But angry students at the centre have condemned the move as political and one that will leave foreigners and Gibraltarians unable to learn Spanish. A number of parents and staff were also said to be in tears after the news was announced.
Following the announcement SUR in English spoke to students at Cervantes, who called for the decision by Margallo to be reversed.
Anne Lundin, an interior architect from Denmark, said: “It’s very bad that it’s closing and I’m hugely disappointed. Politics should not be brought into this.
“It’s such a good benefit for us as foreigners to learn about Spain and Spanish culture. We have nowhere else to go to learn Spanish.”
Mechanical engineer Jamie Sanguinetti, 23, a Gibraltarian, who attends weekly conversation classes, said: “It’s all about politics. Coming to the institute gives me a chance to learn Spanish properly, rather than learning Llanito [a form of Gibraltarian Spanish heavily laced with words from English and other languages]. But it’s also good for foreigners too. In La Línea they speak Llanito too, so by coming here to Cervantes we get to speak Spanish like the rest of Spain.”
Tasmin Griffith, 23, a Brit who has lived in Gibraltar since she was eight, said: “It’s really disappointing that it is closing due to political reasons. It’s helped change the attitudes of Gibraltarians. At Cervantes they’ve had wine tasting, book lectures, film nights and a cultural event about the upbringing of bulls and it was very popular with Gibraltarians.
“You can’t live here without having a good grasp of Spanish, be it for work or socially. If Gibraltar had an alternative to the Cervantes Institute it wouldn’t be so bad, but there’s nothing, so it’s a real disaster.”
Pawel Kubik, 53, a Polish doctor working at St Bernard’s Hospital in Gibraltar, who has three hours of Spanish classes a week, said: “I’m very annoyed. It’s a real disaster for the foreigners living here in Gibraltar. I know that most of the people living here are bilingual, but from my point of view there are some patients who prefer to communicate in Spanish. So I’m here to improve my language skills.
“I think what is happening is very improper as it’s a very important place - Gibraltar is very small and there’s no substitute for it.”
SUR in English also spoke to Cervantes Institute Director Dr. Francisco Oda, who confirmed that the closure was certain, and that he was waiting to hear from the government this weekend as to whether it would close in March or June.
Francisco, 44, from La Línea, said: “It’s a pity because we have been here almost four years now working hard. Logically, we are civil servants and must follow the orders of the state.
“But it’s an institute that has been well received by Gibraltar.”
Francisco added that the institute has been used by more than 4,000 students since it opened on April 4th 2011 - with approximately 75 per cent of this number being Gibraltarian. He also confirmed around 300 students are currently learning Spanish at the institute.
Loss of bilingual ability
He added: “I’m worried that Gibraltarians are losing their bilingual ability. There are generally three types of Gibraltarians, those over 50 years of age who are mostly monolingual in Spanish, those between 20 to 50 years of age who are bilingual in both English and Spanish, and those up to the age of 20 who are monolingual in English.”
He explained that since the early 1990s British television has replaced Spanish television in the homes of Gibraltarians (with the exception of the Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation) and since then, the Spanish language has been in decline on the Rock.
He added that Spanish was only taught two hours a week in Gibraltarian schools from the age of eight, and that the majority of the institute’s students were young children and adolescents.
Gibraltar’s Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, said: “Sr Margallo’s statements really speak for themselves, for what Sr Margallo represents.”
He added, “Sr Margallo’s position appears increasingly to be a radical and isolated one that has gained no traction beyond the Partido Popular.”
The previous Spanish government opened Gibraltar’s Cervantes Institute in 2011 as part of an agreement by the Tripartite Forum, that for the first time brought together representatives of Spain, Britain and Gibraltar at a meeting in Córdoba.
Speaking in Madrid last week, García-Margallo said he had decided to close the institute because he considered the Tripartite Forum to be finished, as it meant treating the British Overseas Territory on an equal footing with Spain and Britain, which he called “unacceptable”.
In other developments, the Podemos La Línea branch said in a statement that closing Cervantes “undermines Spain’s reputation” and is “a clear failure” by the Spanish Government to comply with its obligations under the Cordoba agreement of 2006.
Fuente: ASH BOLTON | GIBRALTAR- 20.02.15 - 18:34 -
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