Abstract
The article explores Pedro Henríquez Ureña's concept of the language situation in Hispanic America. Although many different cultures with diverse language heritages coexist in this region, Spanish should not be seen as an instrument of European colonisation and of the destruction of the original culture.
On the contrary, the specific elements of each community are reflected in the local Spanish variants. The use of Spanish language does not force Hispanic American nations to lose their unique identity, but it gives them the power of being understood by a significant part of the world and profit from the legacy of the family of Romance languages.