Getting spanish characters to display on web page

I'm having a little difficulty here.

I need to assign spanish characters to validation error messages (because its for spanish-speaking people).

I am able to use the spanish escape characters if the validator is on the web page, but if the validator is inside a usercontrol, instead of directly on the web page... the escape sequence does not work.

Therefore, what usually produces an upside down ?, ¿ produces garbish. Or an o with an accent symbol above it produces more garbish.

Anyone know how to resolve this problem?

Code:

---

<asp:requiredfieldvalidator
 controltovalidate="_email" display="Dynamic" id="_rfvEmail" runat="server"
errormessage="La dirección de correo electr&oacute;nico es un campo obligatorio."
>*</asp:requiredfieldvalidator>

---

Code like this does not work...