El veintidós de mayo/May 22nd

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Image from elem.mx. Click HERE. 
Feliz cumpleaños a ... Rita Cetina Gutiérrez (1846-1908)

A poet, educator, and feminist who educated a generation of young leaders in Mexico, Cetina was born in Mérida, Yucatán in 1846 to Colonel Don Pedro Cetina and Jacoba Gutiérrez. Her father was killed when she was only 14, and a benefactor helped assure that she obtained an education. Cetina was already a respected, published poet when, in 1870, she opened La Siempreviva, Mexico's first secular school for poor girls as well as an art college for young women. She rejected the idea that women should only study domestic skills and included astronomy, law, geometry, geography, history, math, and geography in the curriculum. In 1877 the governor of Yucatán founded El Instituto Literario de Niñas (ILN) and asked Cetina to be the director. She agreed, and in 1886 La Siempreviva and ILN merged.

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

Other May 22nd birthdays of note:

Image from artsy.com. Click HERE. 
Tomás Sánchez (1948-      ): A Cuban painter, perhaps the most important Cuban artist living today. In 1990, he left Cuba and came to the United States, and he currently lives in Costa Rica. Read a  profile and interview of him by Christie's, and see some of his expensive artwork, HERE.

Carlos Valdés (1985-     ): A Colombian soccer player who played for a year for The Philadelphia Union (2011).

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