More Tamale Party Photos!

Hello, Again! Here are a few more photos of our group members making tamales at the home of Beverly & Bob Gibson, Sunday January 6, 2013. We have so much fun whenever we get together,and, yes, of course, food is usually a center attraction for our gatherings. Enjoy! Amy

Welcome back to Spanish Language Adventure!

Hello, Everyone! It has been a while since I last reported to you about our Spanish Language Outreach program at the North Valley Public Library. It seems our original blog "Spanish Language Outreach in Montana" has been converted to this new blog entitled "Spanish Language Adventure" as I am no longer able to post in that original blog. What a busy year it has been since we last reported in. My personal life has been a roller coaster of events and emotions with a death in my immediate family, followed by the award of Library Support Staff of the Year and a major scholarship to return to college full time to study Sociology, in addition to my job at the North Valley Public Library. So, this blog has been on the back burner for a while. But, we are back in the swing of things with several new members of Reunion en Espanol, our group of Spanish language members. We continued our tradition of hosting an annual Hispanic heritage fiesta for the September First Friday celebration in our home town of Stevensville. This past September members of our group practiced for weeks several songs in Spanish. Last Sunday we held a tamale making party in which members Wa Correia and Beverly Gibson gave demonstrations of traditional hand mixing and modern machine mixing methods. Beverly Gibson graciously hosted this event at her home. There were 20 attendees but it was "organized chaos" and fun was had by all. Each participant took home 24 tamales. In the future, I will be highlighting individual members which should be interesting. If you have any ideas for events for "el grupo" please send them our way! We are always up for something new. Hasta Luego! Amy

Plans for Fiesta 2011 underway

Hola & Bien Venidos, Everyone who loves Spanish language and culture in libraries! Next week (Friday Sept 2nd from 6-8 pm) we will host our annual Hispanic Heritage Fiesta celebration. This year members of our Spanish conversation group "Reunion en Espanol" have been practicing 4 songs, singing all in Spanish. This idea came from Oscar who is our "maestro" and coach. Oscar Macz, born in Guatemala, now living in Stevensville, is a multi-talented musician, singer, song writer and guitar player. Oscar selected four beautiful and familiar Spanish songs. Many of us who are novice singers truly appreciate the patience and kindness Oscar demonstrates towards us. Besides our weekly conversation group meeting on Wednesday evenings, those of us who will be singing on Fiesta night have been gathering Monday nights at the home of Oscar & Debbie to practice singing; that is,after we enjoy some delicious food! Debbie & Oscar have been the "hosts with the most", each week sharing some dish prepared with our group in mind. The rest of us have contributed, too, making this a "family affair." So fun! Our singing and harmony have significantly improved over the weeks. Yesterday Ravalli County Health Dept. called the library to advise us that we can no longer serve home cooked foods at our Fiesta. This came as a disappointment initially, although we respect the reason behind this restriction. Food safety is vitally important to us all. We now have to regroup and reorganize our agenda, reducing the amount of "eating" time from 1 hour to 1/2 hour, moving our singing up, increasing that performance time, and introducing our dancers earlier. AND our regularly scheduled dance instructor, Kimberlee, won't be able to make it so she has engaged two unknown dancers that she assures us will be spectacular. SO...all things considered, we are hoping Fiesta 2011 is as successful as in years past. We shall report on this in our next blog, along with some photos!

Report from Nicaragua

Hola! Today I write to you from Managua, the capitol city of Nicaragua. My daughter, Caitlin (resident of Nicaragua for 4 1/2 yrs) and I just returned from an on-site visit of San Juan del Sur Biblioteca, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing library services to rural areas primarily in Nicaragua & Costa Rica. We met the director and founder, Jane Mirandette, who gave us a tour of the base library and a history of the organization. You will find an article about Biblioteca in the recent article of Colorado Libraries. Here is the link: http://www.coloradolibrariesjournal.org/?q=ejournal/show/1/_/3
In this article you will learn more about the popular trend of "voluntourism" where a vacationer can travel to a foreign destination with a goal of volunteering to share skills and knowledge to help the locals.
Tomorrow Caitlin and I will visit a farm ("finca")owned by our friend, Omar.
Amy

El Dia de los Ninos, El Dia de los Libros

Hello, Everyone. The first annual American Library Association event "El Dia de los Ninos, El Dia de los Libros" was held at North Valley Public Library (NVPL) Saturday April 30, 2011. The celebration emphasizes the importance of advocating literacy for children of all linguistic and cultural backgrounds. This year Reunion en Espanol, the Spanish Conversation Group of NVPL, helped coordinate the event with a Spanish theme. There was a puppet show El Tres Cerditos (The Three Little Pigs) with a reading in both Spanish (Catalina Gerner) and English (Susie Brown) with children acting out the parts with hand puppets. Following that was a paper cutting craft project, Papel de Picos, where children and adults cut out pretty paper decorations similar to a Mexican tradition. There was a taco lunch with food provided by members of Reunion en Espanol. The grand finale was the breaking open of a pinata full of toys. Fun was had by all, considering we had to relocate the event indoors at the Library due to inclement weather. Next year, we will investigate other cultures, traditional stories and creative crafts and foods with children being the prime focus. Here are some photos of this year's event.

"Viaje a la Tierra del Abuelo"

Recently members of the North Valley Public Library Spanish Language Conversation group watched a film entitled "The Other Side of Immigration." This award winning documentary film focused on the effect upon the families and the communities throughout Mexico of so many able bodied men leaving in search of work in the United States. Very thought provoking film. Mario Bencastro has written a book about a young man born in El Salvador now living in the US who becomes very close to his grandfather while his parents work long hours in southern CA. Before he dies, his "abuelo" (grandfather) asks that he be buried in his home country of El Salvador. The book describes the journey of this young man as he transports his grandfather's body back to his homeland. The book does an excellent job of explaining how this young man feels torn between two countries and not really connected to either country. The book is written in Spanish, but since the target audience is young adults, it is fairly easy to understand for beginner Spanish speakers. Native speakers will greatly enjoy the story of current events happening between Central America and the United States.

Spanish Evening Class - Big Enchilada

 

Here is a photo of our Friday evening Spanish class "The Big Enchilada" with teacher, Oscar Macz, and his students enjoying a dinner at Fiesta en Jalisco in Stevensville.