2003 FEBRUARY 13 #044
A testament to the beauty of the Esperanto language as spoken by San Diego natives. The album consists of thirteen cover songs performed in Esperanto, and features a booklet of Esperanto lyrics so you can sing along. On the album jacket is a bay front photo of downtown San Diego circa 1981. The back has additional album credits and thanks, in Esperanto of course. Found at the Purple Heart thrift store (San Diego).
- Buffy Budz
What is Esperanto? (from the Virtual Esperanto Library):
Esperanto is a language designed to facilitate communication between people of different lands and cultures. It was first published in 1887 by Dr. L. L. Zamenhof (1859-1917) under the pseudonym "Dr. Esperanto", meaning "one who hopes", and this is the name that stuck as the name of the language itself. Esperanto is considerably easier to learn than national languages, since its design is far simpler and more regular. Also, unlike national languages, Esperanto allows communication on an equal footing between people, with neither having the usual cultural advantage favouring a native speaker. Esperanto's purpose is not to replace any other language, but to supplement them: Esperanto would be used as a neutral language when speaking with someone who doesn't know one's own language. The use of Esperanto would also protect minority languages, which would have a better chance of survival than in a world dominated by a few powerful languages.
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from the LP, "San Diego Vokas"
(Images courtesy of Buffy Budz and Stephen Downs)