With 400 publishers and 200 Spanish authors, the German book fair, the major global rights market, is reaching cruising speed. Making machines “think” and speak in correct Spanish is one of the great challenges of the language
“Our tongue is our oil.” The Vice President of the Government, Nadia Calviño, the Minister of Culture, Miquel Iceta, and the Director of the Cervantes Institute, Luis García Montero, all agree with this assessment. The three acted yesterday as ambassadors of Spanish and of the state’s co-official languages at the Frankfurter Messe, the publishing house where 80% of copyright is negotiated, the major world book market that we host in its 74th edition, which wins at cruising speed. Bibliodiversity is the keyword for Spanish participation. ‘Overflowing creativity’ is the motto of the Spanish program that the King and Queen inaugurated on Tuesday, bringing the German city to 400 publishers and nearly 200 authors.
It was Calviño, Minister of Economy, who, full of optimism, presented in the Spanish pavilion the PERTE of our language, the Strategic Plan for Recovery and Economic Transformation for the development of the cultural industry. It has 1,100 million from the EU and aims to get as much as possible from private initiative. Happy to speak in Frankfurt “about the future of Spanish and not GDP or economic stability”, he thanked the powerful and solvent Spanish publishing industry for its work during the pandemic. “If we are a force in anything, it is in language,” he said.
He raised the need to win the battle of language against machines and in the field of artificial intelligence where it is already being waged. “If we didn’t do something, the machines would ‘think’ in Chinese or English, and we work so that they ‘think’ in Spanish and speak it correctly. It is essential that they train in Spanish,” he insisted after developing the PERTE points
“Language is our oil”, Iceta had put forward, emphasizing the linguistic and editorial plurality and the value of Spanish as a bridge to Latin America, the equality and diversity of Spanish society. Also the diversity of our extensive range of publications, with novels, essays, poetry, dramaturgy, children’s and youth literature, comics, illustrated novels and audio books, all in the program in which the Ministry of Culture has invested 12 million euros.
The minister thanked the arrival of some “very relevant funds, with which we are going to transform the world”. He also brought up “the language of machines” as a major challenge. “We want them to think and speak in Spanish and we are not going to set any limits to achieve this”.
“The PERTE of the language helps us to modernize ourselves,” added García Montero, who also spoke about the technological challenge. “We must prevent artificial intelligence from falling into the hands of multinationals and not contributing to the development of democracy,” he said. “Defending culture is defending the values of freedom, equality and democracy.”
The Spanish program in Frankfurt focuses on issues such as our linguistic plurality, the strength and diversity of publishing, gender equality, sustainability and the fundamental work of translators, to whom the fair gives a leading role this year. A direct result of the fair is the translation of books from the host country, not only in Germany, but also in the rest of the world. Since the start of the program, more than 400 books have been translated, with government support of three million euros. “Language can be a barrier and we want PERTE to be a lever that helps it expand with translations,” says Iceta.
The hypertech Spanish pavilion has 2,000 square meters and is called ‘The theory of cherries’ in tribute to Carmen Martín Gaite, for whom one book led to another, like cherries. Designed by ‘Huge + Vitamin’, it is like a “living dictionary” in which “words, languages and stories” are chained together. An artificial intelligence system ensures that the appearance of the venue changes every day and the walls reflect, “as if they were the pages of a book”, the ideas and debates developed during the meetings it hosts.
Authors, publishers, booksellers and literary agents are getting through it these days. It will host more than 50 conversations – an average of ten a day – and pay tribute to the legendary agent Carmen Balcells, the editor Jorge Herralde, and three of the most notable writers of the past decades and recently deceased, Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Almudena Grandes and Javier Marias. . Among the authors, Enrique Vila-Matas, Fernando Aramburu Arturo Peréz-Reverte, Najat el Hachmi, Marta Sanz, Antonio Muñoz Molina, Luis García Montero, Javier Cercas, Isaac Rosa, Juan José Millás, Sergio del Molino, Rosa Montero, Irene Vallejo , Sara Mesa, Cristina Fernández Cubas, Clara Obligado, Vicente Molina Foix, Carme Riera, Bernardo Atxaga, Dolores Redondo, Xesús Fraga, Jokin Mitxelena, Cristina Morales or Manuel Rivas.
In this competition of horrifying dimensions and economic figures, and which restore a certain normality after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. Spanish publishers calculate that more than five hundred contracts will be concluded in the four days, much more than in 1991 when Spain, which was renewed with the Olympiad and the Expo, was the guest of honor
The war in Ukraine is a pervasive theme, with the notable absence of Russian publishers who are prevented from attending the fair due to European sanctions. The organizers have dedicated a large space to Ukraine and this Thursday President Volodimir Zelensky delivered a speech via videoconference. The Peace Prize, awarded annually by German booksellers, also goes to the Ukrainian writer Serhy Zahadan, whose novel ‘Orphanage’ will soon be published in Spanish by Galaxia Gutenberg.
There is room for debate and for business, although inflation and the scarcity of paper are a burden on a publishing company that has not been hurt by the pandemic. It is not without reason that the Spanish publishing sector invoiced a total of 2,576 million euros in 2021, 5.6% more than the year before, according to the Federation of Publishers’ Guilds of Spain (FGGE). year of plenty when 3,185 million euros were billed.
In the same year, the bookstore sector exported to Europe for 136.35 million euros, 8.54% more than the year before. But with all, the big debate of publishers, not to be, for years to come, is the rise in book prices. An increase that José Creuheras, chairman of Grupo Planeta, estimated at about 5% a few days ago. The scarcity of paper in the crisis situation and the dominant position of platforms such as Amazon ensure that publishers take their news figures into account and adjust circulation.
“Perte, I love you Perte,” said Minister Miquel Icea with a smile, celebrating the contribution of European funds, paraphrasing Lorca’s universal verses to celebrate the benefits of the strategic plan. Luis García Montero was not far behind, who almost started singing, “Perte, I didn’t want to see you, Perte… and today I want to see you, Perte”, in turn evoking Los Amaya and the song of the Catalan rumberos in a positive light to celebrate the rain of millions of Europeans for the cultural industries.
Minister Calviño also became poetic, turning to Machado and reminding that also with PERTE “the way is made by walking”
García Montero once again made the audience smile when he spoke about the biases of machine language and the response of mobile interactive systems such as Siri or the Russian Yandex to the emotional demands of their users. “When you tell Siri you’re sad, the answer is ‘I’d like to give you a hug’, while Yandex answers the same question ‘nobody told you it was easy’.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
