Famous Latinx Birthdays

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Lilian Tintori! (1978-     ) Lilian Tintori at a rally in support of political prisoners in Venezuela in 2015. Click HERE for full story.  Wife of Venezuela's jailed (now on house arrest) opposition leader Leopoldo López , Tintori  was a Venezuelan athlete and television and radio personality before becoming involved in politics through her marriage to López in 2006. Born in Caracas, the capital, to a Venezuelan mother and an Argentinian father, she studied at Merici Academy and earned a Bachelor's degree in preschool education with a minor in political communications from the Andrés Bello Catholic University. Her career in the entertainment industry began with a 2001 stint on the popular Venezuelan reality tv show Robinson: La Gran Aventura . She was then a television host with RCTV and Televen. She was also Venezuela's 2003 Kitesurfing National Champion.  She and López were married in May of 2007, when he was mayor of Chacao...

Photo from caras.cl. Click HERE .  ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Ana González Olea! (1915-2008) Commonly called by her nickname, La Desideria,  González was a Chilean theater, television, and radio actress who won Chile's National Prize of Art (Premio Nacional de Arte de Chile) in 1969 for her work. She has been called "the most famous Chilean actress of all time." She was born in Peñalolén, Chile to a seamstress mother, Ana Olea, who gave her a strict, religious education at home. Her father, Manuel González Ossa, who was rich, did not marry her mother, but he recognized Ana (not always done in those times) and gave her his last name. He used to call her "Mona" or "Monita" (note: while mona can mean cute, monkey, and doll in Spanish, the article where this story appears says he called her that "por lo poco agraciada que la encontraba," which indicates that he was saying she was not graceful or good-looking!). González started acting at age...

Happy May 3rd! El tres de mayo, 1808 (below) is one of Goya's most famous paintings. Read about why it's one of my favorites HERE . ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Joey Montana (Edgardo Antonio Miranda Beiro)! (1987-      ) Photo from The Gazette Review, 2018. Click HERE .  A musician from Panama, Joey Montana is known for songs such as La Melodia, Tus Ojos No Me Ven, Hola, and Picky . He has released four albums, the most recent one being Picky Back To The Roots in 2016. He was originally a member of the group La Factoria and contributed to many of their albums before going solo in the early 2000s. He currently lives in his hometown of Boquete, Panama. See the video for his song Picky , which has more than a billion views, HERE . For resources for teaching Spanish, Level 1 through AP, CLICK HERE.

Photo from cervantes.es. Click HERE .  ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Zoé Valdés! (1959-       ) "La libertad es lo primero. Luego todo lo demás." A Cuban writer novelist, poet, scriptwriter, blogger, and activist, Zoé Valdés was born the same year that Castro came to power. She was taught to read and love poetry by her grandmother, who was of Chinese and Irish descent, and she published her first poem as a teenager. In the 1980s she worked at the Cuban Delegation of UNESCO in Paris, and then the Oficina Cultural de La Misión de Cuba , also in Paris, before returning to Cuba and serving as editor of the magazine Cine Cubano.  In 1994 she was officially exiled from Cuba for political reasons (she had ruffled feathers when she was arrested in the 1980s for driving two Spanish tourists around Havana, as this was against the law under the regime, and by refusing to donate an award she won in 1991 to the Castro regime, but the final reason was her signing ...

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Christian Benitez! (1986-2013) Photos from newsmax.com. Click HERE .  Christian "Chucho" Benitez was an Ecuadorian soccer star who passed away from a heart attack due to a preexisting condition in July of 2013. At the time, he was playing professional soccer for El Jaish in the Qatar Stars League. His funeral was attended by thousands in Ecuador, including President Rafael Correa. The son of Ermen Benítez, a former professional soccer player for Ecuador, Benitez was married to Liseth Chalá, the daughter of Cléber Chalá, also a former player. He and Liseth had twins, born in August of 2009, and his son, especially, has been outspoken in about how much he misses his father (see his Twitter message from July of 2017 HERE ). After his death, Benitez's international teammate and friend Antonio Valencia had Benitez's number (11) tattooed onto his upper arm. See Chucho's father and several young Ecuadorian soccer players talk about what he...

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Luis Scola! (1980-     ) Scola at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Río, from an article in The Boston Globe about their win over Brazil. Click HERE .  A professional basketball player from Argentina, Scola was 15 when he made his professional debut with Club Ferro Basquet in Buenos Aires. When he was 17, he moved to Gijon, Spain to play in a small club there. Though picked late in the 2nd round of the 2002 NBA draft by the San Antonio Spurs, he continued playing in Spain for five more years (with the Spurs happy to let him stay there and develop as a player) until he was finally signed as a 27-year-old rookie by the Houston Rockets in 2007. He was then voted to the NBA All-Rookie First Team. During his NBA career, which only ended in 2017, Scola also played for the Phoenix Suns, the Indiana Pacers, the Toronto Raptors, and the Brooklyn Nets. He also played for Argentina in multiple Olympics, winning gold in 2004 (the U.S. won bronze that ye...

¡Feliz cumpleaños a ... Leopoldo López! (1971-      ) López in July of 2017 greeting supporters outside his house. Photo from The New York Times . Click HERE . A politician and activist in Venezuela currently under house arrest for "arson and conspiracy" related to the February 2014 protests he called for (opposition leaders say the charges are fabricated and politically motivated), he co-founded the political party Primero Justicia in 2000 and was elected mayor of the Chacao municipality of Caracas in July of that year. In 2009 he founded another political party, Voluntad Popular, for which he is the National Coordinator. He can be seen in this video  from 2014 giving a rousing speech to his supporters, and saying goodbye to his wife, Lilian, before being taken away to Ramo Verde prison (the two have been married since 2007 and have three children together). International human rights  groups have called for his release, calling him a political prisoner...