When I think about celebrating various cultures, I think of the Walt Disney attraction, “Small World” and the tune that accompanies it. Indeed every culture has its own flavor and should be celebrated.
Through my extensive music career I have been able to sing in 11 different languages. Each language creates its own beauty and character. We learn through the music a little bit about the people. It is nice to recognize that the world is indeed a “mixing pot”. In my family, we have many diverse cultures and ethnicities.
Most recently, we have become more aware of the wave of immigrants who have crossed our borders. We also are aware that our own state of Wyoming is becoming increasingly diverse. In particular, the Latino culture is becoming more prevalent. In the Catholic church in Wyoming, we have over 42% of our people with Spanish at their first language.
At the Cathedral, we are becoming more sensitive to this group by introducing more bilingual music into our liturgy.
Please check out the podcast by Bob Hurd dated October 15 “Shaping Unity While Honoring Diversity”. In this particular podcast, Bob Hurd explains the background on the song “Pan de Vida”, a song we have grown to love in our parish.