XUNICEF News and Views

One perk of living in NYC is that friends and old colleagues often make a stopover (usually on their way to somewhere else.)

Article shared by Oscar Fernandez A very incisive and objective view of the current crisis in Gaza! Is Hamas succeeding with their objectives? A conclusion that emerges from this article is that part of the solution is the removal of Netanyahu and a change in regime in Israel. Here is one excerpt from the article. "According to Devorah Margolin , an expert on Hamas at the center-right Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the entire point of the October 7 attack was to provoke a massive Israeli response. Handbooks and guidance sheets discovered on killed and captured Hamas fighters revealed instructions to be graphically, sadistically violent — instructions we know were fully carried out ." “The goal of that [ultraviolence] was to create a visceral response from Israel that would be seen as so disproportionate that the violence it carried out on October 7 was pushed to the side, and that Israel would be seen as the irrational actor,” she tells me. “In that sense, I thin...

This is about an old UNICEF friend, who later married my cousin and became part of my family. The article is about Carlos going back to the University of Pittsburgh and officially graduating with his PhD in 1974, after meeting the requirements and defending his thesis, Carlos went on to work with UNICEF. Because of his busy schedule and travels with the organization, he never had the opportunity to attend the graduation ceremony and commencement. After 40 years, he was able to finally complete his dream and be officially honored by the faculty and University. By the way, Carlos is a current member of our XUNICEF group. Regards, Oscar Jose Carlos Manduley smiles as he takes his place in line. He’s resplendent in his dark robe and mortar board. His blue and gold PhD hood is draped across his left arm. At the University of Pittsburgh’s Fitzgerald Field House, he marches proudly among the hundreds of other School of Education graduates. They are ready to walk across the stage, accept t...

It has been a year since our last post on the Las Fallas festival. Here we are again celebrating the arrival of spring and honoring Saint Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters The origin of las Fallas comes from the old carpenter's tradition who, when celebrating the arrival of spring on 19th March, used to burn pieces of wood (parots) that were used to prop up their lights during the winter. Fast forward to contemporary Fallas celebrations where different organizations spend all year building their most creative and often with a poignant message assembly of characters made of papier-mâché and wood for display. Every year a committee goes around the city looking to nominate the best Fallas. The winning Fallas is spared from being burned on the night of the 19th. The winning and most creative figures are later exhibited in Valencia's Fallas museum. We took pictures of the first prize winning Fallas and here they are for your enjoyment. This year's Fallas has turned out to...

On the road again! Susie and I are taking another one of our road-trips in Spain. This one is taking us to Cordoba, Granada, Malaga, Sevilla, then finally back home to Valencia. The first leg of our Andalucía road trip started with a train ride from Valencia to Cordoba. We rented a car in Cordoba for the rest of the trip. Córdoba is currently the city that hosts the most UNESCO World Heritage titles in the world, which includes the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba, and that is where we started our tour. The Mosque-Cathedral - The immensity and wonders of this magnificent religious building manage to leave you completely dazzled! It is impossible to overstate the beauty of the great mosque of Córdoba, with its remarkably serene and spacious interior. One of the greatest works of Islamic architecture in the world, the Mosque hints, with all its brilliant decoration, at a refined age when Muslims, Jews and Christians lived together and enriched their city with a heady interplay of diverse and...

 Michel Saint-Lot is sending greetings and best wishes for 2023 to the XUNICEF community! Here in Valencia with Oscar and Susan

Last August I published an article in News & Views about the visit my wife, Susan and I made to Valencia ( Our Travellers of the Week - Oscar Fernandez and Susi Csikos : Nuestro Viaje a Madrid y Valencia, España ). As I explained in that article, we were already considering a move to Valencia and used the trip as an opportunity to explore the city and its neighborhoods. We came back from our trip convinced that Valencia would be an excellent place to live. Now 10 months later here we are in Valencia." We arrived on January 2nd and it is already starting to feel like home. Why Spain? Well, for one thing. Spain is my blood. My ancestors migrated from Spain to Cuba in the early 1900s. Both my paternal and maternal grandparents came over from Galicia, Asturias, and Zaragoza. When I left Cuba as a teenager, fleeing the oppressive Castro’s communist regime, I first came to Madrid, where I spent 6 months. I fell in love with the country then. At the time, I had a spiritual feeling t...