El diecisiete de enero/January 17th

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Photo by Victor Chavez for Getty Images
Click HERE
¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Angela "Angie" Vazquez! (2001-        )

The lead singer of the Mexican group Vázquez Sounds (formed by Angie and her older brothers Gustavo and Abelardo), Angie first became famous at the age of 10 with her cover of Adele's Rolling in the Deep (click HERE for the video, and HERE for a news story about the video with understandable Spanish for a first year class). Angie sings and plays piano, harmonica, and guitar. She and her brothers, whose father is a music producer, are from Baja California in Mexicali, Mexico. They released an album of songs in English (all covers) in 2012 and an album of all original songs (in Spanish) in 2014. That album, Invencible, quickly became a hit in Mexico and earned them a Latin Grammy Nomination for "Best New Artist." They released a Christmas album, Sweet Christmas Ukelele and Jazz, in 2015. Their YouTube channel, Vázquez Sounds, has more than 2 million subscribers. In June of 2017 they released the song and video Julio (click HERE for a full-class lesson on Julio and another song that works for all levels of Spanish).

This 2011 clip (HERE) features an interview with the Vázquez siblings and Angie singing Las mañanitas for the birthday of the show's host (last minute of video). A nice mix of fast speaking and understandable speaking for students ("Hace  ___ años que ..., Toco ..., Tengo __ años, etc)

For resources for teaching Spanish, Level 1 through AP, CLICK HERE.

Other January 17th birthdays:


Forges (Antonio Fraguas de Pablo) (1942-Feb. 22, 2018): Spanish cartoonist who for over half a century chronicled Spanish life. He won multiple awards, earned honorary degrees, and coined several terms that were later accepted by the Academia Real. Read more (in Spanish) HERE. At right, one of his cartoons (there were many) for Día Internacional de la Mujer (Women's Day).

Other January 17th events of note:
Photo from islandsofpuertorico.com (click HERE)

1903 - El Yunque, in Puerto Rico, officially becomes a part of the U.S. Forest System. It is the only Tropical Rain Forest in the system.

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