Language planning with Spanish colonization. When the Spanish first arrived in Peru, Quechua served as a language of wider communication, a lingua franca, between Spaniards and Peruvian natives. As the years passed, Spaniards asserted the superiority of the Spanish language; as a result, Spanish gained prestige, taking over as a language of wider communication and the dominant language of Peru. In 1975, under the leadership of President Juan Velasco Alvarado, the revolutionary government of Peru declared Quechua an official language of the Peruvian state, "coequal with Spanish." Four years later, the law was reversed. Peru's 1979 constitution declares Spanish the only official
Juan Alvarado y del Saz July and 30 November 1906 in a government presided over by José López Domínguez. Between 21 October 1909 and 9 February 1910 he would occupy the Ministry of the Treasury in a cabinet presided over by Segismundo Moret. Later he served as Minister of Justice from 11 October 1913 to 19 April 1917, and Minister of State until the 11 June 1917 under the presidency of Manuel García Prieto. He died in 1935. Juan Alvarado y del Saz Juan Alvarado y del Saz (1856–1935) was a Spanish lawyer and politician. He was Minister of Naval Defense of Spain and Minister