First National Spanish Spelling Bee Sees 7th Grade Winner

The first national Spanish spelling bee took place over the weekend in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Four states sent participants — Colorado, Texas, New Mexico and Oregon — and was organized to resemble New Mexico’s own Spanish spelling bee. The event was organized by the New Mexico Association for Bilingual Education and the Alliance for Multilingual Multicultural Education and the winner was a seventh grader, Evelyn Juárez, from New Mexico.

The San Antonio Express-News reported:

After two hours, Evelyn Juárez, a seventh-grader from Carlos F. Vigil Middle School of Santa Cruz, N.M., emerged victorious after conquering the last two words in the competition: kanindeyuense, meaning a resident of a part of Uruguay, and bizantinismo, meaning Byzantinism….

Juárez went about an hour toe-to-toe with Germán Rojero, also of New Mexico, dissecting the spelling of dozens of Spanish words considered in the top academic levels of the language…

Native speakers and children who are learning Spanish as a second language are encouraged to participate.

I think this is interesting, though I’m glad I wasn’t forced to participate in one of these growing up! My dad used to get me to spell words in Spanish when we were waiting in line or for a movie to begin, and it seems like both a fun and engaging way to get kids to learn Spanish, what do you think?

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD