Young artist awarded M.B.E.

We don’t usually devote much airtime to honours handed out by the
Queen, on the grounds that any award with the name “British Empire” is
highly suspicious at best. But the latest release from the Governor
General has caught our attention. Vested with a royal appointment is one
of our favorite artists, none other than Gilvano Swasey. News 5’s Jose
Sanchez caught up with the gifted twenty-five year old at the Image
Factory this afternoon and asked him how it felt to be the youngest
Belizean to ever have the initials M.B.E. behind his name.

Gilvano Swasey, Artist

“Sunday morning I was told that I was on the Governor Generals
list and I will become a Member of the British Empire. And they said
they were going to announce it on New Year’s Day and in March they were
going to have a ceremony for everybody who got that title and other
titles that were given by the Queen.”

Jose Sanchez

“Now that you have this title what does it mean to you?”

Gilvano Swasey

“Well to be honest, I still don’t know what it entails. All that
I know is that it?s something to show me that my role as an artist,
promoting, documenting, and producing culture is very important. And it
gives me great honor to have something like this. Many times people die
before you get recognition or something like that. It feels very good to
me to know that as a young person, I have come so far and achieved
something like this. And I’m very proud and grateful for this.”

Also included in the Queen’s New Years list are John Crump,
C.B.E., Robert Garcia and Francis Usher, O.B.E. and Benjamin Nicholas,
Francis Reneau and Joan Samuels, M.B.E. In case you were wondering, the
initials stand for Commander, Officer and Member of the British Empire,
respectively.