Who wants to study Spanish in Philadelphia?

The Hispanic immigrant community has played a fundamental role in the growth of the city in the last decade. In the streets it is more and more common to hear conversations held in Spanish. However, it seems that this important trend is not reflected in universities. Why? A general crisis in the study of the humanities would be the answer. AL DÍA News spoke with professors from three of the most prominent universities in the city.
                                 

The Hispanic population of the United States remains one of the most important communities in the country’s economy, culture and politics. That weight -of about 57 million people- exerts an important influence in several aspects of the national daily life. For example the use of Spanish as an official second language in many American cities accounts for its political recognition.

Focus on "heritage speakers"
In the United States, Spanish can be learned as a secondary language for two or three years in high school. However, the level acquired is not enough to communicate fluently, not even for the so-called "heritage speakers": Latinos of second or third generation, who speak Spanish at home, but who in many cases don’t know how to read or write, or do so with difficulty.

U.S. Universities: a tradition for Hispanic Studies
Nagy-Zekmi arrived in the United States in 1981 after completing his doctorate in Latin American literature at the University of Budapest. "The United States offered better options to continue with a  post-doc," says the Hungarian expert, who after working a long season at SUNY University in Albany, New York, joined Villanova in 2003. In recent years, Nagy -Zekmi explains that her department has noticed a smaller presence of Latin American students. Instead, the presence of Spanish students has grown, those who come to the United States attracted by the possibility of taking a doctorate and collecting a salary at the same time, something increasingly complicated in Europe. This is the case of Mercedes Cebrián (link is external), a writer and journalist from Madrid, who came to Philadelphia to finish her doctorate in Hispanic Studies at Penn University between 2013 and 2015.