‘Spanglish’ community’s Cuban Culture night a hit

DPI, Guyana, Tuesday, June 12, 2018          

Scores of persons turned out to the third ‘Spanglish Night’ event, which sought to foster better language practices and relations within the English and Spanish speaking communities.

For the event hosted at the Grill, the Cuban culture was celebrated and featured Salsa dancing, cuisine, drinks and music.

The organisers told the Department of Public Information (DPI) that the objective is to “break boundaries’.

“Spanglish is all about socialising in a second language, it’s all about meeting new people, giving opportunities for people to meet people from different backgrounds. There are a lot of Spanish speakers here in Guyana and Guyana’s place in the Caribbean and South America means that there’s a huge cultural mixture in Guyana, and it’s a very unique country in that way,” co-organiser Charlie Sokly said.

Another organiser Gordon Roberts said there has been a cultural invasion of Spanish speakers in Guyana and this event presents the perfect opportunity for greater integration of the language among locals and foreigners.

“Spanglish is a relatively new event, this is our third such. Basically, when we started we decided we would rotate [the event] to different venues so that we get to experience different cuisines and different social areas in Guyana. So, at the same time while people are learning languages they get to learn about the various restaurants and places in Guyana,” Roberts added.

Chilean native Christian Vargas, the event’s only native Spanish organiser said, “I think it’s important for Guyana to improve language skills in Spanish because it provides opportunities to people. For example, now Guyana has a lot of immigrants from Venezuela and Cuba and this is an opportunity to Guyana to learn, and to practise Spanish.”

Spanglish Night is held on the first Wednesday of every month.

By: Nateshia Isaacs.

Images: Kennyann Bacchus & Tejpaul Bridgemohan.

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