2019 Spanish Word of the Year
From Europe (Theresa May; Giuseppe Conte) to Asia (Carrie Lam; Nursultan Nazarbayev) to Africa (Abdelaziz Bouteflika) to the Americas, calls for politicians to renunciar(resign) were heard around the world this year. And whether or not the politicians in question listened to the voices of the people, 2019 was without a doubt a year in which protestors used means new and old to bring their concerns to the world's attention. In recognition of their efforts, our 2019 Word of the Year is renunciar.
At SpanishDictionary.com, the word's largest Spanish-English dictionary, we sit at the crossroads of the English- and Spanish-speaking worlds. As such, we've chosen to focus our 2019 Spanish Word of the Year on Latin America, which had a particularly volatile political year, with government protests and calls for resignation sounding from Argentina all the way to Mexico.
In Venezuela, for example, Nicolás Maduro claimed victory after a controversial 2018 election, refusing to give in to the scores of Venezuelan lawmakers and citizens demanding Maduro renunciar and hand over the presidency to the opposition's Juan Guaidó. A year later, the fight for the Venezuelan presidency is ongoing.
In the summer of 2019, after hundreds of controversial text messages between Puerto Rican governor Ricardo Rosselló and his staff were leaked, millions of Puerto Ricans and other Americans took to the streets and the tweets. The hashtag #RickyRenuncia (#RickyResign) was quickly adopted as the motto for a movement to oust the polarizing governor. This time the calls for resignation worked; Ricky renunció (resigned) in August 2019.
Renunciar resurfaced in Latin America in the fall, this time in Bolivia, Mexico, and Colombia. After a controversial October election, incumbent Evo Morales was once again declared president. However, many Bolivians questioned the legitimacy of the results, and after 19 days of protests, Morales resigned. In Mexico, drug kingpin "El Chapo" Guzmán's son was captured in the northern city of Culiacán. He was released almost immediately afterward when cartel gunmen effectively brought the city to a standstill, prompting many Mexicans to question the leadership of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and call for his resignation. Finally, the Colombian cities of Cali and Bogotá have been engaged in protests since November due to public anger in the face of mounting corruption, violence, and economic inequality, with many Colombians demanding the resignation of President Iván Duque Márquez.
For the last twelve months divisive politics have touched every corner of the globe, leaving many of us feeling resigned to the reality of our polarizing political landscape. However, we believe that it is this shared division that may actually bring us all together, no matter our politics, languages, and geography. And on the bright side, we can all jump into 2020, renunciando (renouncing) 2019 and stepping into a new decade with renewed hope.
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