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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. The year 1492 is, of course, remembered for Christopher Columbus’ first Atlantic voyage under the Spanish flag. That same year also marked a meeting between Spain’s Queen Isabella I and Antonio de Nebrija, bishop of Ávila. That’s intriguing because the bishop presented the queen a copy of his book “Gramática de la lengua castellana,” the first grammar book of Spanish or in any European tongue. Isabella purportedly asked why she needed the book since she spoke the language. De Nebrija allegedly replied, “Your majesty, language is the perfect instrument of empire.”
Their encounter, part of the folklore of the Spanish language, is presented in the introduction of the newly published book “Lenguaje: A Cultural History of the Spanish Language of New Mexico” by Albuquerque author Richard J. Griego.