Guterres highlights Ibero-America as a “cultural superpower”: “It is the force that sustains this community”

The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, highlighted Ibero-America this Thursday as a “cultural superpower”, stating that the basis of language “is the force” that sustains the Ibero-American community.

In his speech before the plenary session of the XXX Ibero-American Summit being held in Madrid, the Portuguese politician referred to culture as “the force that sustains this community.” “It lives in our languages, stories, traditions and beliefs. It gives us roots and belonging,” he assured, emphasizing that it is also “a fundamental right and the fabric of the human family.”

“Ibero-America is not a military or economic superpower but it is a cultural superpower,” Guterres stated in a speech in which he vindicated the indigenous, African and European heritage of Ibero-American culture “between encounters and wounds.”

“This diversity enriches each nation: Loving what is one’s own does not require fearing what is foreign,” he assured, to emphasize that culture is “inseparable from the dignity of each person.”

In the face of attacks on this right, Guterres has stressed that Ibero-America “defends culture as a global public good”, basing its commitment on “taking care of squares, theaters, libraries” and “the freedom of artists.”

In this way, he has referred to the commitment to an Artificial Intelligence that speaks with all voices “without a few companies deciding” what is seen, read or heard. “The more capable the machines are, the more we will need what makes us human,” he added.

“Culture teaches us to doubt, qualify, question, and put ourselves in the place of others,” Guterres summarized in a speech in which he said goodbye to this summit, remembering that he will end his mandate at the head of the United Nations at the end of the year.