El quince de enero/January 15th
¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Pitbull (Armando Christian Pérez)! (1981- )
"I'm very proud to be a first generation Cuban American and to be able to represent for Latinos all over the world. If you don't know where you're from, you don't know where you're going." -Pitbull to writer Lisa Robinson in Vanity Fair, August 2016 (click HERE for full article)
Pitbull is a rapper, singer, actor, and record producer who was born in Miami, Florida. His mother came to the U.S. in 1962 with Operation Peter Pan, and his father came in the 1970s. As a child, Pitbull's father recited the poetry of Cuban national hero José Martí to him ("Yo soy un hombre sincero/de donde crece la palma/y antes de morirme/quiero echar mis versos del alma" -Versos Sencillos, 1891), which he credits with teaching him the power of words. He had his first solo track in 2002 on Lil Jon's album King of Crunk. He went on to release ten albums (M.I.A.M.I in 2004, El Mariel in 2006, The Boatlift in 2007, Rebelution in 2009, Armando (his debut Spanish album) in 2010, Planet Pit in 2011, Global Warming in 2012, Globalization in 2014, Dale in 2015 and Climate Change in 2017). In 2005 Pitbull collaborated with Sean "Diddy" Combs to found Bad Boy Latino Records, a subsidiary of Bad Boy Records Label. In 2010 he rapped in the song Somos el mundo ("We are the world") to benefit Haiti (click HERE to listen - Pitbull raps from 4:45-5:40), and in 2014 he sang the World Cup theme with Jennifer Lopez and Claudia Leitte (click HERE for the video). In 2014 it was announced that he would get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, Pitbull used his private plane to bring cancer patients to the mainland to receive their treatments (click HERE to read more). He also founded SLAM, a 6-12 school in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood (click HERE to hear him speak, in Spanish, about his childhood growing up in Miami, and his belief in the importance of the school**). Though Pitbull himself never graduated from high school, he believes in the power of education and often speaks of how his parents told him over and over again how lucky he was to live in this country, where he was free to become whatever he wanted to be.
**Note: As a teacher at a public city school that has seen budget crisis upon budget crisis due to charter school expansion, I read this with mixed feelings, though Pitbull certainly seems invested in the students who attend this school, and the school itself is beautiful. I don't know the particulars of the financing, but hopefully SLAM is not siphoning funds from other public schools in Miami to operate! (I do understand that some charter schools do an excellent job educating their students -- but it's complicated)
Click HERE to hear Nuestro Himno, a Spanish version of the National Anthem that Pitbull collaborated on with Wyclef Jean, Carlos Ponce, and Olga Tañon.
For resources for teaching Spanish, Level 1 through AP, CLICK HERE.
Other January 15th birthdays:
José Iglesias (1990- ). Baseball player (shortstop) from Havana, Cuba who currently plays for the
Detroit Tigers (he previously played for the Boston Red Sox). He came to the United States in 2009. His 2017 one year contract was for 4.1 million dollars.
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| Photo from zimbio.com. Click HERE. |
Pitbull is a rapper, singer, actor, and record producer who was born in Miami, Florida. His mother came to the U.S. in 1962 with Operation Peter Pan, and his father came in the 1970s. As a child, Pitbull's father recited the poetry of Cuban national hero José Martí to him ("Yo soy un hombre sincero/de donde crece la palma/y antes de morirme/quiero echar mis versos del alma" -Versos Sencillos, 1891), which he credits with teaching him the power of words. He had his first solo track in 2002 on Lil Jon's album King of Crunk. He went on to release ten albums (M.I.A.M.I in 2004, El Mariel in 2006, The Boatlift in 2007, Rebelution in 2009, Armando (his debut Spanish album) in 2010, Planet Pit in 2011, Global Warming in 2012, Globalization in 2014, Dale in 2015 and Climate Change in 2017). In 2005 Pitbull collaborated with Sean "Diddy" Combs to found Bad Boy Latino Records, a subsidiary of Bad Boy Records Label. In 2010 he rapped in the song Somos el mundo ("We are the world") to benefit Haiti (click HERE to listen - Pitbull raps from 4:45-5:40), and in 2014 he sang the World Cup theme with Jennifer Lopez and Claudia Leitte (click HERE for the video). In 2014 it was announced that he would get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, Pitbull used his private plane to bring cancer patients to the mainland to receive their treatments (click HERE to read more). He also founded SLAM, a 6-12 school in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood (click HERE to hear him speak, in Spanish, about his childhood growing up in Miami, and his belief in the importance of the school**). Though Pitbull himself never graduated from high school, he believes in the power of education and often speaks of how his parents told him over and over again how lucky he was to live in this country, where he was free to become whatever he wanted to be.
**Note: As a teacher at a public city school that has seen budget crisis upon budget crisis due to charter school expansion, I read this with mixed feelings, though Pitbull certainly seems invested in the students who attend this school, and the school itself is beautiful. I don't know the particulars of the financing, but hopefully SLAM is not siphoning funds from other public schools in Miami to operate! (I do understand that some charter schools do an excellent job educating their students -- but it's complicated)
Click HERE to hear Nuestro Himno, a Spanish version of the National Anthem that Pitbull collaborated on with Wyclef Jean, Carlos Ponce, and Olga Tañon.
For resources for teaching Spanish, Level 1 through AP, CLICK HERE.
Other January 15th birthdays:
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| Photo from mlive.com (click HERE) |
Detroit Tigers (he previously played for the Boston Red Sox). He came to the United States in 2009. His 2017 one year contract was for 4.1 million dollars.
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