Monica Grayley book launching “A Língua Portuguesa como Ativo Político”
New York City, USA, October 02, 2019 – Monica Grayley book launching “A Língua Portuguesa como Ativo Político” today at The Brazilian Endowment For The Arts in New York City.
Photo: Luiz Rampelotto/EuropaNewswire
The place is described as a hidden gem in New York City. A free library for lovers of literature in the Portuguese language. On 2 October, the Brazilian Endowment of Arts opened its doors to a book launch on the political power of global languages.
The author, former BBC journalist and Ph.D in Political Sciences, Monica Grayley, untapped the role of the Portuguese as a political asset in a 200-page-work which also looks at similar moves already made by French, Spanish and English.
The book was launched at full house capacity and warmly received by a select audience of Ambassadors, senior diplomats and journalists.
The first to take the stage was the Ambassador of Cape Verde to the United Nations, Mr. José Luís Rocha. His country is now presiding over the powerful Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) which unites all Lusophone countries plus 20 others as associate members, France and United Kingdom among them.
Mr. Rocha noted that CPLP’s force was due also to its emerging Member Countries and the commercial force they ignite. The diplomat described CPLP as a strong regional bloc and an increasing political force inside the United Nations. Last week, the United States requested to join CPLP as another associate member.
His counterpart from Portugal, Ambassador Francisco Duarte Lopes highlighted the author’s professional experience with the diplomatic community and her team’s tireless work to keep Lusophone audiences around the globe well informed about the work of the UN. As Chief Editor of UN News Portuguese, Monica broadcasts to all eight Lusophone countries across four continents through UN News and has revolutionized it by introducing a multimedia media operation and turning Portuguese into the first language on social media there, about 10 years ago. Both Ambassadors were very complimentary when describing the author’s passion and love for her language.
Monica is a proud polyglot. She is fluent in English, German and Spanish too and does not shy away from meetings in French. Last year, she took up the role of Spokesperson for the President of the 73rd Session of the General Assembly, former Ecuadorean Foreign Minister, María Fernanda Espinosa. She was the first Brazilian to become a Spokesperson at the GA.
In Mexico, she led the UN Information Centre during the Organization’s 70th Anniversary. In the past, she worked for Deutsche Welle in Germany and led marketing and change-management projects at the BBC. Following her book launch in New York, Monica will move on to Spain, Brazil, Germany and Portugal to continue on gig of A Língua Portuguesa como Ativo Político or the Portuguese Language as a Political Asset. The book is for sale across the globe on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and over 100 book stores in the US, Europe and in Latin America. The author believes that her work will help to unveil Portuguese’s soft power and its secret political influence placing it on the same levels of recognition already enjoyed by French and Spanish.
Spoken by 280 million people in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, Sao Tomé and Principe and in Macao, China, Portuguese was the first language to become global thanks to Portugal’s historic world navigations. Alone in the US, there are over 1 million Portuguese-speakers across Lusophone diasporas.
Source: EuropaNewswire