Rafael Rodríguez-Ponga y Salamanca | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General Secretary ofInstituto Cervantes | |
| In office 14 April 2012 – 24 September 2018 | |
| Preceded by | Carmen Pérez-Fragero |
| Succeeded by | Carmen Noguero Galilea |
| Member of theCongress of Deputies | |
| In office 9 June 2011 – 16 April 2012 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1960-02-09)February 9, 1960 (age 66) Madrid, Spain |
| Party | PP |
| Spouse | (widower) |
| Children | Four |
| Alma mater | Universidad Complutense de Madrid |
Rafael Rodríguez-Ponga y Salamanca (shortlyRafael R-Ponga, born 1960, in Madrid) is a Spanish linguist[1] and high-ranking civil servant, with a wide administrative, academic and political activity. He is rector ofAbat Oliba CEU University of Barcelona. He has been Secretary-General ofInstituto Cervantes.
Dr. Ponga graduated in Hispaniclinguistics atComplutense University of Madrid. Years later, he obtained adoctorate (Ph.D.) inlinguistics at the same university.
In 1984, he passed a process of public examination to become afuncionario.[2] He first serviced at the Office of the Spokesperson of the Government (inside thePalace of Moncloa).
In 1987 he was appointed Counselor of Information and Press at the Spanish Embassy inMexico. Back in Madrid in 1990, he serviced at the Ministry of the Spokesman of the Government and. He is appointed Sud-Director of Relations and Cooperation of the aforementioned Ministry in 1993, which is later transferred to the Ministry of the Presidency (Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba being the Minister).
Right after the electoral win by thePP in 1996, he is appointed Director-General of Cultural Cooperation and Communication byEsperanza Aguirre, the thenMinister of Education and Culture. He kept his post in 1999 whenMariano Rajoy became the new Minister.
He is transferred to theMinistry of Foreign Affairs in 2000 as Director-General of Cultural and Scientific Relations. A year later, he is appointed Secretary General of theSpanish Agency for International Cooperation by the then Minister,Josep Piqué. He will keep this post withAna Palacio.[3]
Because of the electoral change in May 2004 (general elections were won by theSpanish Socialist Workers' Party), he leaves the Public Service and starts to work at the central office of theSpanish People's Party and becomes a member of its National Executive Committee.[4] He reorganized PP structure overseas, overviewed policies on immigration and social affairs and gets elected MP in the 2008 general elections (taking office in 2011 as MP for Madrid province).[5] He was elected again as Member of Parliament in November 20, 2011 (for Caceres province), but he resigned.
He has been the National Secretary of Social Participation of theSpanish People's Party.
Since 2008 to 2012, he has also been member of the Council of Administration ofTelemadrid.[6]
In addition to his professional and political career, he has developed an intellectual activity involving Spanish language and culture, specially about Asia and the Pacific.
In 2012 he was appointed Secretary General ofInstituto Cervantes. He stayed in office until 2018.
He was elected vicepresident and then president of theEuropean Union National Instituts for CultureEUNIC.
In february 2019 he has been appointed rector ofUniversitat Abat Oliba CEU, of Barcelona.
In 1985 he received a research grant from theFoundationJuan March, which allowed him to travel to thePhilippines, theMariana Islands andJapan. Thanks to this research, he wrote histhesis (dissertation) on the relation between the Spanish and the Chamorro languages,[7] which granted him aDoctorate (summa cum laude) inPhilology at the Complutense University.
He has written several works and the book aboutchamorro language and contact languages in the Pacific,Del español al chamorro, lenguas en contacto en el Pacífico, Madrid 2009.[8]In 2009, an international group of scholars interested in theChamorro language founded CHiN, the Chamorro Linguistics International Network, of which he is the President.[9]
His bookPoesía para vencer a la muerte ('Poetry to overcome death') (Madrid, Pigmalión, 2023)[10] is an essay and a selection of poems by more than one hundred poets from several countries, languages and religions.
In 2007 he is appointed President of theFundación Humanismo y Democracia (H+D) (Foundation Humanism and Democracy).[11] He is also President of the International Platform for Cooperation and Migration (IPCM), which was created in association with other European organizations.[12]
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