Chronicle – Jantar da Hispanidade e Da Lusofonia

The Escuela Hispánica made its debut on Portuguese soil on April 18th, at the III Symposium of the SALL, which featured our collaboration. The chronicle of the event makes clear the impact and importance of that presence, as well as the role that the Escuela can—and should—play in Portugal.

But the EH's involvement in Lusophone circles began the evening before, at a dinner it organised—once again with the indispensable support of the SALL—at an emblematic venue in Lisbon. The Real Clube Tauromáquico Português is the oldest association in the world connected to bullfighting, a tradition shared by the nations that make up the Iberian Peninsula. Founded in 1892, it is a space that reminds us—regardless of our personal opinion or connection to bullfighting—of the longevity of institutions built and preserved as a crucial part of the cultural fabric of the civilisation we have inherited.

Júlio de Castilho, a Portuguese writer and politician of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, wrote that it was in this space that one encountered and gathered «a mocidade feliz, que expandiu as suas asas iriadas numa restea de sol da vida». And it was there too that, on the evening of April 17th, some thirty people gathered—among them several speakers who would take part in the following day's symposium. The gathering opened with a brief address by the Secretary-General of the Escuela Hispánica, Juan Ángel Soto, who explained the meaning and purpose of this project to all those present. After dinner, the floor was given to the Academic Vice-President, Professor André Azevedo Alves.

This was followed by a brief, free-ranging, and illuminating discussion that offered different points of view, united by a common purpose: to defend Western civilisation, the freedom we have inherited from it, and our duty to preserve it. It was, in short, an important step toward bringing the importance and relevance of the Lusophone world—and of the Escuela Hispánica—into clearer and calmer waters.