la RAE para lectores curiosos: Historias, secretos y curiosidades de Real Academia quienes cuidan ordenan nuestra lengua

It's not always easy to answer a child's questions, and how would we go about explaining what the RAE is, its purpose, and how it has functioned over its more than three hundred years? How could we make them understand that "Limpia, fija y da esplendor" does not refer to a cleaning product but to the motto chosen from eleven proposals to ensure the Spanish language did not lose its luster? This is the challenge the author set for herself, and the result is a brief and entertaining essay for young people and adults alike, brimming with irony and humor. A text peppered with anecdotes, titles, and characters revolving around an institution that holds more than ten million entries in its archives and safeguards the mother tongue of over five hundred million speakers worldwide. A book featuring a parade of illustrious names, from the Archpriest of Hita to Ramón Menéndez Pidal, from Antonio de Nebrija to María Moliner, from Lope de Vega to Blanca de los Ríos, from El Cid Campeador (or rather, a fragment of his skull) to Emilia Pardo Bazán, from Cervantes to Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda. Dictionaries, grammars, printing presses, spelling, incunabula, manuscripts, and San Millán de la Cogolla come to life around this institution, which is a veritable treasure trove of surprises.