Academia Mexicana de La Lengua - Composition and Operation

Composition and Operation

Originally, the Academy was created with 12 members, but now has 36 full members (académicos de número) and 35 correspondent members (académicos correspondientes) based outside Mexico City. It may also have up to an additional five honorary members (académicos honorarios), who may be either Mexican citizens or foreigners.

It has a Board made up by a Director, a Secretary, a Censor, a Librarian-Archivist and a Treasurer, all chosen among the académicos de número by absolute majority of votes from the academics that attend the session in which they are to be elected, in secret voting.

The labour of the Academy is performed in a meeting, that celebrates its sessions twice or more monthly.The sessions are private or public, the first ones can be ordinary or extraordinary, and the public ones have the characteristic of solemnity when the Academy agrees it. The nature of the jobs that are analyzed and discussed in the heart of the meeting are of lexicographic, linguistic and literary importance.

The Academy owns a wide library. Its initial fund comes from the acquisition of the former library of the academic Don Alejandro Quijano. With the years the number of works with relevant contributions has been growing, such as the one of the prestigious jurist and intelelctual Alberto Vázquez del Mercado (1893-1980), who bestowed the institution with a huge and valuable collection of historic and literary works. In addition the books published donated by the academics, there are to be found those sent by the Real Academia Española, the other Spanish-language academies, some publishing companies and book stores, as well as those sent by official and private cultural organizations.