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Andrea Hernandez Briceno, Caracas, Venezuela, 02 “Mascarilla”

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The triumphant revolutionary leader of the imaginary Latin American country of San Marcos—bearded, clad in green fatigues and smoking a cigar—greets his cheering followers. “Hear me, I am your new president. From this day on, the official language of San Marcos will be Swedish.”

The scene from the 1971 Woody Allen film, Bananas (one of my favorites), plays over and over in my mind, not because of its excellent spoof of democracy and revolution, but because of the mandate to speak Swedish. You see, I’ve been asking myself for months: why Sweden? Week after week, Sweden, just after the United States and outnumbering Brazil, has the greatest number of readers of this newsletter.