Spanish American Club celebrates Christmas with party in Port St. Lucie

Members and supporters of The Spanish American Club gathered Dec. 17 to celebrate the club's last event of the year at the Sons of Italy Lodge 2594 in Port St. Lucie.
         

During a break, D. J. José Ramírez played a Happy Birthday song to the members that were celebrating their birthday on December. Among the birthday members that were present were: Luz Pinilla, Nestor Pereira, Elizabeth Mejia, Gloria Ramirez, Gustavo Santa, Virginia Feliciano, Nilda Betancourt and Mary Figliola.

Fallowing the birthday celebration the members and their guests enjoyed a delicious buffet catered by Mandi’s Café and Catering. The meal consisted of pork, ham, chicken, mix veggies, dessert and coffee.

There were door prizes and 50/50 raffles to top off the event. Door prize winners were Yolanda Torres, Galud Segura, Ivonne Bonet, Sonia Echevarria, Sandy Coughlin, Carmen Santoni, Ana Rodriguez, Billy Betancourt, Cookie Santiago, Vicky Rodriguez and Luz Pinilla. 50/50 winners were Mirta Zapata, Hector Peña and Xiomara Guanill.

The Dinner Dance Gala was planned by the board of directors of the club chaired by Carlos Bonet, president; Nancy Rozon, vice president; Al Feliciano, secretary; Ruben Aleman, treasurer; Ray Guadalupe, public relations; Luis Carrillo, director; and Melissa Sanchez, substitute.

A big "Thank You" to the board who worked very hard to make the last annual event of the year a big success. Many thanks to the members who helped with the decorations and setups. Finally, thanks to the members that donated the Christmas toys and the door prizes.

The nonprofit organization's mission is to preserve the Hispanic heritage on the Treasure Coast. The club continued a 24-year tradition by distributing food baskets to underprivileged families for Thanksgiving and donating holiday gift bags to needy children in the area.

The members meet once a month to socialize, dine and dance. Some members and their guests play golf on Wednesdays at The Saints at 10 a.m. and on Mondays they bowl at the St. Lucie Lanes at 6 p.m.

Spanish Saxophonist Angel Soria Diaz Performs At Xaymaca Tonight

Spanish musician Angel Soria Diaz has had a love affair with Jamaica since his first visit last year.
             

For Soria, making music means sharing with others.

"Music can help (you) to be more generous. If you play without caring about the others, the 'magic' of music could never happen," said the Spain-born music educator.

He is the featured performer at the Xaymaca concert by Peter Ashbourne slated for later this evening.

Soria, last year, hosted a classical music workshop with the Alpha Institute, which was spearheaded by the Embassy of Spain and the Spanish-Jamaican Foundation.

What is more, having discontinued its classical music programme at Alpha, Soria's sessions last year provided a much-needed boost to the learning experience of the students, many of whom had never listened to classical greats such as Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi or Beethoven.

"When we first told Alpha that Angel was not a reggae saxophonist, at the embassy, we thought they were going to be disappointed, but they saw it as a better opportunity to show the students something different," said Carmen Rives Ruiz-Tapiador, chargÈ d'affaires of the Embassy of Spain.

At Xaymaca, Soria will conduct the National Youth Orchestra of Jamaica, showcase the results of the workshop at Alpha, premiere the new piece for saxophone and orchestra by Jamaican composer Peter Ashbourne with the Samuel Felsted Chamber Orchestra.

"Definitely, the premiere of Peter Ashbourne's new piece will be one of the most amazing things I've done as a musician," Soria shared, adding that classical saxophone with a world premiere by a Jamaican composer is going to be a very interesting mix.

UCA Celebrates ‘Dia de Los Muertos’

The Latino Student Association shared their Central American holiday “Dia de los Muertos” with UCA students inviting them to connect with the spirits of their dead loved ones during X-period Nov. 1 on Old Main lawn.
             

Dia de los Muertos is a Spanish phrase meaning Day of the Dead, and according to Jorge Guadamez, senior and president of the LSA, is a day of celebrating the spirits  descending from the afterlife.

They had several tables set up under a tent decorated with pink, red, yellow, orange and blue decorations surrounding the tent. Students passing by could see the colorful ribbons waving in the wind while celebratory Spanish music could be heard throughout the middle of campus.

IMG_0195The altar in the far left of the tent held sugar skulls – an item famously associated with Dia de los Muertos – colorful decorations, flowers and candles.

According to Guadamez  Dia de los Muertos takes place for up to three days starting anywhere from Oct. 30 to Nov. 2 and is when the spirits of the dead visit and spend time with their loved ones.

“We set up these altars and we bring bread, candy, any of their favorite foods, Guadamez said. “They eat with us, they sit with us.”

People gathered around the altar and were invited to either add a decoration of their own to the altar or write their loved one’s name on a sticky note to place on the altar in remembrance.

Guadamez said usually there would be pictures of the loved ones but in place of that they were just having students place sticky notes.

“This is our way of remembering them,” Guadamez said.

He said after the third day of the celebration the spirits go back up to the after life.

Senior, Megan Saville was attending the event after having to research it for a class.

“I like that they are involving the Spanish Culture, Saville said.

With Cervantes and flamenco, Spanish culture in spotlight

The pen is the tongue of the mind. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616), regarded as the greatest Spanish novelist, has gifted us thousands of such gems of wisdom and higher thinking that lay scattered across his many iconic written works.

To mark the literary legend’s 400th death anniversary, the Embassy of Spain in Qatar, in co-operation with the Translation and Interpreting Institute (College of Humanities and Social Sciences, HBKU), is organising a lecture on “the influence of Islam and Moorish culture in the work of Cervantes and his masterpiece Don Quixote” by Dr Muhsin al-Ramli, a Spanish writer, poet, translator, and academic, who teaches at Saint Louis University – Madrid Campus. The lecture will be held at the Cinema Auditorium, Education City, Student Centre, at 6.30pm on October 20. The lecture will be delivered in Arabic with simultaneous translations in English and Spanish.

Ester Borras, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Spain in Qatar, told Community, “The idea behind such cultural events is to bring together the two countries and the two cultures. Our objective is to showcase some aspects of our culture to the Qataris and the other expats in Qatar, by working together in co-operation with the Qatari authorities. At the Cervantes event, for instance, an exhibition of selected items from Cervantes’ period, from the private collection of Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim al-Thani will be showcased at the venue.”

The most important and celebrated figure in Spanish literature, Cervantes lived in troubled times, both of crisis and splendour, and the conflict of civilisations in the Mediterranean basin was the theatre of operations of the writer. Interestingly, his lifetime coincided with the last Muslim presence in Spain and these circumstances are reflected in his profound knowledge of the Islamic world in his work. His life alone would be worth a novel as his adventures as a soldier, a counsellor and even a tax collector were numerous and extraordinary.