Chile’s president celebrates birthday with folkloric dance _ with gutsy librarian

Chile’s president dances on her birthday

SANTIAGO, Chile — President Michelle Bachelet has celebrated her 58th birthday by dancing a traditional Chilean cueca — with a library worker who plucked up the courage to ask.

Bachelet was inaugurating a library in the Santiago district of Cerrillos on Tuesday when she was surprised by a group of musicians who played a “cueca brava” — a popular version of Chile’s folkloric dance — for her birthday.

While the musicians sang, a library worker asked Chile’s president to dance — and she accepted.

Later, at the presidential palace, Bachelet was serenaded by mariachis and a popular ranchera singer who belted out “Las Mananitas,” a Mexican birthday song that is used in much of Latin America.