Play “El Invierno de León”
Comedy, Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m., Casa Cultural Amón, Technology Institute, Barrio Amón, San José.

String Concert
Guest Director José Aurelio Castillo, 7 p.m., National Theater.

Harmony Roads in Concert
El Boyero, San Antonio de Escazú, 8:30 p.m., information: 289-9549.

Salsa
Son de Tiquicia, Jazz Café, San Pedro, 10 p.m.

Rap funk at Observatorio
Rapper Dan Robinson teams up with sax-player Andrés “Fofo” Madrigal and duo Santos & Zurdo at El Observatorio bar, San José , 8 p.m.

Mexican rockers in Mal País
Band Defecto play free concert at Mar Azul bar in Mal País, 8 p.m.

Jungleman Marathon
A 21/42 km race starting at 7 a.m., Puerto Viejo, Limón, luis@adventurerace.com.

National Racquetball Tournament
Singles and doubles, Costa Rica Country Club, Escazú, 234-6368, info@racquetballcr.com.

'Hablando Se Entiende la Gente'
Monologue, Friday through Sunday, Eugene O'Neill Theater, CCCN, 275-7570.

Experimental world music
Cardamomo, Jazz Café, San Pedro, 10 p.m.

60th Anniversary of Roblealto Camp
Including moon walks, swimming pool, soccer games, concerts, food sale, 8 a.m., free admission, San José de la Montaña, 266-0041, 266-0048.

Concerts at Theater
Brass concert guest conductor Terry Everson, 10:30 p.m.; woodwinds, guest conductor Jorge Rodríguez, 5 p.m., both at National Theater, San José.

Miguel Cabrera
Singer-songwriter at Jazz Café, San Pedro, 10 p.m.

Dog show
Organized by the Canine Association, 9:30 a.m., Terramall, Tres Ríos.

U.S. expats worldwide have made their choice. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, a senator from Illinois, won 65% of the vote on global primaries held Feb. 5 to Feb. 12.

According to Democrats Abroad, the group that organized the first-ever primary outside the U.S. borders, more than 20,000 expats living in 164 countries voted.

Members of the Costa Rica chapter also voted overwhelmingly for the neophyte senator, local representatives said (TT, Feb. 8).

The Democrats Abroad votes count as a state and the group will send 14 delegates, each with a half-vote, to the national nominating convention in August.

Longtime resident Mavis Biesanz succumbed to an acute lung infection yesterday morning at the age of 88.

Biesanz authored several books, including “The Ticos: Culture and Social Change in Costa Rica,” co-written with son, Richard, and daughter, Karen. Most recently, she wrote a bilingual book of stories and poems entitled “ Un Año con Carmen /A Year with Carmen.”

The widow of John Biesanz, who died in 1995, Mavis Biesanz was a proud mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.

A memorial will be held Saturday at 3 p.m. at the home of her son, woodworker Barry Biesanz, in the western San José suburb of San Antonio de Escazú. For information, please call Biesanz Woodworks at 289-4337.

Learn the tongue you're born into, for it could save a language. That's the message yesterday from United Nations representatives in Panama and minority language promoters worldwide who were marking International Mother Language Day.

Headquartered in Panama, the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) regional department for Latin America and the Caribbean made a call to countries to keep their endangered languages alive. There are close to 500 catalogued languages in Latin America but only a fraction of the region's schools offer bilingual education because of “scarce budgetary spending on the part of governments,” according to UNICEF's regional director, Nils Kastberg.

“Therefore, it shouldn't be a surprise that the geographical areas inhabited by indigenous people have the highest rates of illiteracy, of children being left back at school or dropping out,” he said.

The U.N. proclaimed 2008 the International Year of Languages, aiming to encourage governments and citizens to make a greater effort to protect their tongues, particularly those in danger of extinction.

“A language is not just a communication code, it's also a way of getting to know and categorizing reality, nature, social relations and emotions,” Kastberg said.

There are up to 23 different languages spoken in Guatemala alone – one of which, Garifuna, with hints of English, French and Spanish, can also be heard in other countries on the Caribbean. Bibrí is another example of a language spoken across borders in Nicaragua and Honduras and parts of Panama and Costa Rica.