Salamanca Capital ... What?

Sometimes it seems that the charro capital, as some pimply adolescent, still is looking for its place in the world. It turns out that it is too big girl Salamanca to get lost in these hesitations: rural or urban, are we?, ¿Bet by tradition or modernity?, Do we take refuge in the University or looking to expand our horizons?

Thus, in this existential doubt, spent the day without further define the course.

In contrast, other European cities of similar size to yours or even lower, as the German Darmstadt, which are clear and could serve as an example.

Next to the mighty Frankfurt, the country's financial capital, Darmstadt, without losing the character of his time Jugendstil Nouveau, houses equipadísima today a technical university and is home to both Meteosat and the European Space Agency, a place where a dozen professional countries, in a multilingual environment and high technology.

Might not something similar in Salamanca, a town near Madrid, with a comfortable and beautiful urban environment, a prestigious university, foreign students and a fledgling science park in Villamayor?

Of course, ours, for obvious reasons, it is to install metal industries or to attract tourists from sun and sand. In contrast, the interaction of research, teaching and dissemination of the Spanish language is not only possible, but it is entirely desirable.

The latest move in this direction for the future has been the recent visit of the Minister Garmendia the National Center for Laser, with renewed resources to devote to such R & D + i this country so badly needs if it wants to stay on the shelf.

But science and culture, in our case, must go hand in hand with a greater presence of foreign students to achieve and be the capital of culture and the Spanish language.

On the one hand, we must continue to attract outsiders, in line with what already happens with the Centro Hispano-Japanese, and should be extended to the Confucius Institute in China, as we are diligently doing other Spanish cities.

Also, avoid dispersion of efforts and absurd competitions like Valladolid, a city with many possibilities and many merits, but not being the capital of the Spanish language.

In this age of specialization and scarcity of resources, we must choose. And Salamanca must be the capital of knowledge. Everything else is wasting time and mortgaging our future.