Addis Ababa — United Nations staff in Ethiopia on Monday celebrated the UN Spanish Language Day with much pomp and fanfare.
The nine Spanish-speaking countries that have missions in Addis Ababa - Argentina, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Spain, Uruguay and Venezuela - did not disappoint. They brought their best in terms of their national foods, drink, dress, music, dance and a Spanish film was screened for the audience which included students from Addis Ababa University.
Tequila and mojito cocktails flowed as did guacamole and other traditional foods linked to the nine countries.
April 23 is celebrated every year as the UN Day of the Spanish Language in tribute to writer Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, who died on April 23, 1816.
Cervantes left among his works the novel 'The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha', a monumental text that has contributed immensely to the enhancement of world literature and the Spanish language.
Described as the first modern novel, this has been one of the most translated and edited book in history.
In his remarks, Mr. Ali Todaro, Chief of the Conference Management Section at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), said it was a distinct honour for the ECA to be part of the celebrations.
"The UN has been improving the practice of multilingualism and has embarked on creative ways to promote it in all its work," said Mr. Tadaro.
"Our newly-established partnership with your missions is exemplary in this regard because it demonstrates how much we can do together to promote not only multilingualism or the Spanish language but other aspects of your culture thereby increasing awareness among all stakeholders of the contribution of multilingualism, and culture by extension, to the goals of the United Nations."
He said the ECA, which offers Spanish classes for UN Staff, is open to bigger partnerships with the Spanish speaking countries on this and other subjects.
"Now that we have April 23rd marked on our calendars, we are more enthused to plan other larger events to celebrate Spanish Language Day in the years ahead," said Mr. Tadaro.
For his part, the Spanish Ambassador, Mr. Borja Montesino Martinex del Cerro, speaking on behalf of his colleagues from the other eight Spanish-speaking countries, thanked the ECA for giving them the opportunity to celebrate and promote Spanish in this part of the world.
"For some time now, the group of Spanish-speaking embassies, has been struggling to find a gambit to promote our language in Addis Ababa. We are no fools, we know that the demand is limited, so are our resources, but there is a growing interest that we have to be able to meet," he said.
"The UN has a solution for everything and today is a first occasion. We have agreed that next year, not only will we continue to come to ECA but we will try and concentrate a series of events - cultural presentation, cinema, culinary events and others - around the Spanish Language Day. The idea is to make it bigger and better with the UN as the epicenter."
Today more than 500 million people speak Spanish in the world. It is the language with the second largest number of native speakers in the world and the second language in international communications, the Spanish Ambassador said.
Spanish is the official language in 21 countries around the globe.
