The Universidad Europea del Atlántico, through FUNIBER, has played a leading role in the summer course that the Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid has held in the Zaragoza town of Tarazona on the articulation of Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries.
From Monday to Wednesday last week, the 18th City of Tarazona Summer Course took place, which the Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid holds every year in Tarazona, under the direction of Ignacio Ruiz Rodríguez, Professor of History of Law and Institutions.
In this edition, the meeting analysed the articulation of Iberophony, that is, the meeting of the 850 million speakers of Spanish and Portuguese without geographical restrictions, with special interest in the contributions of Aragon to this community. To this end, dozens of professors, intellectuals, institutional representatives and attendees from various countries in Europe, Africa and America have gathered. Among them, the ambassador of Cape Verde in Spain, Ney Cardoso, and speakers from the University of Bologna and the Freie Universität in Berlin.
Through various disciplines, the speakers discussed the common links of the Iberophone area and its projection in today’s world. They highlighted the shared cultural and linguistic heritage as an exceptional basis on which to build greater and better international cooperation. In this respect, the participants highlighted the role of the Crown of Aragon and its Mediterranean projection.
In this context, the meeting has counted on the singular participation of the European University of the Atlantic through the Fundación Universitaria Iberoamericana and the Cátedra FUNIBER de Estudios Iberoamericanos y de la Iberofonía. The Chair of Ibero-American Studies and Iberophony, with the participation of universities from Spain, Angola, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Colombia. The Chair was represented by its director, Frigdiano Álvaro Durántez Prados, professor at the European Atlantic University of Santander (UNEATLANTICO) and director of Institutional Relations at FUNIBER. Durántez gave the central lecture of the course on the theoretical conceptualisation and institutional development of Iberophony, issues that he has been promoting since the 1990s and of which he is considered the main expert and promoter.
Maldonado de Guevara Conference
Rafael Maldonado de Guevara y Delgado, also a professor at UNEATLANTICO and coordinator of the Chair, acted as secretary of the meeting. Maldonado spoke about Lope de Herrera, the first diplomat sent by the Catholic Monarchs to Portugal to negotiate sovereignty over America after Christopher Columbus reported the Discovery in 1493. Herrera died ten years later in Tarazona, where he had been sent by King Ferdinand to deal with matters concerning the Crown of Aragon.
