2,000 people gather in Oscar Esplá auditorium to celebrate the 'Day of Nationalities'
15 October 2016
The Belgian citizen Marie Rose Speckens receives the homage of all the neighbors
Oscar Esplá Auditorium at L'Aigüera Park in Benidorm has hosted this Saturday the great celebration of the fourth edition of the Day of Nationalities'. An initiative of the Neighborhood Council in collaboration with the department of Citizenship under the slogan 'We are Benidorm' and has gathered nearly 2,000 people in a leisure and cultural act. At 19.00 hours took place the official ceremony with the presence of the councillor for Citizen Participation, María Jesús Pinto; the First Deputy Mayor, Ana Pellicer; the councilman of Major Events, José Ramón González de Zárate; the deputy spokesman, Lourdes Caselles; members of all groups represented in Benidorm City Hall, Agustín Almodóbar, the Senator, the Vice President of the Neighborhood Council, Fernando Montes and other neighborhood associations and representatives of the participating countries. María Jesús Pinto intervened to highlight the "harmony" and "coexistence" of all the groups that make Benidorm "the city that it is" and thanked the Neighborhood Council "the great effort" to organize the event. Subsequently, there was a tribute to the citizen of Belgian origin Rose Marie Speckens, who lives in our country since 1971, she is a professor of French and she was a secretary of the IES Pere Maria Orts i Bosch and now, she is retired and she is one of the voices of the Coral Association of Benidorm. After that it took place a musical show with performances by groups representing all associations which collaborated in the event.
La homenajeada, Rose Marie Speckens (centro, primera fila), con un ramo de flores durante la actuación musical.
En el ‘Día de las Nacionalidades’ han participado colectivos de 20 países que han instalado una treintena de stands con productos típicos de la cultura, folklore y gastronomía de algunos de los países que conviven en Benidorm. De los 72.154 empadronados en la ciudad 24.886, el 34.46%, han nacido en el extranjero (según los datos del censo de diciembre de 2015, publicados por la guía estadística ‘Benidorm en cifras’). Los países con mayor representación son el Reino Unido (3.409 residentes), Rumanía (2.870), Pakistán (1.758), Argelia (1.258), Marruecos (1.236), Colombia (1.196), Ecuador (1.196), Argentina (1.062) y Rusia (969).
