Teachers of Senegal — 1985
Serbia	Serbian Hispanic Association — 2008 Association of Spanish Teachers in Serbia — 2016
Sweden	Stockholm Spanish Teachers Association — 1972 Association of Spanish Teachers of West Sweden — 1982 Association of South Sweden Spanish Teachers Instituto Nórdico de Estudios Latinoamericanos
Switzerland	Swiss Association of Spanish Teachers — 1980 Swiss Society for Hispanic Studies — 1969 Spanish Language and Culture Groups of Switzerland Centro Cultural Hispanoamericano de Zúrich Instituto de Lengua y Literaturas Hispánica de la Universidad de Berna
Thailand	Instituto Español de Bangkok — 2010
Taiwan	Taiwanese Association of Hispanics — 2021
Trinidad and Tobago	Trinidad and Tobago Spanish Teachers Association — 2019
Tunisia	Tunisian Association of Spanish Teachers and Students — 2011 Association of Spanish Teachers in Tunisia — 2019
Turkey	Centro de Estudios Latinoamericanos de la Universidad de Ankara — 2009
Ukraine	Ukrainian Hispanic Association — 2009
Uruguay	Society of Spanish Language Teachers of Uruguay Centro de Estudios Literarios Iberoamericanos Mario Benedetti — 1999 Uruguayan Association of Spanish Teachers as Foreign Language — 2012
Venezuela	Latin American Association of Communication Researchers — 1978 Venezuelan Association for the Teaching of Spanish as Foreign Language — 1990