Even your own language can have the capacity to surprise you. I recently joined a panel at a journalism conference with a reporter and a lawyer, both from Colombia. I found myself captivated by some of the words they used that aren’t – or rather weren’t – so common in Spain. The investigative journalist Diana Salinas referred to her craft as la filigrana, the filigree. I wouldn’t have used the term in that context, and yet it struck me as perfect to describe the intricate, careful work that investigative reporting requires.

Filigrana is not even considered a Latin-Americanism – it comes from Italian – but it has somehow been forgotten in everyday speech in Spain. As is often the case with Spanish in Latin America, usage and context enriches the word.

With some 600 million speakers around the world, Spanish has evolved over centuries and is now being pushed in new directions, especially in the US, where populations from different nationalities mix and interact with English speakers from a wide variety of backgrounds. “Spanish is the language that never ends,” said the Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramírez, the author of beautiful books in the language.

Of course, as with any subject where identity and history intersect, Spanish speakers do have their disagreements and debates about language. But nothing compares to the intensity with which some British people seem to react to the use of American English. Reading about

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