Famous Latinx Birthdays

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Laura Sánchez Soto (1985-    ) Photos from Wikipedia A diver (clavadista) from Guadalajara, Mexico who competed in three consecutive Olympics (and was training for Tokyo 2020 before the Covid-19 pandemic hit), Sánchez won bronze in the 3-meter springboard in London in 2012. She also won various medals in the Pan-American games (two silver medals in 2005, gold and silver in 2007, and gold in 2011). See her dive in this short video and read (in Spanish) about her emotional journey to becoming a mother in this article from Esto magazine. After years of struggling to have a child, Sánchez had her son, Alef, in 2015, and her daughter, Nicole, two years later. In this video, from 2015, she talks about the challenges and rewards of training for the Olympics while caring for her three-month old son: "Hay que abrirnos un poquito a la posibilidad de que ... bueno ... que se puede hacer las dos cosas: ser mamá y ser profesional" (We need to open up to th...

Photo from uci.ch. Click HERE .  ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Mariana Pajón! (1991-   ) A Colombian cyclist who has won two Olympic gold medals (2012 and 2016) and a BMX championship, Pajón is also the winner of 14 world championships, 2 national championships in the United States, 9 Latin American championships, and 10 Pan American championships. Her nickname is "Queen of BMX." She has been married to French BMX rider Vincent Pelluard since December of 2017. Pajón was born in Medellín, Colombia in 1991 at a time when the city was engulfed in violence, something that marked her youth. Her parents had also been athletes (her father raced cars and her mother competed in equestrian events). She learned to ride a bike at the age of 3 and began competing in events the next year. Click HERE to see a short ESPN documentary (in Spanish) about her life. For resources for teaching Spanish, Level 1 through AP, CLICK HERE.

Photo from wtatennis.com. Click HERE .  ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Mónica Puig! (1993-     ) A professional tennis player from San Juan, Puerto Rico, Puig made history in 2016 when she won gold at the 2016 Summer Olympics. She became the first athlete representing Puerto Rico to win an Olympic gold and the first Latin American champion in women's singles. In this 2016 interview, she describes her return to Puerto Rico after the win, with fans chanting her name well into the night, as "una noche de alegría, una noche feliz." Puig was born in San Juan to a Cuban American father and a Puerto Rican mother.  She turned pro in 2010 at the age of 17 and has since won two WTA singles titles and six ITF singles titles. She reached a ranking of #27 in the world in September of 2016. For resources for teaching Spanish, Level 1 through AP, CLICK HERE.

Photo from sloansportsconference.com. Click HERE .  ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Mary Joe Fernández! (1971-      ) A former professional tennis player born in the Dominican Republic (to a Spanish father and a Cuban mother) and raised in Miami, Florida, Fernández turned pro in 1986 at the age of 15. She went on to win seven career singles titles and 17 doubles titles and three Olympic medals (two golds, one bronze). At her peak she was ranked #4 in the world. Fernández retired in 2000 and has since worked as a tennis commentator for ESPN and CBS. She was also coach of the 2012 U.S. Olympic team to London. She and husband Anthony Lewisohn Godsick, married in 2000, have two children, Isabella and Nicholas. See her interviewed in 2008 (in Spanish) about the tennis program for children QuickStart and important moments in her career  HERE . For resources for teaching Spanish, Level 1 through AP, CLICK HERE.

Photo from fifa.com. Click HERE .  ¡Feliz cumpleaños a Jenny Ruiz (Jennifer Marie Ruiz-Williams)! (1983-      ) A Mexican-American soccer player who played for the Seattle Reign FC and represented Mexico in the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, Ruiz was born in Anaheim, California and attended Corona High School, where she was a 3 time All-League MVP. She then attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas from 2001-2004, where she earned many honors for her soccer performance, including being named to the First Team All Mountain West Conference her senior year. She taught in inner-city Los Angeles for two years with Teach For America following graduation. Ruiz and husband Kevin Williams have two children. Her second child was born in Brazil, where she and her husband were working as Christian missionaries. For resources for teaching Spanish, Level 1 through AP, CLICK HERE.

Photo from speakerpedia.com. Click HERE .  ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Annia Portuondo Hatch! (1978-       ) A Cuban-American gymnast who won a silver medal on the vault (despite a recently torn ACL) and a team silver medal in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Hatch is now retired and living in Long Island, New York, where she runs a foundation, raises her children (Faith and Andron), and writes a fashion and wellness blog (click HERE ). She was born in Guantánamo, Cuba in 1978 and started gymnastics when she was 4. When she was 10, she won the Cuban National Championships for the first time (she would win a total of 7 times during her career in Cuba). In 1993 she made her debut in the World Championships for Cuba, placing 10th all-around. She qualified for the 1996 Olympics, but Cuba ended up not being able to send her (either from a lack of funding, a failure of the government to hand in paperwork, or some other issue - different sources point to different...