Famous Latinx Birthdays

Photo from eldiario.es. Click HERE . ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Eduardo Galeano! (1940-2015) A Uruguayan journalist, writer, and novelist considered one of the most important figures of the Latin American left, Galeano's book Las venas abiertas de América Latina (1971) was one of the few possessions writer Isabel Allende took with her when she fled Chile after Pinochet's military coup. The book, which chronicles U.S. and European imperialism in the region, was also given to President Barack Obama by Venezuela's leader Hugo Chávez in 2009 when he made an official state visit (click HERE for more). Galeano, who was born in Montevideo, began his career as a journalist in the early 60s as an editor for Marcha , an influential weekly journal. After the military coup in Uruguay in 1973, he was imprisoned and later forced to flee to Argentina. When the Videla regime took over Argentina several years later, he fled to Spain. He returned to Uruguay in 1985 when democracy was re...

Photo from diariossobrediarios.com.ar. Click HERE .  Feliz cumpleaños a ... Zelmar Michelini (May 20 1924-May 20 1976) A Uruguayan journalist and politician who spoke out about the human rights abuses during " Operation Condor " in South America, he was kidnapped (in front of two of his children), tortured and killed in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1976. He was in Argentina, exiled from his home country of Uruguay, due to the 1973 coup d'etat that put in place a civilian-military dictatorship with Juan María Bordaberry at its head. In 2010 Bordaberry was convicted of human rights abuses, including the assassination of Michelini, and sentenced to 30 years (read more HERE ). In 2016, on the 40th anniversary of Michelini's death, his ten children stood at his gravesite and read a statement, saying that their father always fought for "libertad, democracia, derechos humanos e igualdad social" (liberty, democracy, human rights, and social equality) (read the ...

Photo from 50 Megs. Click HERE .  ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Merlin Santana! (1976-2002) Santana was an Afro-Latino actor best known for his roles as Stanley (Rudy Huxtable's boyfriend) on The Cosby Show , Marcus Dixon on Getting By, Marcus Henry on Under One Roof , and Romeo Santana on The Steve Harvey Show.  Santana was born to Dominican parents in New York City. After he survived being born prematurely his mother decided he needed a special name and thus named him Merlin, after Merlin the Magician. She got him into acting at age 3, and his first job was as an advertising model for a fast food chain. He then appeared on screen for the first time in Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo . He attended Ascension Catholic School in the city before eventually making his way west, to Los Angeles, for his career. He kept his last name, Santana, to honor his Latino heritage, and he sometimes spoke Spanish as Romeo in The Steve Harvey Show . Tragically, Santana was fatally shot...