Famous Latinx Birthdays

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Desi Arnaz! (Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III) (1917-1986) Photo from pbs.org. Click HERE .  Arnaz was a Cuban-American actor, musician, and television producer who co-starred with Lucille Ball, to whom he was married from 1940 to 1960, on I Love Lucy , one of the most influential television shows of all time (see Arnaz speak Spanish in these clips of the show, HERE ). He and Ball also founded Desilu Productions in 1950 and produced shows such as I Love Lucy, Star Trek , and The Untouchables . The first Latino to appear on American television, Arnaz was cast at the insistence of Ball, despite the reservations of CBS executives. And the couple was also able to convince the network to air shots of Lucy pregnant with their son, Desi Jr., though showing a pregnant woman on air was considered "scandalous" at the time (Read more HERE . This story reminds me of my sister's mother-in-law, who tells of how when she was teaching in New Jersey in t...

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Lupita Nyong'o! (1983-         ) Lupita Nyong'o on the October 2016 cover of Vogue. Click HERE .  A Kenyan-Mexican actress who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her first feature film role (as Patsey, in the 2013 historical drama 12 Years a Slave ), a "Personality of the Year" Award from MTV Africa Music Awards (in 2014), and a Tony nomination for her Broadway debut (as a teenage orphan in the 2015 play The Eclipsed ), Nyong'o has also graced the cover of numerous magazines, including Vogue  four times (Click HERE for a full list of her awards, which are too numerous to list here). Nyong'o, whose name, "Lupita," is the diminutive form of Guadalupe, was born in Mexico, where her father was teaching political science, to Kenyan parents. She returned with her parents to Kenya at the age of one, but when she was 16, her parents sent her back to Mexico to learn Spanish. She holds dual Mexican-Kenyan citize...

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Sylvia del Villard! (Feb. 28 1928- Feb. 28 1990) Photo from wearemitú.com. Click HERE .  An Afro-Puerto Rican actress, dancer, choreographer, and activist, del Villard was born and raised in Santurce, Puerto Rico, where she was a good student who often entertained her parents with dances. Because she excelled in school, she was awarded a scholarship from the Puerto Rican government to study at Fisk University , an HBCU in Tennessee. She began studies in anthropology and sociology there, but she decided to return to Puerto Rico after experiencing the racism of the South. She finished her studies at the University of Puerto Rico and then moved to New York City, where she enrolled for further studies at the City College of New York (CCNY). It was in New York that del Villard began to explore her African heritage, eventually tracing her roots back to the Yoruba people of Nigeria. At CCNY she joined the "Africa House" ballet. She also took voice lesso...

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Zhamira Zambrano! (1998-          ) Photo from Instagram. @zhamirazambranomusic A Venezuelan singer who shot to fame on the 2016 season of La Banda (click HERE to see her audition), Zambrano and her family immigrated to the United States in 2010 to escape economic turmoil in their country (click HERE to read a Washington Post article about the crisis in Venezuela in 2010 that caused them to leave - things have only gotten worse since then). Zambrano was 12 at the time, and when she was 13, she suffered from severe anorexia nervosa. In this Univisión video (click HERE ), she talks openly about the difficulty of being a young girl barraged with photoshopped images of perfection every day, and about overcoming the disease with the support of her mother. Always a singer (to the surprise of her family, since none of them sing), she went on to participate in the choir and many other activities at Ronald Reagan High School in Doral, outsi...

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Natalia LaFourcade! (1984-          ) Above, LaFourcade with American singer Miguel, with whom she will perform Remember Me (from the Pixar movie Coco) at the 2018 Oscars. Photo from the LaFourcade Fan Club site. Click HERE .  LaFourcade on the cover of Glamour, February 2018. From LaFourcade Fan Club. Click HERE .  A Mexican singer with international success, LaFourcade has won nine Latin Grammys and one Grammy (for Best Latin Rock, Urban, or Alternative Album, in 2016) as well as a host of other prizes and honors. In February of 2018 she was on the cover of Glamour Mexico, and on March 4, 2018, she will perform Remember Me at the Oscars along with Los Angeles born artist Miguel (see photos, below, and right). LaFourcade was born in Mexico City and grew up in Coatepec, Veracruz surrounded by music and art. Her mother, María del Carmen Silva Contreras, is a piano teacher who created the Macarsi Method for Musical T...

