The Translators and Interpreters Services Team (ESTI in Spanish) celebrated yesterday the 50th anniversary of its foundation, in an emotional ceremony attended by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez.
During the tribute, Political Bureau member and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, underscored the imprint of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz in the gestation and development of ESTI: “The greatest challenge as a speaker and writer, and at the same time the greatest motivation and the greatest school for the training of translators and interpreters,” he said.
ESTI’s performance, the Chancellor noted, has been inextricably linked to the work of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution. “In his tours around the world; in his longest and most transcendental speeches, in which the simultaneous interpreters, enraptured as he was, gave up being relieved to continue transmitting the fiery words of the “boss”, as he was affectionately called,” he affirmed.
The Commander would call himself, on one occasion, “the greatest beneficiary of ESTI’s services”, but also “the main generator of ESTI’s headaches”, recalled Rodríguez, quoted by the Presidency’s website.
He highlighted ESTI’s work in the daily communication with the rest of the world; in the international missions; in all the major international events held in the country; in each declaration of the Cuban Government; in the support Cuba has achieved in the international arena; in each new victory against the blockade in the United Nations; in the development of regional integration processes.
Also in the intense activity of Cuban foreign policy; in the work with our trading partners; in the commercialization and export of pharmaceutical products; in the resistance to COVID-19 and the success of Cuban vaccines; in the renegotiation of debts; in the defense of the homeland cause before international courts; in the struggle for the sustainability and subsistence of the Cuban socialist project.
The protagonists of that history were recognized in the presence of the Prime Minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, and the general director of ESTI, Rafael Dausá Céspedes. The work of the founders and of those who have more than 45 years of service and are still active were awarded.
The ESTI Award was presented to Marisol Cossío Fernández as a new professional; the bilateral interpretation award to Caridad Zenaida García; the translation award to Naysa Celsa Nieves; the simultaneous interpretation award to Ana Ciria Rodríguez, a reference for the institution’s young people; and the professional training award to the simultaneous interpreter Juan Carlos Saladré Despaigne.
The highest award given by the ESTI -the Juan Ortega Gatell Special Award- went to Gilberto Bengochea, a renowned and respected translator with a long career at the institution.
Edited by Liubis Balart Martínez
