¡Bienvenidos al Bulletin of Advanced (y más popular que nunca…) Spanish!

2025 marks 60 years since the Beatles performed in Spain… and now sees Spanish topping the charts for the first time as the language most studied in UK schools. In this Autumn 2025 edition we review the latest trends for Spanish (and MFL) at GCSE and A level.

In customary fashion, the new (northern-hemisphere) academic year gets underway with the results of our 2025 Sixth Form Essay Competition, sponsored by the University of Glasgow.  

This was a bonanza year for Competition entries: more submissions than ever before, and a marked rise in the overall standard.  Olé to participating teachers and students.  Click here for the judges’ verdict, and then delve into the winning entry to discover why Coca Cola goes down so well in Chiapas.

The Spanish authorities have spent the summer grappling with two unenviable dilemmas. One is the ‘mega incendios’* [* = in Spanish] generated by this summer’s unprecedentedly high temperatures. Read the grim but gripping story of what must be done if Spain is to survive these monster wildfires. 

The other dilemma is el sobreturismo (overtourism)*, as assessed in another ‘highly commended’ entry in the Essay Competition: can any approach satisfy all parties?

A poignant landmark during 2025 has been Joaquín Sabina’s Hola y Adiós tour*. From our seat in the stands in A Coruña we try to define what has made this brilliant, humorous and risqué figure so important to his devotees across the Spanish-speaking world.   

Fifty years on from Franco’s death, William Chislett – BAS Editor and former Madrid correspondent for The Times – tells the story of his arrest by Franco’s secret police* while covering the dictatorship’s last executions.  This year he has written the Elcano Royal Institute’s review of ‘Spain’s Profound Transformation’ – a treasury of data about how the country has changed since 1975.  In this edition he provides Bulletin readers with a concise introduction and a link to download the full report.  

While taking stock of the past 50 years, we look at that core ingredient, Spain’s post-Franco constitutional system, and compare it with the workings of another parliamentary monarchy – the United Kingdom.

Away from the peninsula, we delve into Spanish cultural diplomacy in conversation with Javier Galván*, the former architect who has gone on to direct the Instituto Cervantes offices in Manila, Orán, Rabat and (currently) Stockholm.  He shares his experience of promoting la cultura en español in such diverse locations [*in Spanish, with English translation].

Sr Galván names Borges as his favourite author, and Borges’ haunting re-telling of the Minotaur myth La casa de Asterión* is the subject of another ‘highly commended’ Essay Competition entry. (Borges’ text runs to barely two pages – we have provided links to both English and Spanish versions of the story to accompany the analysis.)

This autumn also marks the publication of BAS editor Nathanial Gardner’s Companion to Latin American photography. In this edition he explains the power of photography to transport us through time and space like no other medium.

The Bulletin of Advanced Spanish is a free resource, read on every continent, written by and for enthusiasts at all stages of their exploration of the language and culture of the Spanish-speaking world. Please see the Guidelines tab if you would like to write for us.  Articles for our Spring edition should please reach us by 25 January 2026.

Saludos anticipados de fin de año,

The BAS editorial team