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Julio Iglesias Jr.! (1973-       ) Photo from Miami Shoot Magazine , 2015. Click HERE for full story.  A model and singer, Julio Iglesias Jr. is the oldest son of famous Spanish singer Julio Iglesias and the Filipina socialite and journalist Isabel Preysler. When his parents divorced in 1979, Iglesias Jr. moved with his siblings Chabelí and Enrique (also a famous singer, as you most likely know) to live with their father in Miami, Florida. He attended college outside of San Francisco (at Menlo College) and got into modeling, with campaigns for Versace and Gap, before pursuing music. Like his other famous family members, he sings in both Spanish and English, and his albums include One More Chance (1999), Tercera Dimensión (2003), Por la Mitad (2008), and Latin Lovers (2014). Iglesias Jr. has also appeared on Mira Quien Baila (the Spanish-language version of Dancing With the Stars) and Bailando por un sueño (the Aregtinian versio...

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Judith Ortiz Cofer! (1952-Dec. 30th, 2016) Photo from Ortiz Cofer's obituary on onlineathens.com. Click HERE .   A celebrated Puerto Rican writer of poetry, short stories, autobiography, essays, and young adult fiction, Ortiz Cofer was also the Franklin Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Georgia from 1984 until her retirement in 2013. Born in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico to young parents (her dad was just 18 and her mom not quite 15 when they married in 1951), Ortiz moved to the mainland in 1956 after her dad, who had joined the Navy to help support his family, was stationed at Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York City. The family lived in an apartment in Paterson, New Jersey, though whenever her father was deployed for six months at a time (which was often), they moved back to the island. It was a nomadic existence (Read more HERE ). Ortiz spoke Spanish at home and English in school. As she perfected her English, she was able to...

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Residente (René Pérez Joglar)! (1978-           ) "The radio right now, I'm in shock, everyone sounds the same. It's like junk food. You need to eat better, otherwise [you're] going to die a slow cultural death." Photo from remezcla.com. Click HERE .  A singer, rapper, and activist from Puerto Rico, Residente is now a solo artist but was a longtime member of the duo Calle 13, with whom he won 22 Latin Grammys (he has 3 Latin Grammys as a solo artist). His solo debut, Residente, was named one of the top 50 albums of 2017 by Rolling Stone Magazine (click HERE ). His documentary of the same name, which follows the making of the album, took him around the world to places such as China, Burkina Faso, and Armenia as he traced his heritage (based on a DNA test) and collaborated with local musicians (Read more HERE ). SPOILER ALERT - In the documentary we also see him discover that he is related to Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creato...

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Sergio Romero! (1987-         ) Image from manutd.com. Click HERE . An Argentinian goalkeeper who currently plays for Manchester United, Romero has represented Argentina in two World Cups and at three Copa América tournaments. He won gold with Argentina at the 2008 Olympics. Despite being 6 foot 3, he is nicknamed "Chiquito" (Little One) because he is the smallest in his family. His brother Diego (6'9) is a basketball player who played for Florida State and most likely would have gone to the NBA if not for two knee injuries. In this interview with the brothers Diego praises Sergio as the best goalie in the world (admitting he is biased, of course) and then says "Es mejor persona que deportista" (He's an even better person than an athlete). Romero is married to fellow Argentinian Eliana Guercio, and the two have two daughters together, Yazmín and Chloe. And in this cute video  (in Spanish) from October 2017, Guercio, Yazmín, an...

