MONTEGO BAY, St James — Excitement filled the grounds of the Irwin Primary School in St James on Thursday as the institution celebrated its inaugural Spanish Heritage Day.

Seven other primary schools in the parish — Barracks Road Primary, Chetwood Memorial Primary, Corinaldi Primary, Howard Cooke Primary, Farm Primary, Mount Salem Primary, and Green Pond Primary — also participated in the event, held under the theme ‘Empowering our Students to become Bilingual through Spanish’.

The event saw students presenting information and creative pieces inspired by different Spanish-speaking countries across the world.

Spanish teacher at Irwin Primary School Ziede Sanchez-Guillaume told the Jamaica Observer West that the observance of Spanish Heritage Day is their effort to promote excellence and diversity among students.

Sanchez-Guillaume noted that all students enrolled at her school are taught the second language as they aim to instil a culture of inclusivity.

“It is very important for every citizen to know a second language and not even just the language, but the culture as well,” said the teacher.

“In the case of our students, they love Spanish and it is an aspiration from the United Nations agenda 2030 that most of the people over the world become bilingual. So, in Jamaica, we want our citizens to become bilingual and adopt Spanish as a second language here,” Sanchez-Guillaume added.

She further told the Observer West that Irwin Primary is hoping to partner with other primary institutions across the western region to create a tradition of celebrating Spanish Heritage Day with their students.

“This is our first staging of this event and we did not have any reference of anything like this on the island, but we want to continue. Earlier we cut the ribbon and declared January 26 as Spanish Heritage Day at Irwin Primary School, so we are looking at the long-term vision and we are going to celebrate it every year,” she said.

For grade five Irwin Primary student Omeshia Barnett, the Spanish Heritage Day event was everything she was hoping for. The young girl told the Observer West that she was first introduced to the language when she entered the institution at the age of six and is looking forward to travelling to different countries where she can utilise the language.

“This is really nice. I know some of the songs being played. I think this is very important, so when I go to Spanish [speaking] countries I can talk to the people there,” the youngster said.

sJasirah Meyler, a grade six student, also welcomed the inauguration of Spanish Heritage Day at her school.

“I love it because in Jamaica we don’t normally celebrate different countries’ heritage day, we only celebrate our own, so I think it was a good idea for us to celebrate Spanish Heritage Day,” Meyler said.

She, too, has big dreams of travelling to Spanish-speaking countries.

“I love to learn Spanish, because when I grow up I want to travel the world, so it will help me to communicate with other people to ask for help if I need it,” said the young girl.

And Jaleel Channer could not contain his excitement when the Observer West asked his thoughts on the Spanish Heritage Day event at his school.

“This is a great event for me because my sister does Spanish and she is the best at Herbert Morrison and she is about to graduate next year. So I would love to learn Spanish because very soon my mother will be taking me across the world,” said the grade six student.

Grade three student Destinique Powell was mostly intrigued by the performances.

“Spanish is the best thing to perform and when you are dancing to Spanish [music], it makes you feel alive and well,” she said.

Nickeisha Fraser-Black, the Spanish teacher who teaches lower school students at Irwin Primary, told the Observer West the excitement that was being displayed during the event was not unusual. She pointed out that students have grown fond of learning the second language.

“The children are very excited by the thought of visiting other countries and speaking their language. I go into the classes and see how the children react to hearing the language or hearing themselves speaking the language and they are excited about doing that,” Fraser-Black said.

The teacher noted that it is very important to introduce young children to different cultures as it helps to deepen their understanding.

Yanara Pulito, a Spanish teacher from Farm Primary, is already looking forward to the next staging of the event.

“I would love it if they could organise something like this every year. It doesn’t matter which school hosts it, but we should make it happen,” Pulito said.