Epcot’s International Pavilions Operate as True Global Village

The international flavor of some of the exhibits at Walt Disney World’s Epcot Center isn’t just a fantasy. It’s real.

Since the center opened in October, 1982, more than 1,000 young people at a time from 10 nations have spent six months to a year staffing the 11 spectacular cultural pavilions at this unique global exposition.

The international pavilions--representing Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, the United States, Japan, Morocco, France, the United Kingdom and Canada--border a 41-acre lagoon. They are celebrations of the culture and customs of nations with the sites, sounds and tastes providing unique and authentic visual experiences of each land.

At the French pavilion, for example, there is a replica of the Eiffel Tower. A replica of St. Mark’s Square marks the Italian pavilion.

There’s a traditional Medina (native quarter) in the Moroccan pavilion, a Mayan pyramid at the entrance to the Mexican pavilion, a replica of Beijing’s Temple of Heaven at the Chinese pavilion, an 8th-Century pagoda at the Japanese pavilion and Oktoberfest entertainment and a Biergarten at the German pavilion.

Most of the men and women staffing the centers are university students or recent university graduates. They are recruited by Disney representatives who visit their homelands.

The young people must be fluent in English, have pleasing personalities, poise, friendliness, politeness, the “Disney look” and the ability to communicate information about their countries to Epcot Center visitors.

They work in the pavilion restaurants, the gift shops, at Circle Vision 360-degree theaters, which feature films of China, France and Canada, at the cultural and traditional exhibition booths and at voyages through time attractions at the Mexico and Norway pavilions.

They live together four to six men or women sharing apartments with roommates from different countries.

“To be in America is so special for someone like me from the People’s Republic of China,” said a young woman working at the China Pavilion. “It opens my eyes to freedom, gives me an opportunity to experience, observe and investigate Western ways.”

China supplies 100 of the young internationals. Their status and the future participation of the Chinese government in the Disney program has been “up in the air” since the demonstrations at Tian An Men Square last June. The young Chinese arrived a month earlier for a one-year stay.

“We hope our relationship with the Chinese government will continue as it has in the past as far as permitting citizens of the People’s Republic to come here each year to work at the China Pavilion,” Leonora McGugan, manager of the Epcot Center Cultural Affairs Department, said.

“I’m getting to know people from all over the world. I share an apartment with a Norwegian, French and American girl. We take turns cooking. I never met a Norwegian before. The Norwegian girl never met a Mexican before,” said Trinette Lara, a 23-year-old from Puebla, Mexico, who is taking a year off from the University of the Americas in Cholula Mexico, and has been here eight months. She sells Mexican ceramics, clothing and jewelry at the Mexico Pavilion.

At the France Pavilion, Catherine Cheze, 22, is a hostess at the “Impressions de France” theater.

Cheze is from Guadeloupe.

“People always ask me where in France is Guadeloupe?” Cheze said. “I tell them it is a French island in the Caribbean.”

As she stooped beneath a pink parasol to say bonjour to Katie Storlien, 3, of Cottage Grove, Minn., Cheze noted that she wants to become a flight attendant for Air France. She called the Epcot Center job “a great opportunity . . . I meet people from everywhere.”

At the Moroccan pavilion, Abel Jabbar, 22, from Taroudant, Morocco, told tales about his homeland to Glenys Devlin and her son, Kris, 9, of Toowoomba, Australia.

“Where is Morocco?” Kris asked.

Replied Jabbar: “Many people think it is in Europe. They get it confused with Monaco. It’s in Africa.”

He explained that Morocco enjoys the longest unbroken treaty of any country in the world with the United States. “Morocco was the first country on earth to recognize the United States as a nation. I bet you didn’t know that,” he said.

Sven Sandnes, 21, of Tromso, Norway, noted that soon after his discharge from the Norwegian Army, he became one of 3,000 Norwegians applying to fill 125 openings at the Norway Pavilion.

He has been here seven months. Sven has a girlfriend at Walt Disney World, who is from Nebraska. That happens, too. Now he wants to enroll at Creighton University in Omaha.

Jerry Procter, 30, corporate sales manager for the Cumberland Hotel in London, recently returned on a visit to Epcot Center for the first time since he worked here as an international in 1984-85.

“It was a wonderful year,” he noted. “The experience helped immeasurably in my success in the business world. And while here I made friends with people from many countries. We still keep in touch. One friend was active in the Tian An Men Square demonstrations.”

For many of the young internationals, the Disney work is their first job and their first time away from home. Some get homesick and leave before their contract is up, forfeiting a paid flight back.

They receive the same wages as other first-year Walt Disney World employees, $5.05 an hour. They pay $55-$65 weekly apartment rent in a special housing complex for the internationals at Epcot Center. It includes tennis and racquetball courts and swimming pools.

For Jabbar of Morocco, being in Florida means a year away from his parents, his seven brothers and three sisters. He was recruited from a university in Tangier.

“Morocco is a country,” he said. “America is a continent. I had no notion of how big the U. S. really is until I came here last October. My town is so small I can ride my bike from one end to the other in 15 minutes.

“To get to Epcot Center,” he said, “I rode a bus for 12 hours to Casablanca, then flew to New York and on to Orlando, Fla. There is no place anywhere in the world like this. I am honored to be here.”

Will there be other nations represented at Epcot Center in the future?

“Yes,” said McGugan of the Epcot Center. “There are plans for more. Norway was added since the international pavilions opened in 1982. The U.S.S.R. and Switzerland are now negotiating to establish pavilions here.”