Esta ley declara el 14 de febrero de cada año como el "Día del Declamador Puertorriqueño" para reconocer y promover el arte de la declamación en Puerto Rico. La ley instruye a varias entidades gubernamentales y culturales a organizar actividades para conmemorar este día y destacar la importancia de los declamadores en la cultura puertorriqueña.
(Approved September 16, 2004)
To declare the $14^{ ext {th }}$ day of February of every year to be the "Puerto Rican Declaimer Day."
In Puerto Rico, there is a great number of persons who enjoy the art of declamation. Some are inspired by life itself, others by their experiences, and others love poetry, and they express their sentiments and ideas about God, homeland, women, men, mother and their people. Our excellent Puerto Rican poets put these expressions on paper, and declaimers bring it to life. Poetry contributes its part to the inspiration of declaimers, whose trade is a part of the scenic arts.
Gestures, hearing, speech, words are, even before art, the mechanisms through which we are able to understand life and the world. However, these are not the only human resources to gain access to the secrets and the possibilities of our world.
Life presents itself as an array of things, things we have done and things we have experienced, all of which are like loose elements which we seek to interlink. We are all these things put together, all of them leaving a living impression, which we seek to arrange into a logical order. This order imparts sense to the story we tell, which we declaim; it imparts sense to the story which we are, our response to the existential question-who are we.
Human life may only be termed as such if one lives and has a story to tell; if there is no story to tell, it does not deserve to be thus called.
For all these reasons, the art of declamation calls for those in said practice to possess many, many qualities. Declaimers must wield with mastery every word which they recite. Text selection is a key element in this art. Declaimers must be careful when selecting a text which they are to declaim; it must be sound both in structure and in content, in terms of substance. When declaimers meet in the competitive arena, as is the case on occasion, only the best shall prevail over their contenders.
It is important to point out that in declaiming a great deal of effort is directed to memorizing the text to be declaimed. Declaimers must commit each and every word of the text to memory so that they may bring it to life later through their expression. This constitutes a great part of the beauty of this art form.
Puerto Rico has produced prodigious exponents of this art, both in the past and in the present, who have brought glory to their homeland with their melodious verses and their austere performances in which they convey their souls through the prism of passion as they ponder the mysteries of earthly existence.
Section 1.-The $14^{ ext {th }}$ day of February of each year is hereby declared to be the "Puerto Rican Declaimer Day."
Section 2.-The Secretary of State of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico shall issue, at least ten (10) days in advance of February 14 of each year, a proclamation to encourage the people of Puerto Rico to express their admiration and support and to pay due homage to Puerto Rican declaimers
by organizing and sponsoring activities proper to the declaration and commemoration of the "Puerto Rican Declaimer Day."
Section 3.-The Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, the Puerto Rico Public Broadcasting Corporation, and the Luis A. Ferré Fine Arts Center, as well as the public bodies and entities and the municipalities of Puerto Rico, shall adopt the measures needed to achieve the objectives of this Act by organizing and holding activities to commemorate and promote this artistic and cultural expression on the "Puerto Rican Declaimer Day." Furthermore, the importance of declaimers as an essential part of Puerto Rican culture shall be made known. The participation of the citizenry and private entities in these activities shall also be promoted.
Section 4.-A copy of the Annual Proclamation shall be given to the news media of the Island for its diffusion.
Section 5.-This Act shall take effect immediately after its approval.
I hereby certify to the Secretary of State that the following Act No. 362 (H.B. 4288) of the $7^{ ext {th }}$ Session of the $14^{ ext {th }}$ Legislature of Puerto Rico:
AN ACT to declare the $14^{ ext {th }}$ day of February of every year to be the "Puerto Rican Declaimer Day", has been translated from Spanish to English and that the English version is correct.
In San Juan, Puerto Rico, today $8^{ ext {th }}$ of June of 2006.
Francisco J. Domenech Director