Spanish Team Hosts International Tournament
Cornell's annual Spanish language tournament welcomed students from around the world
The weekend of 3-5 March 2023, the ILR School and the Cornell Speech and Debate Society successfully hosted the fifth edition of CHIDO (Campeonato Hispanohablante Interuniversitario de Debate y Oratoria), the U.S Spanish Debate National Tournament. This is the most important Spanish speaking tournament in the U.S in British Parliamentary debate format. The tournament was attended by a total of over 40 students from national and international institutions, including UPenn, Colgate University, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Bates College, Princeton University, Tec de Monterrey (Mexico), Universidad del Rosario (Colombia), Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona (Spain), Universidad de Oviedo (Spain) and CEU San Pablo (Spain).
After 6 preliminary rounds and 2 elimination rounds of Spanish-speaking debate, on topics ranging from artificial intelligence to migration policy, four teams reached the grand finals, composed by two from Cornell and two from Spanish institutions. The finals debate was on whether Ukraine should agree to the approval of a peace treaty with Russia in exchange for giving in the sovereignty of Crimea, Donetsk y Luhansk. On a unanimous decision, one of the teams from Spain arguing in favor of the motion ended up winning the tournament.
Debaters and judges from Cornell’s Spansih debate Team did a wonderful job at the tournament. Three teams broke to semi finals and two of them advanced to the grand finals. Individually, Cornell speakers obtained the top 3 speaker awards in the category of Spanish as a Second Language, and two of them ranked 4th and 5th in the open top speakers. All the Cornell judges also broke to eliminatory rounds.
We look forward to hosting VI CHIDO next spring!
