"The officer was about to send me back"

"Free to fulfill the purpose of our lives in the United States of America"

The Tennessean published this story by Maria Pervatt, a new U.S. citizen from Costa Rica, in which she describes her immigration back to Gallatin and subsequent citizenship process. A harrowing close call is tucked in there:

The officer was about to send me back to Costa Rica, but was moved by my children's words, saying "We are Americans, and she is our mother."
...
Months later I got to return to my home sweet home in Gallatin, a place where I lived for years and had sold before I went back to Costa Rica. From here I continue working with my nephew's ministry, arranging meetings for him to spread the gospel worldwide and whose testimony is impacting today's youth.
...
This fourth of July, I got my own personal gift, freedom to travel as I finally received my own beautiful American passport.

Now the next time my girls and I will make that one stop at any immigration office, we all will be proud to say we are citizens of a nation under God and proud to be free to fulfill the purpose of our lives in the United States of America.

Photo by Daniel Lobo. Licensed under Creative Commons.

Labels: costa rica, immigrants

Surgery, Spanish majors, call to missions result from visits to Central American nation

The Nashville City Paper reported here about Escarleth Betancourt-Gutierrez, a 15-year-old Honduran girl, and her spinal surgery in Nashville courtesy of support from Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, Dr. James Netterville, Dr. Greg Mencio, and Harpeth Hills Church of Christ:

Netterville discovered Escarleth’s condition two years ago and pulled strings to bring her to Nashville. Dr. Greg Mencio performed the spinal surgery for free and Netterville’s congregation donated the $5,000 for materials needed to perform the procedure.

Young members of the Harpeth Hills congregation have been inspired by their trips to Honduras, according to this report by proud grandfather Bailey McBride:

Savanna and her brother, Luke, have gone to Honduras since he was 16 and she was 13. They immediately made a connection with the children of Jovenes en Camino, an orphanage near Tegucigalpa. Through the years, they have strengthened their connections in Honduras. Both have studied Spanish in high school. Luke has recently returned from a Spanish immersion program in Costa Rica and will graduate from college with a Spanish major. Savanna will go to college this fall with five years of high school Spanish and plans to major in Spanish and prepare for a life of missions.

Photo: Escarleth Betancourt-Gutierrez and her mother (source: Vanderbilt Children's Hospital)

Labels: costa rica, faith, health, honduras, spanish

Recognized in corporate executive, nonprofit categories

On April 11, 2008, the Nashville Business Journal will host the Women Of Influence Awards Banquet to "outstanding women who are making great contributions to Middle Tennessee."

Among the four winners in the "Corporate Executive" category was Stephanie Valdez Streaty of Nissan North America, Inc. Among the five winners in "Nonprofit Leadership" was Renata Soto of Conexion Americas.

Soto is the director of Conexion Americas. Originally from Costa Rica, Soto has lived in the United States since 1993 and in Nashville since 1996.

Valdez Streaty is the senior manager of philanthropy and diversity communications for Nissan and is originally from Colorado.

Labels: business, costa rica, events

Giancarlo Guerrero, Jose Feliciano, international "lucha libre" champion, Metro Schools among 2008 interviews

Airs on Telemundo Nashville

Episodes also available online

Nashville-based Spanish-language television show "Spanish-TV" announced its second season in this press release:

Second season of Spanish-TV

2008 brings exciting changes to Spanish-TV

Expanded segments on governments issues regarding the hispanic community, new sports segments including Spanish wrestling along with more entertainment and news segment. Airing weekly on Telemundo Nashville, Spanish-TV has become a hit in the Hispanic community.

Advertisers have been enthusiastic about the show's unique reach into our community and have committed to support our show in 2008.

The show’s Eye on Nashville segment continue its man-on-the-street interviews that feature a detailed look at our Hispanic heritage.

Episodes of Spanish-TV are thirty minutes long and are broadcast Saturday mornings at 10am via Comcast Cable Channels 246 and 611, on Charter Channel 24, or on the program's web site spanish-tvtucanal.com, under the link for "See the Show."

The Hispanic Nashville Notebook had previously reported here on a different locally-based Spanish-language TV show, Noticias Locales, aired on Telefutura and in conjunction with WTVF-Channel 5. At the time, Telemundo was looking for local content, which it appears to have found with Spanish-TV.