¡Feliz Día Internacional de la Lengua Materna ! (International Mother Language Day) ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Chespirito (Roberto Gómez Bolaños)! (1929-Nov. 28th, 2014) Photo from clarin.com. Click HERE  (site has photos and video of his impressive funeral in Azteca Stadium).  Chespirito, whose nickname in English means "Little Shakespeare" (Shakespeare-ito), is considered by many to be the most important Latin and Spanish-language humorist of all time. When he died in 2014, 50,000 fans filled Estadio Azteca, Mexico's most important soccer stadium, and danced at his funeral dressed as the characters he had created, El Chapulín and El Chavo (read more in this New York Times tribute, HERE ). Almost every Spanish-speaker can quote a line of his, such as ¡No contaban con mi astucia! (You weren't counting on my cleverness!) and ¡Síganme los buenos! (Follow me, good people!), which his character (in this case, Chapulín Colorado) would say right before or right afte...

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Jay Hernández (Javier Manuel Hernández Jr.)! (1978-       ) Photo from tvguide.com. Click HERE .  A chicano actor born in Montebello, California to third generation Mexican-American parents, Hernández was discovered by a talent agent while riding an elevator in a Los Angeles high rise. He made his television debut in the 5th and 6th seasons of NBC's Hang Time , which his now-wife, Daniella Deutscher, also starred in. He made his film debut in the 2001 movie Crazy/Beautiful with Kirsten Dunst. Many movies followed, including Friday Night Lights, Hostel, Carlito's Way: Rise to Power, Max, Bad Moms , and Suicide Squad (he speaks about his role as Diablo in this 2016 Entertainment Weekly article ). He is currently on Will Smith's Netflix blockbuster Bright (see him, along with Will Smith, interviewed for the premiere for Telemundo's Un Nuevo Día, HERE . Smith attempts to speak Spanish. Hernández, who does not speak Spanish but who, ac...

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Benicio del Toro (Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez)! (1967-     ) "Lo importante es tratar. Tratar con ganas." -Benicio del Toro Photo from vanityfair.com. Click HERE .  A Puerto Rican actor and director with Spanish roots (he has a great grandfather from both the Basque country and Catalonia, and he has held dual Spanish citizenship since 2012), del Toro had his breakout role as Fred Fenster in the 1995 movie The Usual Suspects.  He has been in multiple movies since, including The Fan (with Robert DeNiro), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Traffic (for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor), 21 Grams, Che, Sicario, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi (see him talk about his role in the movie on Telemundo's show Un Nuevo Día, HERE ).  Born in Puerto Rico to two lawyer parents, del Toro lost his mother when he was nine, and he soon after moved with his father and brothers to Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, whe...

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Perucho Figueredo ! (1818-1870) From cubadebate.cu. Click HERE . (also a state sponsored Cuban site).  A Cuban poet, musician, and soldier, he fought against the Spanish in the Ten Years War for Independence (1868-1878). He was captured by the Spanish and executed on August 17th, 1870. His daughter, Candelaria Figueredo, became a hero of the uprising as well by carrying the flag of the newly independent Cuba into battle in 1868 (though Spain would officially rule the island for thirty more years, until the War of 1898, or the Spanish American War, as it is often referred to in the United States). Perucho Figueredo is perhaps best known for writing the national anthem of Cuba, El Himno de Bayamo , or La Bayamesa .  Because February 18th, 2018 marks the bicentennial of  his birth, the town of Bayamo in Granma Province, Cuba prepared a gala to honor his legacy (click HERE for the article on this, on a clearly state sponsored site with cop...

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Vicente Fernández ! (1940-       ) Fernández's 2007 album was his 79th and sold 2 million plus copies worldwide.  A legendary singer, actor, and film producer from Mexico who is often called "El rey de la música ranchera" (King of Ranchera Music), Fernández has more than 75 albums to his name. He also has 3 Grammy Awards, 8 Latin Grammy Awards, and 14 Lo Nuestro Awards. Oh, and he has also has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and has collaborated on more than 30 films. Fernández announced his retirement in 2012 but performed one last time in April of 2016 in Mexico's Azteca Stadium . Fernández grew up on his father's ranch on the outskirts of Guadalajara and later moved with the family to Tijuana, where he washed dishes, cleared tables, and eventually became the manager of his uncle's restaurant. He had already begun performing, however, and he got his big break in 1966 when CBS Records International (now Sony Music Latin) off...

