Spanish Club Fills Need For Company

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31449, 16 August 1967, Page 2

Spanish Club Fills Need For Company

No Spaniard leaves Spain to live in another country unless there is a good reason for going. Nor do the Spanish integrate easily as new settlers unless they go to South America or Mexico. They are not migrants by nature.

In many big cities throughout the world, however, there can be found a “little Spain,” where immigrants live closely together in an ethnic group homesick for blue skies and sunshine, saving up for a return visit.

In foreign lands the Spanish eling to their national traditions—their ways of cooking, their arts and crafts and their

language—longer than most other new settlers. Few Spaniards have come to live in Christchurch permanently, apart from those who have married New Zealanders. Unless they learn English quickly they can be the loneliest “exiles” in the country. For these people and for others who wanted to know more about Spain, the Club Espanol was founded in Christchurch six years ago. Of nearly 30 members only three were born in Spain, including the president, Mrs Manuela Gordon.

"Ours is purely a cultural

club to fill the need for companionship among Spanishspeaking people and others who have an interest in Spain, its arts and its way of life,” Mrs Gordon said yesterday. “It is not necessary to speak Spanish to be a member." Nevertheless, the club provides an excellent opportunity for men and women who have learnt some Spanish and want to improve it. CONVERSATION Only a small percentage of the members speak fluent Spanish. Others, who may have done a Spanish course at the W.EA. or have picked up a smattering of the language, want to extend their vocabularies and to become more adept in conversation before visiting the country. Mrs Gordon, who is bilingual, always opens the monthly meeting and introduces the guest artist or speaker in Spanish, translating later. After a programme which may include Spanish music, a talk with slides on Spain or South America or an exhibition of Spanish dancing, members are encouraged to speak Spanish for the rest of the evening. MEMORIES Many of them have visited Spanish-speaking countries and want to nourish memories. Others intend to visit Spain or South America, sooner or later, and are keen to brief themselves on where to go and what to see.

Club membership fluctuates according to the number of South American students and short-term Spanish residents in the city. Visitors are always welcome. For some it has been the first opportunity to speak their own tongue for many months. One of them, a Mexican on a tour of New Zealand recently, could not speak a word of English.

Members are sometimes asked to act as interpreters to Spanish-speaking tourists, mainly to help them communicate with shop assistants. Mrs Gordon herself has been a friend in need to many artists in visiting theatrical shows and to young Spanish wives who had not mastered English sufficiently to use a telephone or to give the butcher an order.

Club Espanol meets on the second Thursday of the month at the League for the Hard of Hearing in Victoria street