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INSTITUTE OF LITERATURE AND
LINGUISTICS
Making our way as we go
• Preserving valuable records for
almost 50 years
Yenia Silva Correa
Since the early 1960’s, the Cuban government has
shown interest in supporting a center to investigate
the Spanish language variant spoken on the island.
In May of 1965, the José Antonio Portuondo Valdor
Institute of Literature and Linguistics (ILL) was
founded, and began working with a group of experts
trained in the former Soviet Republics.
The
Institute currently houses valuable records and
carries out important research projects. Its
director, Dr. Nuria Gregori, recalls the center’s
early days, saying, “We linguists were making our
way as we went along, as the poet Antonio Machado
would say. Linguistics was not studied in Cuba. The
first of us came from the Soviet Union,
Czechoslovakia, Germany… Later the university began
to train the graduates we take in.
“We
received help from the former socialist camp through
covenants with specialists in those countries. We
worked and investigated different studies on
lexicon, phonetics and morphology. These are the
projects we did in close collaboration with other
institutions across the country.”
How many have been done over almost 50 years?
Some, but many more remain to be done, including the
training of new specialists and continuing this
work. In 2013, we finished the Atlas Lingüístico
de Cuba. We were fortunate to have a specialist
who developed software to digitalize it and are
taking the final steps to provide access to it, on
the Institute’s page, which we are preparing.
This
is going to be very important, to not only make
known the different lexical and grammatical
variants, but to teach the language as well. We have
also worked on indigenous languages, the African
ones, and how they have influenced Spanish in Cuba.
There are no better, or worse, languages, all are
equal. They are social constructions which we use to
communicate. It’s important to know them to better
understand each other and communicate with each
other.
Is this book part of the Institute’s efforts to
validate Cuban Spanish?
Of
course, along with the studies we do. I have made a
proposal for a linguistic policy, which I am
currently reviewing. I have the support of the Union
of Cuban Journalists (UPEC) and Comandante en Jefe
Fidel Castro.
At
times, radio and TV announcers, the press are
criticized, but there is awareness within the
leadership of UPEC, and the country, about the
importance of this knowledge, and that writing in
our press and mass media must be correct, since it
is seen everywhere.
We
also did the Historia de
la
Literatura Cubana,
in three volumes, beginning with the Colonial era,
then the Republic through 1958, and the Socialist
Republic (1959-1988).
What sorts of archives are stored in the ILL
library?
We
have 152 files which have been brought to us, by
different individuals, for us to take care of, and
so that others may consult them. The first archives
to come to the Institute were brought by their
author, Nicolás Guillén. Someone else who bequeathed
his archives was Fernando Ortiz. We are publishing
everything he left unpublished.
We
have the only copies in the world of the science and
technology magazine
La
América,
which José Martí edited in New York, 1882-1885. We
now have them digitalized. The complete Henríquez
Ureña family archives are here. We have works of
Ángel Augier, José Antonio Portuondo, José María
Chacón y Calvo; a special collection on the Spanish
Civil War and one of Galician publications which –
according to Galicians – is one of the most
important outside of Galicia. We also have a
beautiful letter by [Federico García] Lorca.
Current activities?
The
Institute includes the Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda
faculty, which will hold an international event
commemorating the bicentenary of the poetess, next
November. To date, we have confirmed the
participation of some 160 important individuals.
Next
year, we will have a grand event for our 50th
anniversary. We will present all the activities
undertaken by the center during this time,
everything: literature, linguistics,
scientific-technical information.
The
Institute would like to propose that the Nicolás
Guillén archives, those of Fernando Ortiz and the
Friends of the Country Economic Society, be
registered as part of UNESCO’s World Memory. This is
an important recognition and we want to make these
[documents] available to humanity.
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