Pérez-Reverte criticises Spanish Royal Academy for yielding to social media

Arturo Pérez‑Reverte, a member of the Spanish Royal Academy (RAE) and one of Spain’s best‑known novelists, used a column in Monday’s El Mundo to accuse the academy of ignoring writers’ opinions and of yielding to social media, commentators and influencers he called the “anything goes Taliban”.

Pérez‑Reverte said the RAE is failing to live up to its motto of “cleaning, fixing and giving shine” to the Spanish language. He wrote that “an illiterate pundit, YouTuber or influencer can have more linguistic influence than a Cervantes prize winner” and that the voices of professional writers who are academy members “scarcely count in the RAE today”.

Key Topics

Culture, Arturo Pérez-reverte, Spanish Royal Academy, Spanish Language, Social Media, Cervantes Prize