Puerto Rican Academy of the Spanish Language offers public programs and special events celebrating the transformation of Spanish across Puerto Rico and its global Diaspora.
Puerto Rican Academy of the Spanish Language: Programs & Special Events
Language is a vast human constellation, constantly shifting and transforming. Since 1955, the Puerto Rican Academy of the Spanish Language (Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española or ACAPLE) has been the primary institution chronicling the metamorphosis of the Spanish language across the Puerto Rican archipelago and its global diaspora.
Headquartered at the historic Cuartel de Ballajá in Old San Juan, ACAPLE bridges linguistics research with modern expression.
Led by Director José Luis Vega, the Academy presents prominent scholars such as Luce López-Baralt, Mercedes López-Baralt, Eduardo Forastieri Braschi, and Carmen Dolores Hernández—alongside essential Puerto Rican writers such as Wico Sánchez and Giannina Braschi. Together, their special events and free public programs highlight the living forces shaping Spanish today.
ACAPLE Event Spotlight: “Giannina Braschi y las Voces de la Calle”
As part of Puerto Rico’s Fiesta de la Lengua, the Academy marked Spanish Language Day on April 23, 2024, with a special program honoring Miguel de Cervantes titled “Giannina Braschi y las voces de la calle” (Giannina Braschi and the Voices of the Street).
Welcome: Academy Director José Luis Vega
Contextualizing a Legacy: Academy Member and Board Secretary María Inés Castro introduced Nuria Morgado, Director of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language (ANLE), who framed the scope and influence of Braschi’s life work.
In-Depth Dialogue: Literary critic and Academy member Carmen Dolores Hernández led a conversation with Giannina Braschi, delving into her creative process, sources of inspiration, and cross-genre writings.
Decolonizing Spanish across Literary Genres
The conversation spanned Giannina Braschi’s body of work, which speaks to millions of Hispanics navigating life across the United States.
Exploring themes of mass immigration, mass incarceration, decolonization, love, creativity, and sovereignty, Braschi’s texts move seamlessly between Spanish, English, and Spanglish. Her writings—ranging from scholarship on Cervantes, Lorca, and Machado to her own works of poetry, fiction, theater, and political philosophy—have inspired a myriad of adaptations in theater, comic arts, chamber music, and industrial design. Her celebrated titles include Empire of Dreams, Yo-Yo Boing!, United States of Banana, and PUTINOIKA.
“Giannina Braschi’s works question—with masterful precision and without ideological clichés—the boundaries between genres and languages, articulating a polyphonic, philosophical, and poetic vision of the tragicomedy of postmodern globalism.”
José Luis Vega, Puerto Rican Academy of the Spanish Language
From Living Language to Puerto Rican Literature
The language celebrated and studied by ACAPLE also comes alive in Puerto Rico’s literary tradition. Across nearly two centuries, novelists from the archipelago and its diaspora have used Spanish, English, and Spanglish to explore identity, history, migration, colonialism, and cultural transformation.
Discover 23 essential works—from nineteenth-century classics to contemporary fiction—and the writers, movements, and anthologies that have shaped the Puerto Rican novel. Explore the guide to Puerto Rican novels here.
Publications: Pioneering Lexicography & The Digital Tesoro
Beyond public programming, ACAPLE’s central scholarly contribution is the Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, compiled by linguists María Vaquero and Amparo Morales. Recognized as the first comprehensive lexicographical treasury in Hispanic America, this monument of linguistic research consolidated over two centuries of Puerto Rican vocabulary, idioms, and regional variations into a single landmark reference work. The Academy subsequently modernized the initiative by launching Tesoro.pr, an open-access, searchable digital database containing tens of thousands of Puerto Rican terms. This “dictionary of dictionaries” serves as a vital tool for international researchers, literary scholars, and educators studying the historical evolution of island and diaspora Spanish.
Institutional Corpus & Pan-Hispanic Collaboration
ACAPLE also plays an essential institutional role within the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language (ASALE), actively contributing to pan-Hispanic works such as the Diccionario de americanismos and the Nueva gramática de la lengua española. The Academy’s own publication record includes critical editions of foundational literary texts—such as Manuel A. Alonso’s 1849 classic El gíbaro—alongside specialized research volumes on anglicisms, regional syntax, and industrial lexicons. Through these publications and corpus projects, ACAPLE continuously documents how the language adapts under unique geopolitical conditions while maintaining its deep cultural ties to the broader Spanish-speaking world.
Location & Contact Information
- Headquarters: Antiguo Cuartel Ballajá, 3er Piso, Viejo San Juan, Puerto Rico 00901
- Mailing Address: Apartado postal 36-4008, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936-4008
- Official Website: academiapr.org
Learn More & Related Resources
- Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española (ACAPLE)
- Real Academia Española (RAE)
- Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española (ANLE)
- Giannina Braschi at ACAPLE
- ASALE: Giannina Braschi Receives the Enrique Anderson Imbert Prize
Editorial Note: Curated by the Site Editors as a preliminary point of departure, this post was prepared independently and does not constitute writing by Giannina Braschi. Reviewed and updated 2026.