El veintitrés de marzo/March 23rd
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Photos from myhero.com. Click HERE. |
Jorge Muñoz, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama in 2010 for his work feeding the hungry, is a Colombian immigrant who came to the United States in the 1980s. He was following his mother, who had come after struggling for years to support her family. He became a permanent resident in 1987 (under the Amnesty Act signed by then President Reagan) and then a citizen of the United States in the 1990s. A school bus driver who makes just slightly over $500 a week, he nonetheless has served thousands of meals to the hungry in New York City since 2004. He cooks the meals in his own kitchen every evening after work alongside his mother and other family members. The work started when some Colombian friends in the food industry told him how much food was wasted each day, and then soon after he noticed a few day laborers on the corner and asked if they were hungry. When they said yes, he told them he would return the next evening. What started as feeding just a few men turned into an operation feeding dozens, and eventually hundreds, each evening. A 2007 New York Times article, The Chicken and Rice Man, highlighted his work, and then in 2009 he was honored as a CNN Top Ten Hero (See George Lopez introduce him at the Awards Ceremony, and hear his speech, HERE). He was also honored by ABC News as "Person of the Week" that year as well (click HERE to see the story). He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010 (see photo, right). Though not much has been written about him since then, he apparently is still doing his work of feeding the hungry every evening, as just this past December he was honored by New York State Senator José Peralta with the Liberty Medal (click HERE for story). This July 2017 story also describes his work and provides a way to donate.
For resources for teaching Spanish, Level 1 through AP, CLICK HERE.
Other March 23rd birthdays:
Juan Gris (1887-1927): A Spanish artist from Madrid who spent much of his life in France, he was a close friend of Henri Matisse. His painting style is closely associated with Cubism, and his work is worth a fortune. In 2014, his painting Still Life With a Checked Tablecloth sold for $56.8 million dollars at a Christie's auction in New York (click HERE for story).
Jessica Marie Garcia (1987- ): A Cuban actress from Orlando, Florida, she is perhaps best known for playing Willow on the show Liv & Maddie. Recently, she has starred in the Netflix series On My Block. She has said that seeing Jennifer Lopez play Selena was what made her realize her dream of becoming an actress was possible.
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