Democracy and today

La democracia y el presente

1975–. After Franco's death in 1975 Spain became a democracy, and in the 1980s and 1990s most of Latin America returned to elected governments after years of military…

What happened

After Franco's death in 1975 Spain became a democracy, and in the 1980s and 1990s most of Latin America returned to elected governments after years of military rule. Spanish is now one of the most spoken languages in the world, and the language academies of the Spanish-speaking countries publish a shared grammar and spelling. Migration, the internet and the large Spanish-speaking population of the United States keep changing how it is spoken.

Within it

• Democracy and Europe (20 November 1975–)

Its events

1. October 1982: García Márquez wins the Nobel: the Boom
2. 2009–2011: One grammar and one spelling for 22 countries
3. 28 October 2025: Spanish today: almost 635 million speakers