๐ฆ๐ข๐ก๐ ๐๐ก ๐ฆ๐ฃ๐๐ก๐๐ฆ๐, ๐ก๐ข๐ง ๐ฆ๐ฃ๐๐ก๐๐ฆ๐ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ก๐
Today starts the Hispanic Heritage Month, and we join the celebrations to explore the Hispanic culture.
The first question that comes to our minds is what it means to be Hispanic? To be Hispanic means to belong to a community of people bonded by a shared history and language.
But in reality, it is a complicated question to answer because although the language is a crucial element in that definition is not even necessary to speak it to be considered Hispanic.
There are probably millions of people in the US that are descendants of people coming from the Hispanic world who don't speak Spanish. ๐๐ฒ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ถ๐๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป๐ถ๐ฐ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐บ๐๐ป๐ถ๐๐ ๐ถ๐ ๐บ๐๐ฐ๐ต ๐บ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ป ๐๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ธ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฎ ๐น๐ฎ๐ป๐ด๐๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ, ๐ถ๐ ๐ถ๐บ๐ฝ๐น๐ถ๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ต๐ถ๐๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐, ๐๐ฎ๐น๐๐ฒ๐ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ฐ๐๐น๐๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐น ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ถ๐๐.
It is a complex definition because the Hispanic world is vast in terms of geography and culture. Just think in Spain and its former colonies; In comparison with its former colonies, Spain occupies a tiny part of what we call today the Spanish world.
The Spanish language nowadays is spoken by almost 600 million people around the globe. Most of the Spanish speakers live in Latin America, but many live in the US. The US has 56M Spanish speakers, a big number.
Talking about the art song repertoire in Spanish: It is immense, enormous, huge!. It makes sense it is so big because, as I mentioned before, the Spanish language is spoken in a very big geographic area. Personally, when I refer to the song repertoire in Spanish, I refer to Song in Spanish, never to Spanish Song. This is a critical distinction, one that acknowledges the fact that the repertoire is produced in a large and diverse cultural and geographical area.
๐ง๐ผ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ณ๐ฒ๐ฟ ๐๐ผ ๐ฎ๐น๐น ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ผ๐ถ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ฆ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป๐ถ๐๐ต ๐ฎ๐ ๐ฆ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป๐ถ๐๐ต ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ด ๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐น๐ผ๐ป๐ถ๐ฎ๐น๐ถ๐๐๐ถ๐ฐ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐ป๐ผ๐๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐. So, from now on start saying Song in Spanish. If I'm singing a song in Spanish by a Peruvian composer, I say Peruvian art song, or Colombian art song, Argentinian art song. If you ever sing a song by a Spanish composer, it will be correct to say Spanish art song.
In our next video, we will start talking about specific songs, composers and poets. Remember, if you have suggestions, thoughts or questions, ๐ณ๐ฒ๐ฒ๐น ๐ณ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ฒ ๐๐ผ ๐ท๐ผ๐ถ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ป๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป.
