El primero de febrero/February 1st

-
¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Moisés Muñoz! (1980-        )

Photo from alchetron.com. Click HERE. 
A professional soccer player from Morelia, Mexico, Muñoz lived in California (in Redwood City, outside San Francisco), where he dreamed of playing professional basketball or football, from age 10 to 16. His family returned to Mexico when his grandfather was given only a few months to live, and it was then that Muñoz became more involved in soccer. He began his career at the age of 19, in 1999. He is a goalkeeper. Still, in 2013 in Mexico's Azteca Stadium, playing for Club América, he had a dramatic end-of-game goal for the championship when he headed the ball in from a corner. Watch it HERE (and enjoy the Spanish commentary (¡GOOOOOL!) and the comments, i.e. "¡Este es del tipo de partido que se contará de generación en generación del padre al hijo del hijo al nieto etc!" (This is the type of game that will be described from generation to generation, from father to son and son to grandson etc!) "¡Hasta se eriza piel! ¡Increíble!" (Gives me goose bumps! Incredible!) etc.). Read about it HERE on the NY Times soccer blog. As the Times recounts, this historic goal came barely a year after Muñoz and his family (wife Verónica Castro Alfaro and sons Héctor and Zafiro) were in a life-threatening car accident. After the game, Muñoz spoke to reporters with his family at his side: "Never lose the faith. Even after the loss in the first match, we believed we would turn the tables. I've never cried so much. God let me live for this moment; He allowed me to continue my career to live this moment."



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

El veintidós de agosto/August 22nd

-
Image
Photo from wavenespapers.com. Click HERE .  ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Ricardo Hurtado! (1999-      ) An actor and musician who became famous playing Freddy on the Nickelodeon series School of Rock , Hurtado was born to Nicaraguan parents in Miami. He moved with his family to Atlanta, Georgia when he was one years old. Hurtado's father is a musician (a piano player with a degree in music from the University of Georgia). "Everyone on my dad's side of the family is a musician," he told an interviewer in 2016, adding that his uncle played the guitar. In the same interview , Hurtado talks about his faith and says, "My main goal in life if to be as close as I can be to God." He wrote his first song for this purpose -- his second song was about a breakup. Listen to Hurtado speak Spanish at this 2017 interview outside the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. For resources for teaching Spanish, Level 1 through AP, CLICK HERE.
Read more

El siete de enero/January 7th

-
Image
¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Juan Gabriel (Alberto Aguilera Valadez)! (1950-2016) "Music is mankind's way of thanking the universe for letting us be here." -Juan Gabriel       Photo from Billboard's write-up on Juan Gabriel's cover       of Creedence Clearwater's Have You Ever Seen    The Rain? (Gracias al sol) several months  before his death.  Click  HERE   to read and listen.  A Mexican singer, songwriter, and actor, and "the actual king of Latin pop" who was idolized by younger performers such as Marc Anthony, Juan Gabriel was adored by fans worldwide. He put out some 2,000 songs during his lifetime and sold out multiple concerts. He was not always as well-known by English-language speakers in the U.S., however, and Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez's wonderful 1999 profile of him in the  L.A. Times  (updated when he died in 2016 -- click  HERE  to read) includes a story about a West Hollywood a...
Read more

El diez de julio/July 10th

-
Image
Photo from El Porvenir. Click HERE .  ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Nicolás Guillén! (1902-1989) A Cuban poet, journalist, political activist, and writer of African-European descent, Guillén was known during his life as the National Poet of Cuba. Born in Camagüey, he was the oldest of six children born to Nicolás Guillén y Urra, who had fought for Cuban independence from Spain, and Argelia Batista y Arrieta. Guillén's father belonged to the Partido Libertad and founded the daily newspaper La Libertad to express his views. Government forces assassinated Guillén's father for protesting electoral fraud and closed down his printing press. After that, Guillén's family struggled financially. Guillén was greatly influenced by meeting African-American poet Langston Hughes in 1930. Hughes' enthusiasm for Afro-Cuban music inspired Guillén, who was familiar with 'son' music from his father. Hughes immediately recognized the similarities between son music in Cuba and the b...
Read more