El cuatro de junio/June 4th

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Photo from casadelaliteratura.gob.pe. Click HERE. 
¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Nicomedes Santa Cruz! (1925-1992)

A Peruvian musician and scholar who traveled the world as an ambassador of black Peruvian culture, Nicomedes Santa Cruz is still celebrated in Peru for his cultural contributions. In 2006, June 4th, his birthday, was declared Día de la cultura afroperuana in honor of him. Santa Cruz was born the 9th of 10 siblings to parents Nicomedes Santa Cruz Aparicio, a playwright, and Victoria Gamarra Ramírez, the daughter of José Milagros Gamarra, a talented painter, dancer, composer. Santa Cruz became a blacksmith after his schooling and even had his own shop until 1956, when he left the trade to travel throughout Peru and Latin America composing a reciting poems. He founded a theater company (1959-1961) whose focus was reviving Afro-Peruvian folklore, and in 1959 released his first album, Kumanana (Ingá and Décimas y Poemas Afroperuanos would follow). In 1968 Santa Cruz married Spaniard Mercedes Castillo González, and the two had two sons, Pedro Nicomedes, born in 1969, and Luis Enrique, born in 1971. Santa Cruz would always refer to his wife as "mi fiel compañera" (my faithful companion). As the host of the radio program America Canta Así, Santa Cruz interviewed many musicians, including Chilean Victor Jara just 10 weeks before he was assassinated (the interview makes up part of the official Victor Jara archive). He also participated in countless conferences, including the first International Conference on Afro-Hispanic Culture, held in Equatorial Guinea, Africa in 1984. Santa Cruz died in Madrid, Spain in 1992 (of lung cancer). In 2010, the Peruvian hip hop group Comité Pokofló released the song Tributo a Nicomedes on their album El Grito.  To see a documentary on Nicomedes Santa Cruz (in Spanish) released by TV Perú in 2017, click HERE. For the official website of Nicomedes Santa Cruz, which includes a detailed chronology of his life (English or Spanish), click HERE.

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


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