Lombardo with Ryan Gosling at the Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, Texas. Photo from popsugar.com. Click HERE .  ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Dave Lombardo! (1965-        ) Known as " one of the most significant drummers of our time ," Lombardo was born in Havana, Cuba in 1965, just six years after the Revolution and Fidel Castro's coming to power. His two older brothers were sent to the United States with Operation Peter Pan , and Lombardo and his parents followed when he was just 14 months old. There, his parents took him to Latin social clubs, where he was soon obsessed with the bands. He first performed on bongos along with a Santana record for his 3rd grade class show and tell . Bigger performances soon followed. Lombardo is known for founding the heavy metal rock band Slayer. He has been nominated three times for a Grammy, and won twice. In January of 2018, he returned to Cuba for the first time . See a Lombardo drum solo, HERE . For resources for teaching...

Image from noticias.universaria.com. Click HERE  (includes summary (in Spanish) of important achievements). ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Domingo Faustino Sarmiento! (1811-1888) An Argentine intellectual, writer, and activist who became that country's 7th president (1868-1874), he is perhaps best known for being a champion of public education, including for women and children. September 11th (the day of his death in 1888) has been celebrated throughout Latin America as Panamerican Teacher's Day since 1943 in honor of him. ( This quiz , published in 2017 in Argentina's leading conservative paper, La Nación , challenges readers to see how much they know about him as they mark Día del Maestro ). Born to a poor but politically active family, Sarmiento was the only son of sixteen  children to reach adulthood (nine of his fifteen siblings died). He learned to read at age 4 and was a standout student in school. He eventually went on to become one of the Generación de 1837 , a gro...

¡Feliz Día de San Valentín! ¡Feliz Día de los Enamorados! ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Edi Cavani! (Edinson Roberto Cavani Gómez) (1987-       ) Photo from pasionfutbol.com. Click HERE .  A Uruguayan soccer player, he is currently the star of Paris Saint-Germain alongside Brazilian player Neymar (read about the two's combined seven goals in 2018, and how Cavani surpassed PSG's all-time scoring record HERE  (in English), and about their presumed rivalry, and spats over penalty shots in 2017, HERE (in Spanish)). Cavani was born in Salto, Uruguay in 1987 (as were FC Barcelona's Luis Suárez and Melbourne's Bruno Fornaroli. Something in the water! Fornaroli reflects on their relationship HERE ). Cavani also has two older brothers who are soccer players. He was married to María Soledad Cabris Yarrús and has two sons with her, Bautista, born in March of 2011, and Lucas, born in March of 2013. The two divorced in 2014 after Cavani had an affair with a univers...

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Gabriel Porras (Carlos Gabriel Porras Flores)! (1962-       ) From telemundo.com. Click HERE .  An actor born in Mexico City, Mexico who began his career on the telenovelas   La Casa del Naranjo (1998),  Tres Veces Sofía (1998-1999) and Tío Alberto (2000-2001), Gabriel Porras had his first role as protagonist on Telemundo's El Alma Herida (2003). He has appeared in many telenovelas since, and he is Paco (the good-looking, kind security guard who is in love with Rosario) in the movie Under the Same Moon (2007). In 2016, he won "Favorite Lead Actor" from the Tu Mundo Awards for his role in the telenovela Bajo el mismo cielo, which is an adaptation of the 2011 movie A Better Life, by Chris Weitz. In the telenovela, Porras plays Carlos Martínez, an undocumented immigrant living in Los Angeles. Carlos is a good man, and he works hard to try to provide a better life for his children. See the official Telemundo video f...

