Learn Spanish the way Diplomats do

           Holy Week (Semana Santa) and Easter (Pascua)

A couple of old Venezuelan bills. The top one shows Bolívar with Sucre (wait for the Ecuadorean national day for more about Sucre); the bottom one shows the monument to the Battle of Carabobo, the final battle in Bolívar's campaign for independence from Spain.

Among North American protestants and many Catholics, Christmas is the center or their religion. In Latin countries, though Easter is far more important. Easter is preceded by six weeks of Lent (cuaresma), supposed to be fasting, prayer, and meditation. The last week before Easter (between Palm Sunday) and Good Friday is Holy Week ( Semana Santa)- Christmas is celebrated, but more as an import from the North (like the Christmas tree)
This is supposed to be a time of special worship, but in modern times it has become more an excuse for taingt a vacation, visiting relatives ,etc- In many ways this is a shame, as more and more of the old traditions are drowned in the flood of modernity. The best advice I can give you is not to attempt to do business during Holy Week.

At three p,m, on Good Friday (the presumed time of Christ's crucifiction, everything is supposed to stop for an hour of prayer. A surprising number of families still preserve this
custom

The famous pieta by     No, these are not KKK. A modern rendition of Yes, they do have easter

Michelango                  The robes and hoods are the resurrection.           eggs and bunnies .                                                                                                            Whether this is

                                                                                                              traditional or a modern

                                                                                                               import, I don't know,

                                                                                                               although I suspect the

                                                                                                               I suspect the latter.

Over 300 million people speak Spanish as a first language, and 90% of them are in the Western Hemisphere.

Spanish is one of the "easiest" languages for an English speaker to learn.

Lawrence Eagleburger was the U.S. Secretary of State during the first Gulf War. Read what he has to say about the program here.