Radio Havana Cuba | Cuban Julio Carranza distinguished as Head of UNESCO – Guatemala (+ photos)

Guatemala, February 15 (RHC) The Guatemalan government honored the work of the representative and director of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Cuban Julio Carranza, who was awarded the Order of Antonio José de Irisari.

Introducing the decoration, President Alejandro Giamatti noted that Carranza arrived in that country in 2013 and since then has accompanied the country in promoting education and culture, supporting peace and youth, as well as protecting heritage culture and strategies. to reduce poverty.

“It is my pleasure to give you this order, as it is gratitude for the excellent work as a friend of our country,” said the head of state.

I hope that the sincere gratitude with which I utter these words to receive the appreciation with humility is felt, and was acknowledged, for his part, by the Doctor of Science from the University of Havana.

“When I received the news, believe me, it was a very pleasant surprise, because for a moment I did not think that I deserved this distinction. It took me a few minutes to understand what it was because of my 25 years at UNESCO, nine were in Guatemala, one great privilege.”

It was a country that I had felt in me for decades, he said, because since my first academic years at the Center for South American Studies in Havana I had the opportunity to study and publish articles on its fascinating history and culture.

As part of his experiences, he recalled attending a remarkable course given by the unforgettable playwright and thinker of this nation, Manuel Galic, and hearing a conference in Mexico given by Luis Cardoza of Aragon, among others, since then Guatemala has remained unstable. Only in the lines of my hand, but also in the heart, recognized.

He emphasized that the second reason was that the history of my country and Guatemala had been closely intertwined since the nineteenth century, when transcendent figures such as José Martí and José Joaquín Palma found housing and affection here.

Also upon receiving the news, I delved into the life-giving historical figure of this order, now honoring me, Antonio José de Irrizarre, and found in the books a character of an extraordinary life, almost like a novelist, and a thinker, a politician, a scholar, a linguist and a philologist who has notable contributions to this Specialization, he recalls.

Carranza, who began his career at UNESCO in 1998, explained that I found a practical man who left his deep mark in many countries of the region from Guatemala, Central America and Mexico to Chile, his second home, passing through Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. As a specialist in the education sector at the Regional Office of Culture in Havana, Cuba. (fountain: latin press)