Francesc Felipe, member of Econcult, and Àlvar Peris, professor of Audiovisual Communication and director of the Master’s Degree in Audiovisual Content and Formats, analyse the international circulation of Spanish-language audiovisual production and the cultural presence of Spanish in the United States

Francesc Felipe-Campillo and Àlvar Peris-Blanes have presented the paper “Circulación algorítmica y diversidad lingüística. El audiovisual en español en plataformas de streaming y la presencia cultural del español en Estados Unidos” as part of the 11th Symposium of the Instituto Cervantes Observatory at Harvard University. The event, organised by the Instituto Cervantes Observatory at Harvard in collaboration with UNAM-Boston, is held on 4 and 5 June 2026 in hybrid format.

The symposium is part of the Observatory’s annual programme and brings together specialists from different disciplines to address issues related to the Spanish language and Hispanic cultures in the United States. This edition includes fifteen-minute presentations, debate sessions and keynote lectures, with speakers from fields such as literature, history, the environment, translation, education, music, law, journalism and politics.

The full programme of the 11th Symposium can be consulted through this programme link, and the abstracts and biographies document is available through this abstracts and bios link.

The paper by Francesc Felipe-Campillo and Àlvar Peris-Blanes addresses the transformations introduced by digital streaming platforms in the international circulation of Spanish-language audiovisual production and in the cultural presence of Spanish in the United States. The study starts from the persistence of the industrial and linguistic hegemony of English, but argues that global catalogues, simultaneous availability across countries, subtitling, dubbing and algorithmic recommendation systems have partially modified the conditions of distribution and visibility of audiovisual content.

The proposal is situated in a historical context marked by the centrality of the US industry and Hollywood in the international circulation of film and audiovisual production. This system has shaped an asymmetrical structure in which national cinemas have had to negotiate their possibilities of global presence in relation to the economic, linguistic and cultural weight of English-language production.

Within this framework, the paper focuses especially on Spanish-language audiovisual production, placing it within transnational networks of production, distribution and consumption. The study highlights that the Spanish and Spanish-American case is particularly relevant because it combines several dynamics: partial integration into Hollywood, presence in European festivals and circuits, digital circulation through platforms, linguistic relations with Latin America and the connection with the Hispanic market in the United States.

One of the main axes of the presentation is the tension between continuity and change. On the one hand, English continues to function as the dominant language in large-scale international audiovisual production and as a route into global industrial circuits. On the other hand, digital platforms have opened up the possibility for some Spanish-language productions to achieve international visibility without necessarily abandoning their original language.

The paper includes examples of productions and trajectories linked to this transformation. In the case of Netflix, it discusses titles such as La casa de papel, Narcos and Machos alfa, as well as other non-English-language phenomena such as Squid Game and Lupin. It also refers to other platforms that have promoted Spanish-language content, such as HBO, Prime Video and Disney+. These cases make it possible to observe how local production can be integrated into global circulation strategies.

The study also addresses the role of directors who have developed international projects and who, in recent years, have returned to producing works in their mother tongues within global platforms. The presentation mentions, among other examples, Roma by Alfonso Cuarón, La sociedad de la nieve by J. A. Bayona and El cautivo by Alejandro Amenábar. This dynamic is interpreted as a possible “round trip” between integration into the global audiovisual market and the recovery of one’s own language as a language of international production.

The US dimension occupies a relevant place in the analysis. The paper incorporates data on the population that speaks Spanish at home in the United States and on the weight of streaming among Hispanic audiences. These data help contextualise the cultural and commercial importance of the US Hispanic market, although the study avoids establishing a simplified causal relationship between the existence of a large Spanish-speaking audience and the international success of specific productions.

Another central concept in the paper is that of taste micro-communities. Platforms do not organise the visibility of content solely by language, but also through consumption patterns, genre preferences, viewing habits and personalised recommendations. This logic can help works in languages other than English reach audiences that are not necessarily part of their original linguistic community.

The paper defends a nuanced reading of the phenomenon. The increase in the international visibility of certain Spanish-language contents does not imply a full democratisation of the global audiovisual system. Platforms continue to operate through private infrastructures of distribution, measurement and recommendation, with internal mechanisms that remain largely opaque. For this reason, the rankings and data available should be interpreted as partial indicators of visibility rather than independent and complete measures of international audiovisual consumption.

One of the main contributions of the presentation is to frame this transformation as a paradox. Platforms may broaden the linguistic and geographical circulation of certain non-English-language contents, but this opening coexists with strong industrial centralisation and private control over global cultural infrastructures. In other words, there may be greater visible linguistic diversity without this necessarily implying an equivalent redistribution of audiovisual power.

Econcult’s participation in the 11th Symposium of the Instituto Cervantes Observatory at Harvard forms part of its lines of work on cultural economics, creative industries, digital transformations and the international circulation of cultural production. The paper contributes to the debate on how global platforms are reconfiguring the conditions of presence, access and cultural value of languages in the contemporary audiovisual ecosystem.