The Ibero-American Community: Its Pluralistic Composition and its Importance in the Global Context

Abstract

In this paper some reasons are offered in defense of the dictum “pensar en español”. We start by acknowledging that the Spanish language is not unique, but that in fact there are varieties of Spanish in the different iberoamerican countries, even in their different regions. Nevertheless, all those languages overlap in important ways, so that it makes sense to speak of Spanish as the common language in the iberoamerican world. One central reason for continuing thinking in Spanish is that the identity of Iberoamerica, as a cultural region, depends, literally, on what has been thought in the past, and it will have a future only if we continue that tradition of Spanish thought. The existence and the identity of the Iberoamerican community depend on their memory and on having a well articulated common project. One of the main responsibilities of the thought community (comunidad de pensamiento) is to make decisive contributions to that memory and to the proper design of that project. But besides thinking about our local and regional problems, we must also think about and make contributions to the solution of worldwide problems, such as the construction of a just, plural and democratic global society.