Famous Latinx Birthdays

 ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Mateo Arias (1995-    )!  image from @OfficialMatteo (Twitter) An American actor with Colombian roots born in New York City and raised in Atlanta, Arias became well-known when he played Jerry on the Disney Series Kickin' It (see him promote Hispanic Heritage Month by talking about his Colombian heritage in this 2013 Disney video and see his moments speaking Spanish on the show in this  2013 compilation put together by a fan). Arias' older brother, Moisés, also got his start as an actor (Disney's Hannah Montana ), and the two now produce films and videos together. In this 2020 The Face article, Mateo talks about being raised bilingual and says, "We really are fully Colombian, [despite] being born in the States. We grew up in a pseudo-Colombian culture in Georgia. Moisés taught me English, but I didn't speak it until I was three or four." The brothers appear in the 2020 film Blast Beat, which also stars Wilmer Valderrama and Colombia...

Photo from hectorbustamante.com. Click HERE .  ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Héctor Luis Bustamante! (1972-  ) A Colombian-American actor who came to the U.S. with his family when he was twelve, Bustamante has been in multiple television shows, films, and video games. Recently, he was in Academy Award winning Mexican director Alejandro Iñárritu's virtual reality project Carne y Arena (Virtually Present, Physically Invisible) , which explores the human condition of immigrants and refugees. The project premiered at Cannes in 2017 and was then featured at museums in Milan, Mexico City, and Los Angeles (click HERE for more on the Los Angeles exhibit). Participants in the short virtual reality project, which was based on extensive interviews by Iñárritu with immigrants and refugees he met, experience what immigrants from Mexico and Central America experience crossing the border while learning more about their life stories. Bustamante has said that the goal of the project was to si...