New US Ambassador to Spain Actually Speaks Spanish!
In a very surprising move, the US has appointed a new ambassador to Spain who, gasp!, actually speaks Spanish! Eduardo Aguirre is of Basque decent, born in Cuba, but a naturalized citizen of the US since he was 15 years old. The previous US ambassador, George Argyros, was a businessman with virtually no knowledge of the Spanish language.
While carrying the message that President Bush believes Spain to be a very important country in Europe–noting that Bush made his very first international trip as president to Spain–Aguirre acknowledged that there is a lot of work to do to repair the damage to US-Spanish relations after the controversy and tensions born prior to the withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq. Spain withdrew her troops from Iraq after the landslide defeat of the previous conservative government.
See the article as published in El Pa??s.