“Mapa del Español en Suiza” – on the Presence of Spanish in Switzerland

Spanish has become an indispensable part of Switzerland’s linguistic and cultural panorama. We see this represented on public transport, on the radio, at the Caliente-Festival (the biggest annual Latin music festival in Europe), in middle schools, and in language academies all over the country. Illustrating this ubiquity is the main goal of the “Mapa del Español en Suiza”.

This website employs different visualization methods to present different groups of information. Geographical data are presented as simple or semi-interactional maps, offering information along the spatial and the temporal axes.

As regards the educational level, we gathered the numbers of enrolled Spanish students at universities, at university language centers, in language schools, and in secondary schools. For the university enrollments, we could count on the kind cooperation of the Federal Statistical Office, which provided us with the number of matriculations not only for the year 2018 but also for the previous years up to 1988. This information is visualized by this map, below which an adjustable timeline allows us to observe the increase and decrease of Spanish students at universities in the course of three decades. Identical in structure and functionality, the map of university language centers presents the locations and the number of inscriptions in Spanish courses between 2009 and 2018.

As far as language schools are concerned, we have so far identified the more prominent institutions since our research merely included those visible on the internet (i.e. those with the most reviews). We will improve on this area of data collection shortly.

A summarizing map (“Educación”) shows the locations of educational institutions with Spanish courses all over Switzerland. The data concerning DELE (Diplomas de Español como Lengua Extranjera) and ALCE (Agrupación de Lengua y Cultura Españolas) are provided by the Instituto Cervantes in Lyon, and by the Department for Education and Skills at the Spanish Embassy in Bern, respectively.

The online maps further include data relating to Hispanic cultural spaces and associations (“Espacios culturales y sociales”). This information was difficult to gather since many of these institutions do not utilise online spaces to advertise and promote their activities and locations.

Furthermore, for each Swiss municipality, the “Mapa des Español en Suiza” features the percentage of Spanish native speakers and their origin.
It is shown on a semi-interactive map (“Población por nacionalidad”), on which different countries of origin can be selected. A timeline at the bottom adds diachronic information to the geographical data. These numbers and migration-related data were also kindly provided by the Federal Statistical Office.

Overview of the maps: https://www.mapaespanolsuiza.org/mapas

Finally, the graphs on the website illustrate other general aspects on the importance of Spanish in relation to the most spoken languages in Switzerland. Some of the graphs are devised to be consulted semi-interactively. For instance, the chart on immigrational movements (Inmigración por nacionalidad) lets you select one or more countries to display a diachronic representation of migration from Spanish-speaking countries.

Overview of the Graphs: https://www.mapaespanolsuiza.org/graficos

The information available on “Mapa del Español en Suiza” is constantly being updated and we are grateful for any feedback and information.

Prof. Dr. Johannes Kabatek initiated this project in collaboration with the Spanish Embassy in Bern. We also wish to credit the following institutions for their financial support: the Instituto Cervantes in Lyon, the Spanish Embassy in Bern, the Latin American Center, and the URPP Language and Space at the University of Zurich.