El dieciocho de mayo/May 18th

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¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Luisana Lopilato! (1987-      )

Photo from Facebook. Click HERE. 
Lopilato is an Argentine actress, singer and model who has appeared on the shows Chiquititas, Rebelde Way, Alma Pirata, Casados con Hijos (the Argentine version of Married with Children), Atracción x4 and En Terapía (the Argentine version of Treatment), among many others. From 2002 to 2007 she was a member of the group Erreway (formed on the show Rebelde Way), which released three studio albums that sold more than 5 million copies. The band was featured in the 2004 film Erreway: 4 Caminos, a box office hit. Since 2011 she has been married to Canadian singer Michael Bublé, and together they have two children, Noah (2013) and Elías (2016). The couple met in 2009 when Lopilato appeared in Bublé's music video I Just Haven't Met You Yet. In January of 2018 they announced that they were expecting their third child (read more (in Spanish) HERE).

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

Other May 18th birthdays of note:

A woman walks in front of a mural depicting
Sandino (left) and Argentine revolutionary
Che Guevara (right) in Nicaragua in January 2017.
Photo from Getty Images. Click HERE. 
Augusto César Sandino (1893-Feb. 21, 1934): Unanimously voted a "national hero" by Nicaragua's congress in 2010, Sandino is widely revered in the country, though he remains a controversial figure internationally. During his life the United States labelled him a bandit and supposedly approved of his 1934 assassination at the hands of Nicaragua's National Guard and General Somoza, who would go on to rule the country until 1979. The Sandinista rebels, who fought against Somoza, took their name from Sandino. The Chilean film director Miguel Littín produced the film Sandino, about the revolutionary's life, in 1990 (Littín fled Chile after a U.S. backed coup toppled President Salvador Allende there in 1973, so he definitely has a certain point of view). Today, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega lays claim to the Sandino legacy, while those protesting his rule (the Supreme Court overturned term limits so that he could run for a third term - he has been in power since 2007 and also lead Nicaragua from 1979-1990) claim that he has no right to do so, and that Sandino would never approve of his actions (read more in this 2011 New York Times article).

Juanpa Barbot (1996-      ): A popular Uruguayan YouTuber who has more than 5 million followers. He started as a member of the collaborative group Dosogas before breaking out on his own.

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