Labels: arts, business, costa rica, immigrants, nicaragua, spanish

Famed conductor has Central and South American roots

Nicaraguan-born and Costa Rican-raised Giancarlo Guerrero will become the Music Director of the Nashville Symphony starting in 2009, according to this press release:

Nashville Symphony President and CEO Alan D. Valentine announced today that Giancarlo Guerrero will become Music Director of the Nashville Symphony beginning with the 2009/100 season. A native of Costa Rica and current Music Director of the Eugene Symphony, the 38-year-old conductor was unanimously selected to be the Symphony's 8th Music Director by a 12-member search committee, half of whom were musicians from the orchestra. Leonard Slatkin, who has served as Music Advisor of the Nashville Symphony since 2006, will conclude his tenure at the end of 2008/09.

Mr. Guerrero has developed a relationship with the Nashville Symphony through four subscription engagements over the past two years and was the first guest conductor to lead the Symphony following the death of its last Music Director, Kenneth Schermerhorn, in 2005. He is currently in his sixth season as Music Director of Oregon's Eugene Symphony and will continue in that post through the 2008/09 season. Under the terms of an initial 5 year contract extending through 2012/13, Mr. Guerrero will conduct 10 weeks of concerts with the Nashville Symphony in 2008/09 as Music Director Designate and 14 weeks as Music Director beginning in 2009/10.

"We are all truly excited about Giancarlo's appointment," commented Alan D. Valentine. "From his first concert with the Nashville Symphony in the week following Kenneth Schermerhorn's death, the chemistry between Giancarlo, the musicians and the audience was apparent. Each return engagement since then has strengthened our relationship and reconfirmed what we already knew – that Giancarlo is the right conductor to take our orchestra to the next level. I speak on behalf of the musicians, staff and board in welcoming Giancarlo and his family to Nashville and to the Nashville Symphony."

"It is a great honor to become the next Music Director of the Nashville Symphony," remarked Giancarlo Guerrero. "I look forward to wonderful music-making with the musicians of the orchestra in their terrific new hall and to continuing the orchestra's rich and long recording tradition. This is an exciting time in the orchestra's history and it is my privilege to accept the responsibility of leading this orchestra to new artistic heights. I am thrilled about working with President Alan Valentine, the orchestra's staff, board members, and the musicians of the Nashville Symphony, and my family and I are looking forward to becoming a part of the Nashville community."

"The appointment of Giancarlo Guerrero ensures the continued growth of the Nashville Symphony," said Nashville Symphony Music Advisor Leonard Slatkin. "His dynamic leadership with the Symphony over the past several seasons made him the clear choice for this position. I know that he will add vitality and excitement to the community, as well as be a perfect fit for the orchestra."

Giancarlo Guerrero will lead the Nashville Symphony as its first Music Director since the opening of its new home, the $123.5 million, 1,844-seat Schermerhorn Symphony Center, which opened on September 9, 2006 to critical acclaim. Both Mr. Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony are champions of American music, which the Symphony has highlighted through its American Encores initiative – featuring "encore" performances of works by living American composers and American masters that have been performed rarely or only once previously (at its premiere) - and through its award-winning recordings on Naxos' American Classics series. Mr. Guerrero initiated a guest-composer series in Eugene, where under his leadership the ensemble has hosted several of America's most respected composers, including John Adams, John Corigliano, Jennifer Higdon, Aaron Jay Kernis and Michael Daugherty.

Hailed for his precise yet sensitive performances, Mr. Guerrero has guest-conducted many major American orchestras including the Baltimore Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Seattle Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. He served as Associate Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra from 1999-2004 and made his Minnesota Orchestra subscription debut in March 2000 leading the world premiere of John Corigliano's Phantasmagoria on the Ghosts of Versailles. Mr. Guerrero recently made his European debut with the Gulbenkian Orchestra and his UK Debut with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

During the 2007/08 season Mr. Guerrero will conduct the Nashville Symphony's first classical series concerts on September 13-15, as well as Verdi's Requiem on May 8-10, 2008. In addition to his performances in Nashville and Eugene, Mr. Guerrero's conducting engagements this season include his return appearances with The Cleveland Orchestra both in Cleveland and on tour including the orchestra's residency in Miami. He also leads the Australian premiere of Osvaldo Golijov's chamber opera Ainadamar at the Adelaide Festival. Additional engagements include appearances with the symphony orchestras of Dallas, Kansas City, Milwaukee, San Diego, among others, and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra in Venezuela.

