Terranova.
Nombre tradicional español de esta isla de Canadá, que también forma parte del
nombre de la provincia de Terranova y Labrador.No debe usarse en español la
forma inglesa Newfoundland.
RAE
When my Rosemary and my two young daughters arrived in
Vancouver from Mexico City in 1975 we had to learn to settle into a country and city that at least three of us (not Rosemary) found to be foreign.
One of my first jobs as a photographer was to take TV station ID slides for the new French CBC channel. They wanted to be independent
from the English side so they hired me to take photographs that would represent
Vancouver. It was working for the CBC that gave me a glimpse of feeling that I
was part of my new country and city.
Very important for me was to find out from CBC Radio how to
pronounce Newfoundland. It had to be Newfun-land.
Before my arrival to Vancouver, Canada was an exotic place,
as exotic as my Canadian wife, her beautiful legs and long blonde hair. Of
Canada I was completely ignorant. It was Rosemary who told me of a man called
Trudeau.
One of those exotic places in Canada was Terranova. The
above citation from my Real Academia Española
dictionary stipulates that we should never use the English form of Terranova,
Newfoundland!
Today is Earth Day and the Spanish name for Newfoundland, “New
Land” conveys for me a new beginning. It is a sunny day in our small Kits
garden. The plants are leafing out and some of my hostas are unfurling their
shoots. It is a beautiful day to celebrate the occasion.