El veintiuno de mayo/May 21st

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Photo from guideposts.org. Click HERE. 
Feliz cumpleaños a ... Eduardo Verastegui (1974-         )

A Mexican singer, actor, and model, Verastegui gained fame in his native Mexico as a member of the band Kairo and as an actor in many telenovelas. He also modeled, appearing in many advertisements for Calvin Klein. In 2001 he appeared in Jennifer López's music video Ain't It Funny, and in 2003 he starred in the movie Chasing Papi (Papi Chulo) with Sofia Vergara, Jaci Velasquez and Roselyn Sánchez. He was often called "the Brad Pitt of Mexico." Before appearing in Chasing Papi, Verastegui started taking English lessons to improve his pronunciation, and his teacher, who was a practicing Catholic, began questioning him about his life. She asked him if he was helping to change the perception of Latinos by the roles he accepted, if he was using his talents to leave a lasting legacy, and if he were the type of man he would want a future daughter of his to end up with. The answer to all those questions was no, and Verastegui decided to change. Raised Catholic, he returned to the faith of his childhood and pursued it with a renewed heart. He promised himself that he would stop taking roles that did not make a positive impact on the world, even if that meant never working again. He went on a mission trip to Brazil. He met Pope Francis. He started Metanoia Films, a production company, with friend Alejandro Monteverde. The goal was to produce films that touch the consciences and hearts of people. Their first movie was Bella, in 2006, which won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film festival that year.  They also produced Little Boy in 2015. Verastegui speaks about his faith, his desire to live a life of substance, and his career choices in this 2014 interview with Primer Impacto's María Elena Salinas.

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

Other May 21st birthdays of note:

Tomás Segovia (1927-2011): A Mexican author, translator, and poet of Spanish origin who went into exile to escape the Spanish Civil War and dictator Francisco Franco. Every year the Mexican Council for National Culture and Arts awards a $100,000 Tomás Segovia Literary Translation Prize in alternating years for the best translation into Spanish or from Spanish.

Ana Diosdado (1938-2015): An Argentinian actress, playwright and author, she was born to Spanish parents in Argentina who has fled the Spanish Civil War.



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