• Submitted by: manso
• Society
• 11 / 26 / 2010

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Confidences from the young woman who is to go forward to the Hispanic-American Contest after winning the National Spelling Bee with 100 perfect points

THOSE who know her well, say that she gets nervous at the time of important exams. Nevertheless, these days, Lisandra Cutiño Viñals seems to be completely calm and at peace with the world, even knowing that she is to represent Cuba in the Hispanic-American Spelling Bee Contest, scheduled for mid-December in Montevideo, Uruguay.

"I never thought of it as a goal" she admitted in a soft voice. And she added, "I presented myself from my senior high, the Luis Urquiza Jorge, at the provincial bee in Las Tunas and finally in the national contest, there in Havana, where I won as well.

First they dictated 10 sentences to all of the contestants and then 20 free words. The student from Guantánamo and I won 100 points, but they gave me first place because I took less time."

And your nerves?

"They shot up, but also I was sure of my knowledge. I remember that the teacher, Gilberto Guevara, who prepared me and went with me to the contest, called the school and my family in Amancio Rodríguez municipality, to give them the news. I think that he was as happy as I was..."

An understandable reaction. Hopes were pinned on Lisandra that her senior high in Las Tunas would win first place in this difficult test, a place that it has held for 11 years.

In Gilberto’s opinion, Lisandra’s strengths lie in her assurance and her mechanisms for responding rapidly; she works very well with the dictionary, she has the skills to handle herself, a solid base and a great facility for incorporating new words, grasping their meaning and associating them with the written word, even if such terms are very literary or technical in origin.

In response to a question, the young woman smiles slightly and affirmed, "I owe my good spelling to reading. As a child I enjoyed reading story and adventure books; since then I have continued reading about history and other subjects. Also I use the dictionary a lot, I go to it every time I come across a word that I don’t know."

Do you consider that that’s the best road to good spelling?

"I think so, and it’s also important to listen to the teacher in class. If we all did that, we wouldn’t have so many problems with writing, with punctuation marks and essays, including students who prefer biochemistry, like me, or other sciences."

Any fears of facing the challenge of Montevideo?

"It will be a hard contest, but I feel secure. I’ll continue preparing myself and although I’d like to win, I am not tied blindly to that idea. I’m going to make every effort to perform well there and raise Cuba’s name and prestige as high as possible."

Translated by Granma International