Latin American Cultural Festival continues until September

Sonia Chan Prado, MAPEAL executive director and treasurer, said that Macau’s residents are generally positive toward the association’s Latin American Cultural Festival. However, she has observed that they do not have a good knowledge of Latin America.
For example, one of the activities of the festival was a drawing competition with a Latin American-related theme for children.
“We found that many kids do not know the countries well. They would draw a picture of Iguazu Falls (which is in Argentina), but said it was in Peru…from their themes, you would find some mistakes there.”
Therefore, Sonia Chan Prado believes that children should be taught the culture and geography of Latin America when they are still young.
She said that the food festival is one of the most popular elements in the cultural festival. Sonia Chan Prado said that around 100 chefs and staff from local restaurants and hotel resorts have attended the cooking demonstrations of three prominent Latin American chefs at the Institute for Tourism Studies.
“The response from the [local] chefs was very good because many of them had never tried any Latin American cuisine. They were [curious] about the cooking styles and ingredients (…) the Latin American chefs have brought with them some special ingredients [to Macau].”
The Cultural Festival runs until September 29. More information about the event, including its detailed program, is available in www.latinamericanfestival.org.