Famous Latinx Birthdays

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Litzy (Litzy Vanya Domínguez Balderas) (1982-     )! From Instagram @litzyoficial An actress and singer from Mexico, Litzy has been in two movies and more than 10 television programs (mostly telenovelas). In 2018, she depicted an undocumented immigrant in the United States in the Telemundo show Al Otro Lado Del Mundo (On The Other Side of the Wall), a role she says helped her identify with all those who live this experience (read more, in English, HERE ). Her current role in the show Manual Para Galanes is her first LGBQT role and her first foray into comedy. Read more in this L.A. Times article (in Spanish). She talks about the show, in which she plays the owner of a doggie spa who gives lessons to men trying to be "galánes," or ladies men, in this July 2020 interview, in which she also gives life advice: i.e. En la vida real yo creo que lo que hay que hacer es tratar de ser uno mismo, lo más apegado a la esencia que uno tiene (In real li...

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Sherlyn González (1985-      )! Photo from Revista Ronda. Click HERE .  A Mexican actress and singer who started her career by winning a local singing contest called Vamos a jugar y cantar, González has gone on to have a long career in music, television, and film. After winning Vamos a jugar y cantar , González joined a group called K.I.D.S. The group participated in a tribute album to Pope John Paul II called El pescador.  After K.I.D.S., González began acting in telenovelas, eventually starring as Rocío in Cuidado con el ángel alongside William Levy, Maite Perroni, and Laura Zapata. She has been the host of the show Netas Divinas since 2016. She was married to Gerardo Isas from 2013 to 2016. Click HERE to hear her talk about their separation in a 2015 Univisión interview. For resources for teaching Spanish, Level 1 through AP, CLICK HERE.

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Roxana Puente! (1990-     ) A Mexican singer and actress who became well-known for her role on Atrévete a Soñar (2009-2010), a teen telenovela based on Argentina's Patito Feo and produced by Televisa. She was also in the children's reality show Códiga Fama (before Atrévete) and appeared in In the Name of Love (2008) and Como dice el dicho (2011). For resources for teaching Spanish, Level 1 through AP, CLICK HERE.

Photo from Wikipedia.  ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Dolores del Río! (1904-1983) A Mexican movie star who was the first "crossover star" in Hollywood, she starred in many American movies in the 1920s and 30s. She then became an important figure in the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema in the 1940s and 50s. Her films Wildflower (1943), María Candelaría (1943), Las Abandonadas (1944), Bugambilia (1944), and The Unloved Woman (1949) are all considered classic masterpieces. Born to parents who were members of the Mexican aristocracy that existed during the Porfiriato, del Río's family lost all its assets during the Mexican Revolution (1910-1921). Her father at one point escaped to the United States while she and her mother escaped to Mexico City. In 1921, del Río met Jaime Martínez del Río y Viñent, whose family had lost nothing during the Revolution. After a two-month courtship, the two married. Del Río was 17 while her husband was 34. They honeymooned for two years in Europe....

Photo from eonline.com, 2015 Latin Music Billboard Awards.  Click HERE .  ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Kendra Santacruz! (1989-      ) A Mexican television actress from Cuernavaca, Santacruz began her career in 2004 when she appeared as Daniela in the telenovela Corazones al límite. She has since appeared in more than ten telenovelas and was nominated for a Premios Tu Mundo award in 2014. She currently lives in Miami, Florida. See her discuss her role on Bajo el mismo cielo (she plays a nurse who works in a prison) HERE  ("el sueño americano no es tan fácil como se ve en las películas"). For resources for teaching Spanish, Level 1 through AP, CLICK HERE.

Photo from cineinformacion.blogspot.com. Click HERE .  ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Vanessa Andreu! (1979-     ) A Mexican actress and singer, Andreu is best known for hosting the Disney channel's show Zapping Zone (2000-2012). In June of 2013 she announced on Twitter that she was pregnant. Daughter Lorenza was born in 2014. For resources for teaching Spanish, Level 1 through AP, CLICK

Photo from vogue.com in 2017. Click HERE .  ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Danna Paola! (1995-       ) A Mexican actress and singer, Danna Paola first appeared on Plaza Sésamo (Mexico's version of Sesame Street) when she was four years old. She went on to appear in many television shows (i.e.  Rayito de Luz, Maria Belén, Amy, la niña de la mochila azul, Pablo y Andrea, Atrévete a soñar . She also sang, releasing her first album, Mi Globo Azul , in 2001, and releasing two albums with the cast of Atrévete a soñar in 2009, both which were certified double platinum in Mexico. From 2013 to 2015 Paola played "Elphaba" in the Spanish-language production of the Broadway musical Wicked in Mexico City. She has since starred in the telenovela ¿Quién es Quién? , which now airs in the United States once a week on Telemundo. She has also appeared in movies, such as 2017's Lo más sencillo es complicarlo todo , and is currently in Madrid filming Netflix's new teen drama s...

