The iconic Times Square, in the heart of Manhattan, was this morning (Monday to Tuesday) the stage chosen to show the AINA project to the world.
In the presence of the of the Catalan community abroad, one of the giant screens of Times Square has shown the AINA project. The action aims to vindicate Catalan as a language of the future in the digital world. As part of the Sant Jordi events of the Catalan community in New York, the performance consisted of the broadcast, on one of the giant screens of Times Square and in front of the Catalan delegation gathered in the legendary New York Square, of a promotional video of the AINA project with the message:
“Som digitals. Som catalans. Ja és hora que Internet parli català”.
(“We are digital. We are Catalans. It's time for the Internet to speak Catalan.")
The vice-president of the Government and Minister of Digital Policies and Territory, Jordi Puigneró, who led the action, insisted that "now more than ever, Catalan needs to be defended as a language of use on the Internet and in the digital field. We have done it in Northern Catalonia, in the Islands, in the Valencian Country and today we wanted to shout to the world that there are 11 million speakers behind Catalan".
For Puigneró "We do not have the tools of a state to defend the language, but we have the will and the capability to create projects like AINA. We have our own language and a universal culture that must be also able to have its space, in the digital world."
Puigneró conveyed this same message during the subsequent presentation of the AINA project to the Catalan community abroad, whom he invited to get involved in the project because “to defend Catalan as the digital language of the future we need the collaboration of everyone, also and especially of the Catalonia abroad”.
Thanks to the collaboration of Ràdio América Barcelona (RAB), a Transoceanic Catalan radio station with studios in Barcelona and Catalan centers in several South American countries, the vice-president has been able to present the AINA project in Catalonia abroad in a special program made from New York and with live connections with the Catalan community on Twitter and with the Catalan centers in Brussels (Belgium), Guayaquil (Ecuador), Mexico City (Mexico) and La Plata (Argentina).
During the program, which has been broadcast live on RAB's Internet and Twitch radio channels, the Catalan communities of the different centers contacted have actively participated in the recording of voices for the AINA project so that technology can speak and understand Catalan, and have explained the activities they carry out to promote and keep the Catalan language alive abroad.
The presentation of the AINA project in outer Catalonia from New York was carried out taking advantage of the stay of Vice President Puigneró in the American city on the occasion of his participation as a representative of Catalonia in the High Level Meeting of UN Habitat on the Implementation of the New Urban Agenda, to be held in New York from 26 to 28 April.