In June 2004, Mr. Guerrero was awarded the Helen M. Thompson Award by the American Symphony Orchestra League, which recognizes outstanding achievement among young conductors nationwide. Born in Nicaragua and raised in Costa Rica, Mr. Guerrero began his musical training in Costa Rica as a member of the Costa Rica Youth Symphony. He received his bachelor's degree from Baylor University in Texas and his master's degree in conducting from Northwestern University in Illinois. Mr. Guerrero's principal conducting teachers were Michael Haithcock, Stephen Heyde, Victor Yampolsky and Guillermo Scarabino. Prior to his tenure with the Minnesota Orchestra, he served as Music Director of the Tachira Symphony Orchestra in Venezuela. Mr. Guerrero plans to reside in Nashville with his wife Shirley and daughters Virginia and Claudia.

Recognized as one of the nation's fastest growing orchestras, the 84-member Nashville Symphony gives more than 200 performances annually and is rapidly developing an international reputation for unique programming and high musical standards. The Symphony's award-winning recordings and focus on new American music, coupled with the high-profile opening of Schermerhorn Symphony Center, have thrust the Symphony into the national spotlight. The Nashville Symphony has 11 recordings on Naxos and one on Decca, making it currently one of the most active recording symphony orchestras in the country. The recordings have received four Grammy nominations, including one for "Best Classical Album" in 2004 for the works of Elliott Carter. In the 2007/08 season, the Symphony's American Encores series will include performances of seldom-heard works by Richard Danielpour, John Corigliano, Michael Torke, Robert Sierra, Paul Creston, Claude Baker, Paul Hindemith, Erich Korngold, Kurt Weill and Aaron Copland, among others.

Labels: arts, costa rica, immigrants, nicaragua, venezuela

Former volunteer is Director for Graduate Studies at Vanderbilt's Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies

Dr. Susan Berk-Seligson will give a talk, in Spanish, on “The Experiences of a Peace Corps Volunteer in Costa Rica: A Retrospective View” at the next meeting of Charlemos Spanish on Thursday 8 February. Charlemos meets the second and fourth Thursday of the month from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Palette Gallery and Cafe at 2119 Belcourt Avenue in Hillsboro Village. The event is free and open to the public.

Dr. Berk-Seligson is Director for Graduate Studies in the Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies at Vanderbilt University, as well as, Associate Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. Before coming to Nashville she was a professor of Hispanic linguistics in the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pittsburgh for nineteen years. Prior to that, she was an Assistant Professor at Purdue University.

“Susan has a fascinating background”, said Charlemos president, Elizabeth Worrell Braswell. “She is author of The Bilingual Courtroom: Court Interpreters in the Judicial Process, published by The University of Chicago Press”, added Braswell.

Charlemos Spanish is a social conversation group, for all levels of Spanish-speakers, created in December 2006 by the Spanish Committee of Sister Cities of Nashville, a nonprofit organization, founded in 1990, dedicated to the promotion of global understanding through educational, professional and cultural exchanges.

Mayor Bill Purcell is the Honorary Chair for Sister Cities of Nashville.

Charlemos Spanish is for persons who wish to:

* Speak Spanish on a regular basis
* Make bilingual friends
* Learn more about Hispanic culture.

Founding members of Charlemos Spanish include—

* Claudia Villavicencio, Spanish teacher at MBA, Montgomery Bell Academy
* Kim Sorensen, Online Producer at CMT, Country Music Television
* Diana Holland, President of Tango Nashville, and a Hispanic cross-cultural consultant
* Elizabeth Worrell Braswell, online Spanish instructor for Austin Peay State University, president of Charlemos Spanish.

For directions and more information on the gallery go to: http://www.palettegallerycafe.com

Labels: costa rica, spanish