Lisbon City Council wants to strengthen the relationship between Portuguese and Spanish

Fighting for greater recognition and representation of the Portuguese language in Ibero-American capitals is one of the goals of the mayor of Lisbon, who hopes for a strong relationship with Buenos Aires after the book fair ends.

This Wednesday, Carlos Moedas visited the book fair in Buenos Aires, of which Lisbon is the city of honor this year.

In a conversation with reporters, the mayor said that Portuguese culture and literature here have a “direct channel to Latin America.”

“Many of our authors were first translated into Spanish, went to Spain, and then came here. Here we have created a very important direct line with Spanish-speaking Latin America, in our language and with our authors,” he said.

For Carlos Moedas, who emphasized the chamber’s efforts to attract a diverse range of authors and artists to Buenos Aires who “represent not only Lisbon culture, but also Portuguese culture and literature,” “the connection between Portuguese and Argentine culture is extremely important.”

For the person in charge, this is visible not only in the literature, but also in the activities organized as part of the event, such as the exhibition of Saramago, the documentary by Manuel Mozos about Sofia Mello Breiner or the garden whose opening I saw with the name and plaque of Fernando Pessoa.

“I fight hard to ensure that the Portuguese language is always represented. In Ibero-American cities this year, at my request and we succeeded, the official language is Portuguese and therefore we have a very strong connection with the spread of our language, which is always difficult in the Spanish world,” he said.

Regarding the possibility of creating the concept of a guest city presence at the Lisbon Book Fair in the future, Carlos Moedas did not highlight this hypothesis, believing that the country could gain a lot from this exchange of ideas about the presence of guest countries or cities. in Lisbon.

Likewise, he argued that the Lisbon fair would benefit if it began to offer the kind of combination of art, literature and music that existed at the Buenos Aires fair, rather than focusing solely on the venue.

“What we have added value to this book fair is that the activities we do are not just within the fair and it brings the fair into the city, so I think there will be a lot of exchange, a lot of things that can be done. contacts between the Lisbon Book Fair and this fair in Buenos Aires,” he added.

Regarding the results that he hopes Lisbon’s participation in this fair will bring, the mayor replied: “it would be important that “this relationship with Buenos Aires and this relationship between our authors continues in the future, because many of our authors will not have the opportunity to be translated, and day by day many of these young people who come here will begin to be translated into Spanish, in Argentina.”

Stressing that this is a “great opportunity” for both Portuguese and Argentine authors, Carlos Moedas emphasized that he also works “for Argentines and those who want to live in Lisbon.”

“Yesterday we had a meeting with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in which we saw what we can do” in this regard, he said, adding that the municipality wants to “try to help” Argentine authors to translate into Portuguese and get to Lisbon.

Regarding the relationship between the two languages ​​and the fact that there are many Portuguese speakers in Argentina, the mayor stressed that this is the result of the relationship that exists between Argentina and Brazil.

Between the two countries there is a “relationship of linguistic balance different from that between Portugal and Spain. It’s a pity that we don’t see it between Portugal and Spain, so we will have to work more in this direction,” he noted.

Recalling the economic difficulties that Argentina is experiencing, Carlos Moedas noted the fact that the books sold at the Lisbon stand are cheaper than in other pavilions, citing as an example Fernando Pessoa’s The Book of Worries, which has a price difference of ten euros , which highlights that the municipality has made “tremendous efforts to make this happen.”

As for the fate of the books not sold at the fair, the Lisbon City Council confirmed that they will be donated to Argentine libraries.