ABSTRACT
According to Manuel Lucena Giraldo, world history reveals the importance of two movements that are closely linked to the creation and development of cities. The first was their construction, their materiality, more or less integrated into their natural settings; the second was their conceptualization and evolution as subjects of culture. The chapter reflects upon the role of cities in the Hispanic world prior to 1810, and the prominence of the Spanish language during what we could characterize as the first globalization of the Western world. It also reflects upon the contemporary place of Spanish-speaking cities—and the Spanish language itself—within the broader scheme of global cities more generally. The chapter makes a few comments regarding the global nature of Spanish. Spanish, therefore, contributes to that configuration as a language with a presence in scores of global cities.
