TRIBUTE TO PILAR FUERTES FERRAGUT, SPANISH AMBASSADOR TO ZIMBABWE

By Beaven Tapureta

Pilar Fuertes Ferragut (1962-2012)

The Embassy of Spain in Zimbabwe, the arts and culture sector and diplomatic community, have found it hard to accept the tragic loss of a friendly diplomat and arts lover, Pilar Fuertes Ferragut, who passed on in a car accident in Walvis Bay, Namibia on Monday, April 2. She was 50.

The late Pilar, as she was affectionately known to her friends, assumed her diplomatic duties in Zimbabwe in 2009 and doubled as ambassador of Spain to Malawi and Zambia.

Apart from her diplomatic mission in Zimbabwe, Pilar was at the helm of championing the promotion of Zimbabwean arts and culture before and after a Cultural Centre was established at the Embassy in Harare last year.

The Culture Centre runs a number of cultural activities such as the regular Young Women Open Forum, free screening of Spanish films, library services and the book club which is a new baby born last month. The Centre has also begun offering an affordable three month Spanish language course for beginners.

To pay due honour and celebrate the life of Ambassador Pilar, the Embassy of Spain organised a memorial at the Domboshava Interpretive Centre, which is part of the Domboshava National Monument and Museum Site on Tuesday, April 10, at sunset.

The spectacular Domboshava Mountain was Pilar’s favourite place where she visited and loved to introduce her friends to this ‘land of the eland people’.

Chiyedza Nyahuye from the Zimbabwe-German Cultural and Information Centre was the director of ceremony.

Attending the memorial, which received some blessing in form of short-lived showers, were friends of Pilar from the diplomatic, arts and culture communities, who in their memories reflected the sincere traits of a best friend that Pilar was.

Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Tsvangirai, Minister of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment, Saviour Kasukuwere, Mayor of Harare, Muchadeyi Masunda, American Ambassador, Charles Ray, were also part of the memorial.

New Horizon Theatre Company provided entertainment before the opening prayer was led by Papal Nuncio, H.E Archbishop George Kocherry.

Steffano Moscatelli, Ambassador of Italy, said Pilar was one of the first persons he met when he arrived in Zimbabwe. On discovering that Zimbabwean shops generally close early and people retire to their homes early also, Moscatelli, coming from a country with lots of entertainment and leisure, said he wondered if there was anything else to do at night in Zimbabwe.

When he told Pilar about his worry, he said he received a full list of Harare’s popular places of entertainment and this alone demonstrated how much Pilar valued and connected so well with the Zimbabwean arts.

“We should be honoured and blessed to have known Pilar,” said Moscatelli.

Brazilian ambassador Marcia Maro da Silva said that to speak of Pilar is to speak of energy, the joy of living.

“Pilar was a free spirit, she loved people and people loved her back,’’ said Maro da Silva.

The last eight months leading to Pilar’s death were the most memorable for Maro da Silva because whenever Pilar organised any arts event, she would invite her always.

“Pilar used to say that she was inviting me because I was pretty and intelligent. She introduced me to some of the interesting people in this country. To know Pilar has been a privilege and honour,” said Maro da Silver who ended her speech in Spanish language which was the regular language of communication between her and Pilar.

Head of European Union delegation Aldo Dell Ariccia, described Pilar as ‘vital energy’. He underlined his speech with a question, “Zimbabwe, do you realise how lucky you were/are to have Pilar?”

Victoria Tur, Chargee D’ Affaires of the Embassy Spain,  played a song on her violin in memory of her boss whom she said was more of a sister than a boss at the Embassy.

Representing Pilar’s friends from Zimbabwe, Farai Mpofu started her speech with words which Pilar posted on her Facebook wall on March 17, which said, “Everyone dies but not everyone lives.”

Mpofu said Pilar liked to ask questions, to ask ‘why’.

“What can I say about her style, elegance, her poise,” said Mpofu who was one of the women who travelled to Spain to attend a business forum and Pilar facilitated her trip.

Mpofu said Pilar spent lot of time with women from public and private sectors, supporting women, debunking myths.

“Pilar displayed hunhu, ubuntu, with a distinct Mediterranean flavour. She was not weighed down by ambassadorial officialdom and self-importance,” said Mpofu.

Another business woman and author, Dorothy Chanakira, said on the sidelines of the memorial that Pilar also facilitated her trip to Madrid this year to attend another business forum where she had a chance to exhibit for her company Thyrodo Corporation.

Larry Kwirirayi spoke on behalf of Pilar’s friends from the arts and culture in Zimbabwe. He celebrated Pilar with a poem titled ‘Have you ever’, while talented young musician John Pfumojena sang a song ‘Our Zimbabwe’ in memory of Pilar.

