Within White House photographer Pete Souza’s images of the First Family’s visit to Cuba lay a charming bit of information that could have easily gotten lost amidst all the history making: Malia Obama can hang in Spanish. One photo of Barack Obama and Malia simply read, “President Barack Obama and daughter Malia share a laugh as Malia interprets in Spanish for a restauranteur in Havana, Cuba.” Now, as she starts her gap year – before heading to Harvard University in 2017 – Malia will get her Spanish game up with her internship at the US Embassy in Spain.
Spanish publication ABC speculates that the internship may be tied to Obama’s friendship with James Costo, the US ambassador to Spain (and the guy who helped bring Game of Thrones to the European country). But I’m personally hoping it’s because she recognizes how increasingly important Spanish has become in the US and she wants to fully immerse herself. Either way, it seems she’s fulfilling Obama’s wish.
Recently, in an interview with gringo ABC, he patted himself on the back for his Spanish pronunciation, but said he regretted not learning the language. “You know, (Malia’s) Spanish is much better than mine. And I’m hoping that she has a chance to get entirely fluent. My vocabulary is the equivalent of a 2-year-old’s,” he said. “It’s one of things I’ve always said to myself that I’m gonna take care of. But… it turned out that, during the presidency, I didn’t have time to take Spanish lessons.”