The king of Spain and New Orleans’ mayor on Friday saluted the city’s centuries-old Spanish heritage during its tricentennial celebration.
“It might be said that Spain’s history here in Louisiana is not sufficiently well-known, despite the wealth of painstaking research by historians and academics,” Spanish King Felipe VI said at a ceremony in 165-year-old Gallier Hall, which was renovated for the anniversary. “Therefore, we must work to make this Spanish heritage and — no less importantly — the enduring Spanish legacy here, more widely known.”
Three New Orleans streets are named after Spanish governors of Louisiana — Bernardo de Galvez, Estaban Rodriguez Miro and Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said.
“Spanish kissed our city in ruling from 1763 to 1803,” but the heritage did not stop there, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said.
“We would not be where we are ... without that strong partnership,” she said, adding that the city’s strength “has always been rooted in our diversity.”
She gave Felipe and Spanish Queen Letizia a framed ceremonial key to the city.
Louisiana was a Spanish colony from 1763 to 1802, but Felipe — briefly speaking in Spanish — said that historical links date back to 16th and 17th-century Spanish explorers, including Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and Hernando de Soto.
New Orleans was founded in 1718. France gave the Louisiana Territory to Spain in 1763.
“The foundations of society and the culture of this territory had barely been established,” and Spain’s “open and inclusive policy” saw New Orleans grow from 3,500 to nearly 50,000 people, the king said.
“Therefore, when the United States acquired the vast territory of Louisiana, the country not only doubled its size, it also inherited an efficient government; a diverse, multicultural population; and an economic system that was advanced for its time,” he said.
REBUILDING: A researcher said that it might seem counterintuitive to start talking about reconstruction amid the war with Russia, but it is ‘actually an urgent priority’ Italy is hosting the fourth annual conference on rebuilding Ukraine even as Russia escalates its war, inviting political and business leaders to Rome to promote public-private partnerships on defense, mining, energy and other projects as uncertainty grows about the US’ commitment to Kyiv’s defense. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy were opening the meeting yesterday, which gets under way as Russia accelerated its aerial and ground attacks against Ukraine with another night of pounding missile and drone attacks on Kyiv. Italian organizers said that 100 official delegations were attending, as were 40 international organizations and development banks. There are
The tale of a middle-aged Chinese man, or “uncle,” who disguised himself as a woman to secretly film and share videos of his hookups with more than 1,000 men shook China’s social media, spurring fears for public health, privacy and marital fidelity. The hashtag “red uncle” was the top trending item on China’s popular microblog Sina Weibo yesterday, drawing at least 200 million views as users expressed incredulity and shock. The online posts told of how the man in the eastern city of Nanjing had lured 1,691 heterosexual men into sexual encounters at his home that he then recorded and distributed online. The
TARIFF ACTION: The US embassy said that the ‘political persecution’ against former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro disrespects the democratic traditions of the nation The US and Brazil on Wednesday escalated their row over US President Donald Trump’s support for former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, with Washington slapping a 50 percent tariff on one of its main steel suppliers. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva threatened to reciprocate. Trump has criticized the prosecution of Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly plotting to cling on to power after losing 2022 elections to Lula. Brasilia on Wednesday summoned Washington’s top envoy to the country to explain an embassy statement describing Bolsonaro as a victim of “political persecution” — echoing Trump’s description of the treatment of Bolsonaro as
CEREMONY EXPECTED: Abdullah Ocalan said he believes in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons, and called on the group to put that into practice The jailed leader of a Kurdish militant group yesterday renewed a call for his fighters to lay down their arms, days before a symbolic disarmament ceremony is expected to take place as a first concrete step in a peace process with the Turkish state. In a seven-minute video message broadcast on pro-Kurdish Medya Haber’s YouTube channel, Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), said that the peace initiative had reached a stage that required practical steps. “It should be considered natural for you to publicly ensure the disarmament of the relevant groups in a way that addresses the expectations
RSS