Others who spoke at this memorial were the Ambassador of Portugal, Joao Camara and the Minister of Regional Integration and International Cooperation, Priscilla Misihairambwi Mushonga.

Born in Valencia in 1962, Pilar joined the diplomatic service in 1992. Her first job in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was as a Programme Director in the Directorate General of Immigration. Between 1996 and 2003, she worked as the second in command at Spanish embassies in Beirut, Jakarta, Bangkok and Guatemala, and Cairo.

Due to Ambassador Pilar’s death, the Embassy of Spain has suspended all cultural activities until further notice.

 

A Lover of the Local Artists

The Late Pilar, pictured in Zimbabwe

An affable diplomat armed with an ‘open door policy’, a woman of the people, Ambassador Pilar was well known in the local arts circles that artists will always cherish her work in Zimbabwe and wish other diplomatic missions in the country could follow suit in advancing the local artistic talent.

To strengthen cultural ties between Zimbabwe and Spain, the Embassy of Spain last year established a Cultural Centre which has so far unveiled a number of activities.

Not only has the Embassy initiated new programmes for local artists but it has also been actively involved in the activities already being done by various artists and collaborated with various arts organisations.

Last year, the Embassy came in full support of a fundraising performance organised by the Harare City Library.

The award-winning library expected to raise $400 000 through the performance of the pantomime ‘Robinson Crusoe’ at the Reps Theatre in Harare. The money was needed for restoration and refurbishment of the library building which was established in 1902 as ‘Queen Victoria Memorial Library’.

The Embassy, in support of the Library’s efforts to nurture a culture of reading in Zimbabwe, bought all seats for the performance.

One of the young and rising stars in the music industry, Clare Nyakujara, an Afro-jazz artist who leads the band The Other 4, launched her second album ‘Unleashed’ courtesy of the Embassy. Nyakujara’s first album is called ‘Haudineyi”.

Through the Embassy, local artists have become aware of Spanish arts festivals which promote cultural exchange; such festivals as the African Film Festival (FCAT) which has been held since 2004 in Spain and aims to “promote and spread African and Arabic cinematography in Spain and Spanish-speaking Latin-America through specific actions focussed on cooperation, teaching methods and training”.

Calls for entries to this festival are made known by the Embassy to Zimbabwean film-makers who want to participate. This year’s edition of FCAT will take place in the new host city of Cordoba, Spain, from October 13-21.

The Young Women Open Forum, held in collaboration with the Zimbabwe Young Women’s Network for Peace Building (ZYWNP), has tackled issues relevant to the life of today’s Zimbabwean woman. At this forum, women from different sectors of society, either public figures or virtually unknown, come together to discuss and find solutions to problems they face in society. Previous discussions have centred on sex workers and taboos on sexual health, and women and men in the battle against gender-based violence.

At times, the forum uses works of fiction by women writers such as Virginia Phiri to illuminate their discussions.

Due to Ambassador Pilar’s death, the forum postponed its next Young Women Open Forum discussion which was to tackle ‘key features to describe what it means to be a woman in Zimbabwe’. Also postponed was the second meeting of the new book club which was scheduled for April 4.

The Cultural Centre also shares Spanish culture with Zimbabweans by screening different Spanish films such as the 2012 Oscar nominated ‘Chico and Rita’, ‘Planet 51’ screened during last year’s edition of Zimbabwe Festival of African Inspired Animation, ‘the Other Side of the Bed’ and the recently screened ‘You only live Once’, an Indian/Spanish film.

In February this year the Embassy organised a commemoration of the late writer Julius Sekai Chingono at the Theatre in the Park, Harare, where the late Pilar said she fell in love with Zimbabwean literature the moment she got into a bookstore.

The Embassy has also strengthened relationship between Zimbabwe and Spain in the tourism industry through the Investour forum in Spain.

The forum aims to make known Africa's potential for Spanish tourism investment, presenting companies in the sector with proposals for projects in African countries, and facilitating contact between operators in Spain and Africa engaged in areas such as tourism project financing and investments, the promotion and representation of destinations in the Spanish outbound market, the creation and improvement of hotel establishments, and others.

Information about the Investour forum is published by the Embassy to Zimbabweans working in the tourism industry.

For putting weight to the cultural life of Zimbabwe, Ambassador Pilar became a friend of artists across all genres.

It surely is devastating to lose someone who had connected so well with the cultural life of Zimbabwe. Yet God’s decision cannot be slanted a bit and all we can do is celebrate her life and say, ‘Go well and in peace, Ambassador, for although the end is painful, this same end crowns you now in the place God has made for you....’