Academia Argentina de Letras

It currently includes two dozen full members, chosen for having distinguished themselves in academic study related to language or literature. They make up the directing body of the academy, and they select honorary and correspondent academic members.

History

Antecedents

The earliest lexicographical projects in the Río de la Plata area included a limited but rigorous work titled Léxico rioplatense, compiled in 1845 by Francisco Javier Muñiz, and another lexicon put together in 1860 by Juan María Gutiérrez for the French naturalist and geographer Martin de Moussy.

On July 9, 1873, a group of Argentine intellectuals, mostly porteños (residents of the Buenos Aires area), founded the Argentine Academy of Sciences and Letters. Led by the poet Martín Coronado, this academy did not solely focus on the study of the Spanish language; it was dedicated to the various branches of knowledge, from law and science to visual art, literature, and history, as they pertained to Argentina's national culture. The academy did attempt to compile a Dictionary of the Argentine Language, for which the group's members compiled thousands of words and phrases.

However, with the dissolution of the academy in 1879 the project was left unfinished. This work, which included studies completed by experts concerning professional argots and research on localisms in Argentina's interior, was almost completely lost. Only a dozen of the vocabulary words were preserved, having been published in the academy's periodical, El Plata Literario. The same periodical announced in 1876 a Collection of American Voices, the work of Carlos Manuel de Trelles, which included contributions from some 300 people. But this uncompleted work of compiling an Argentine dictionary did at least demonstrate the need for an entity dedicated to studying the local language. When in the 1880s the Royal Spanish Academy began inviting various Argentine intellectuals—including Ángel Justiniano Carranza, Luis Domínguez, Vicente Fidel López, Bartolomé Mitre, Pastor Obligado, Carlos María Ocantos, Ernesto Quesada, Vicente Quesada, and Carlos Guido Spano—to assist in creating a correspondent language academy in Argentina, others—such as Juan Bautista Alberdi, Juan María Gutiérrez, and Juan Antonio Argerich—doubted the utility of joining the Spanish project, suspecting it was intended to restore peninsular culture to the country, to the detriment of Argentine culture. Argerich argued that such an academy would constitute "a branch that is a vassal of Spanish imperialism," and he counterproposed the creation of "an Argentine Academy of the Spanish Language" that would create its own dictionary. Obligado, on the other hand, argued publicly in favor of establishing an academy linked to the Royal Spanish Academy.

In 1903, Estanislao Zeballos, in his contribution to Ricardo Monner Sans' Notas al castellano en la Argentina, unsuccessfully proposed that the Argentine correspondent members of the Royal Spanish Academy at the time—Bartolomé Mitre, Vicente Fidel López, Vicente G. Quesada, Carlos Guido Spano, Rafael Obligado, Calixto Oyuela, Ernesto Quesada, and himself—form an Argentine section of the academy. It was not until seven years later, through the efforts of the marquess of Gerona, Eugenio Sellés, who came to Argentina as part of the entourage escorting the Infanta Isabella to the festivities commemorating the country's centenary, that those same men founded the first Academia Argentina de la Lengua. Of the 18 academics who were founding members, Vicente Quesada and Calixto Oyuela were chosen as president and secretary for life, respectively.

Obligado came up with a plan of action that included not only the work of editing and expanding the local lexicon contained in the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy but also working with the other Latin American academies to coordinate a register of local phrases, with the aim of creating a separate Latin American dictionary. With this he sought to avoid issues of nationalistic zeal and purism from the Spaniards, which had already caused friction with other correspondent academies. The Diccionario de americanismos would be available for the Royal Spanish Academy to use, but it would primarily constitute a separate undertaking.

The group was expanded at Zeballos' insistence, with the addition of several new members of the academy: Samuel Lafone Quevedo, Osvaldo Magnasco, José Matienzo, José María Ramos Mejía, and Enrique Rivarola. However, a lack of political support and mutual friction with the Spanish academy led to the rapid dissolution of the body, which was never able to publish its research.

Founding

On August 13, 1931, the de facto president José Félix Uriburu decreed the creation of the Academia Argentina de Letras. The name change (from "la Lengua," meaning "the Language," to "Letras," meaning "Letters" or "Literature") acknowledged an additional emphasis on the distribution and promotion of Argentine literature in addition to the academy's interest in the Spanish language in the country. With this dual mission, the academy sought to define and strengthen the "spiritual physiognomy of the country," using narrative, lyrical, and above all theatrical work to develop a cultural model. Oyuela was installed as president of the body, whose other members were Enrique Banchs, Joaquín Castellanos, Atilio Chiappori, Juan Carlos Dávalos, Leopoldo Díaz, Juan Pablo Echagüe, Alfredo Ferrerira, Gustavo Franceschi, Manuel Gálvez, Leopoldo Herrera, Carlos Ibarguren, Arturo Marasso, Gustavo Martínez Zuviría, Clemente Ricci, and Juan Bautista Terán. The academy was given the role of "associate" of the Royal Spanish Academy. It had all the support that its previous incarnation had lacked; a room in the old National Library on México Street was reserved for the group's weekly meeting while then-senator Matías Sánchez Sorondo worked to acquire the Palacio Errázuriz to house the academy, as well as the National Academy of Fine Arts, the National Museum of Decorative Arts, and the National Cultural Commission. The acquisition was approved in January 1937, although the transfer of the building to the academy was not effective until 1944.

Development

There have been only a few institutional changes since the academy's creation by Uriburu: Since 1935, each of the academy's 24 seats bears the name of a classic Argentine writer. Since 1940, the emblem of the academy, designed by the artist Alfredo Guido, has been an ionic column alongside the motto "Recta sustenta." After the military coup of 1955, the self-proclaimed Revolución Libertadora regime led by Pedro Eugenio Aramburu initiated a policy of persecution of journalists, athletes, politicians, and intellectuals with ties to Peronism or other political movements, and among those who were targeted were members of the Academia Argentina de Letras.

In 1999, the academy was finally given the status of correspondent to the Royal Spanish Academy. In 2001 it celebrated its 70th anniversary with an exhibition at the National Library, which displayed documents and objects from its history.