El veintiuno de febrero/February 21st

¡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 after he did some ridiculous thing (See this article on "The Top 10 Chespirito Phrases of All Time" or this Univisión video of his fans quoting their favorite lines). Chespirito, who studied engineering at UNAM and was an amateur boxer before going into show business, wrote, directed, and starred in the shows Chespirito (1970-1973, 1980-1995), El Chavo del Ocho (1973-1980), and El Chapulín Colorado (1973-1972). El Chavo del Ocho still has a daily worldwide viewership of 91 million per episode. Matt Groening, creator of the Simpsons, has said that the character Bumblebee Man is modeled after Chespirito's Chapulín Colorado. (For more interesting facts see 6 Things You Didn't Know About Chespirito). Chespirito was married to his first wife, Graciela Fernández, from 1968 until 1989, and together they had six children. In 2004 he married Florinda Mezas, his longtime co-star, and remained married to her until his death in 2014. As he said, "I'll be with Florinda til death do us part or until Shakira stops ignoring me. Florinda made me a faithful man." (Read more on latintimes.com. Click HERE). ¡Síganme los buenos!

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

Other February 21st birthdays:

Antonio López de Santa Anna (1794-1876): Mexican politician (including President) and general, he had such influence in Mexico during the first half of the 19th century that the time period is sometimes called "The Age of Santa Anna." Under him Mexico eventually lost just under half of all its territory (in the Texas Revolution and then The War of 1848 with the United States).

Andres Segovia (1893-1987): Spanish musician often called the "grandfather of classical guitar" and considered by many to be the greatest player in history. He pursued music despite his family wanting him to be a lawyer.