Photo from pulsoslp.com. Click HERE .  ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Fátima Torre! (1988-     ) A Mexican actress who got her start as a child on telenovelas such as Cuento de Navidad and El diario de Daniela , she has appeared on some 15 telenovelas since, as well as many tv shows and one movie, 2003's Los no invitados . She has also acted in various theater productions in Mexico. Torre is married (to Hector Salazar, 2015) with one child, Isabella, and she writes about being a mom as well as beauty, health, and other issues on her YouTube channel . For resources for teaching Spanish, Level 1 through AP, CLICK HERE.

Photo from teleprograma.diezminutos.es. Click HERE .  ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Mariana Seoane! (1976-   ) A Mexican actress and singer, Seoane was born in Mexico in 1976 to an Argentinian mother and a Cuban-Mexican father. She always loved performing and began her professional career in 1995 on Televisa's telenovela Retrato de Familia . She has since appeared on multiple telenovelas including Los Hijos de nadie, Canción de amor, Mi pequeña traviesa, Amor gitano, Tres mujeres, Diseñador, Ambos sexos , and Hasta el fin del mundo . In 2004 Seoane launched her singing career with the album Seré una niña buena . She has released five more albums since, including 2012's La malquerida . For resources for teaching Spanish, Level 1 through AP, CLICK HERE.

Photo from Facebook.  ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Paulina Holguín! (1991-      ) A Mexican singer and actress who got her start with Disney Channel Latin America, Holguín is now part of the duo Pau y Davo with her younger brother David Holguín (click HERE to see the video for their song Para estar contigo ). Born in Hermosillo, in Sonora, Mexico, Holguín is the only girl of her parents' four children. She began acting at age 11, and at age 15 she was in High School Musical: El Desafío , which aired through all of Latin America (click HERE to see her sing Eres la música en mí ). She has also been the host of Disney Planet and Zapping Zone , as well as one of the stars of the Disney show Highway , which led to her accompanying the Jonas Brothers, Demi Lovato, and Selena Gomez on parts of their world tours. For resources for teaching Spanish, Level 1 through AP, CLICK HERE. Other May 27th birthdays of note: Jaime Lusinchi (1924-2014): A physician who became...

Photo from telemundo.com story (includes video of her and son Manuel, born in January of 2017). Click HERE .  ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Anahí (Anahí Giovanna Puente de Velasco)! (1983-      ) A Mexican singer, songwriter, actress, record producer, and dancer, she has also been the First Lady of Chiapas since her marriage in 2015 to Governor of Chiapas Manuel Velasco Coello. She started her acting career at the age of two on the show Chiquilladas and went on to appear in many successful telenovelas, including the wildly successful Rebelde (2004-2006), which was based on the popular Argentine series Rebelde Way . As such, she was a member of the musical group Rebelde , which sold more than 20 million albums worldwide and was nominated for two Latin Grammys. She has since gone solo and has six studio albums, including 2016's Inesperado . Anahí suffered from anorexia as a teenager that required serious treatment (at one point the disease caused her heart to stop fo...

From ¡HOLA! México Edition, May 2018. Click HERE .  ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Itatí Cantoral (1975-   )! A Mexican actress, singer, dancer, and producer perhaps best known for her role as Alejandra Álvarez del Castillo Fernández in the televisa telenovela Hasta que el dinero nos separ e (for which she won Best Actress from People en español in 2010), Cantoral is the daughter of Mexican composer and songwriter Roberto Cantoral and Argentine actress of Italian descent Itatí Zucchi. She started acting professionally at the age of 13 and has done work in theater as well as television. Cantoral has twins (Eduardo and Roberto Miguel, born in 2000) with first husband Eduardo Santamarina and a daughter (María Itatí, born in 2008) with second husband Carlos Alberto Cruz. She is currently the lead in the upcoming biographical series Silvia Pinal, frente a ti . For resources for teaching Spanish, Level 1 through AP, CLICK HERE. Other May 13th birthdays of note: Enrique Bo...

Guillermo Cabrera Infante and his wife, Miriam Gomez, as photographed for The Paris Review, 1983. Click HERE for interview.  ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Guillermo Cabrera Infante !  (1929-2005) A Cuban writer, screenwriter, and film critic who at first adamantly supported the Communist Revolution and Castro regime, Guillermo Cabrera Infante (who used the pseudonym G. Caín in the 1950s) went into exile in 1965 and became an outspoken critic of Castro and communism. Considered a member of the "Latin Boom" (alongside writers such as Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, Julio Cortázar, and Carlos Fuentes), Cabrera nonetheless shunned this label. He was decidedly more libertarian than his contemporaries. As he explained in a 1983 Paris Review interview, which he gave when teaching at the University of Virginia as a guest professor, "Any literary work that aspires to the condition of art must forget politics, religion, and, ultimately, morals. Otherwise it will be a ...