Spanish Language Greatest Event in Colombia
Cartagena de Indias. Colombia kicks off on Monday the World Spanish Language Congress, in which over 1,200 experts will analyze its current situation and direction.

Under the slogan "Present and Future of Spanish Language, Unity in Diversity," experts and researchers are expected to discuss until Thursday challenges of a language that is rapidly expanding which people say will compare to English by 2050.

King Juan Carlos I of Spain and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe will open the congress, alongside Nobel prizewinner in Literature Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Mexican Carlos Fuentes, Spaniards Antonio Munoz Molina and Spanish Language Royal Academy director Victor Garcia de la Concha, Argentinean Eloy Martinez and former President Belisario Betancurt will be at the podium along with Marquez.

Also present will be former US President Bill Clinton, who declared Marquez his literary hero during a recent interview in the Colombian magazine "Cambio," in which he said he admires him as an author of the best novel, "One Hundred Years of Solitude."

Academics will debate in 20 simultaneous panels language and community, literature and integration, the use of Spanish language in international organizations and other issues.