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Aarón Sánchez! (1976-      ) Photo from nydailynews.com. Click  HERE .  A chef from El Paso, Texas whose mother, Zarela Martinez , was a pioneer of Mexican food in the United States with a restaurant and many cookbooks to her name, Sánchez has starred on the Food Network's Chopped and Chopped Junior . A chef/owner of the Mexican restaurant Johnny Sánchez in New Orleans, he is also currently a judge on Fox Network's culinary competition show MASTERCHEF. Sánchez got his start at age 16 when his mother sent him to New Orleans for the summer to train under chef Paul Prudhomme (who had discovered her many years before). He has a twin brother, Rodrigo, who is an attorney in New York. Read more about Sánchez, including his philanthropic efforts, on his official website, HERE , and hear him suggest foods for children (in an obviously paid promotion my Hellman's mayonnaise) HERE . Finally, enjoy him in this 2017 Coca-Cola commercial, Latino...

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Shawn Hernandez! (1973-        ) Photo from short-biography.com. Click HERE . An American professional wrestler of Mexican descent, Hernandez is an eight-time World Tag Team Champion. Born in Houston, Texas, Hernandez got into wrestling after playing arena football. He trained at the Texas Wrestling Academy and quickly became well-known in the wrestling world after debuting in 1996. Hernandez has a daughter, Liz, who is a power lifter (she won a gold medal in 2010 at the Texas High School Women's Powerlifting Association). Now popular in the Lucha Underground in Mexico, Hernandez is also co-promoter of Latino Wrestling Entertainment. Hear him try out his fledgling Spanish (English is his first language) in this interview with Willie Urbina, HERE . For resources for teaching Spanish, Level 1 through AP, CLICK HERE.

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Don Omar (William Omar Landrón Rivera)! (1978-        ) Photo from The Hollywood Reporter. Click  HERE. A reggaeton singer and actor from Puerto Rico (who has dueled it out with Daddy Yankee, also of Puerto Rico, for the title of "King of Reggaeton" during his career), Don Omar has sold millions of albums and won many awards, including a Latin Grammy for "Best Urban Music Album" for  Don Omar Presents MT02: The New Generation  in 2012. In 2016, Don Omar and Daddy Yankee announced that they would go on tour together (The Kingdom Tour: Daddy Yankee vs. Don Omar) and quickly sold out many arenas. Don Omar has two sons, Derrick and Daniel, and one daughter, Diana, with ex-wife Jackie Guerrido. In  this 2016 video  he talks about how having children, especially a daughter, makes him reflect on his lyrics and their effects on young people. In 2017, Don Omar went to Puerto Rico to help with the recovery efforts after H...

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Alejandra Guzmán! (1968-     ) Photo from billboard.com. Click  HERE .  A Mexican singer, songwriter, and actress, Guzmán was on television even as a child, as her parents were actress Silvia Pinal and singer Enrique Guzmán. Called "La Reina de Rock" (The Queen of Rock) , she has sold more than 20 million albums in her career. In 2002, she won a Latin Grammy for her song  Soy . Guzmán has one daughter, Frida Sofía, born in 1992. She has overcome many challenges in her life, including drug addiction, painful relationships, and breast cancer (in 2007). In 1982, she lost her half sister in an auto accident (read more about the ups and downs of her life (in Spanish) HERE ). In 2013, Guzmán joined the cast of La Voz ... Mexico (see her introduced  HERE ).  She has collaborated with many other musicians during her career.  HERE , she and Gloria Trevi perform together in their 2017 music video  Cuando un hombre te...

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Mauricio Macri! (1959-      ) From The New Yorker, 2015. Click  HERE .  President of Argentina (2015-     ), Macri's election ended "Kirchnerismo" in Argentina (President Nestor Kirchner (2003-2007) and President Cristina Kirchner (2007-2015), both Peronists and Social Democrats). An engineering by training, Macri became well-known as the president of the popular fútbol club Boca Juniors (starting in 1995). He then became mayor of Buenos Aires before running for president in the highly contentious 2014 election. Macri's political slogan, Cambiemos (Let's Change) and chant, ¡Sí Se Puede! (Yes we can!), energized a wide array of groups in Argentina despite his party's typically conservative stance on issues. Macri is from a wealthy family (his father was Italian-born business tycoon Francisco (Francesco) Macri, and he has studied at both Columbia University in New York and Wharton in Philadelphia. In 1991, he was kidn...