Cinco de Mayo

I spent Saturday hanging with some of my friends in manchester.  One of them was darker complected, but I knew he'd lived here most of his life.  I remembered him saying his parents were out celebrating Cinco de Mayo.  It took me a few moments until I realized that his family must have been of Mexican descent.

I remembered from Spanish class that Cinco de Mayo was a popular holiday and stood for "fifth of May."  The date is remembered as May fifth of 1862 when Mexico was victorious during the Battle of Puebla.  The French lost the Franco-Mexican War to Mexicans with little skill and lack of weapons.  They fought with all they had and won the battle.
Today the holiday isn't nearly as popular in Mexico as it was a long time ago.  Over time it has turned more into an American event.  Some restaurants market the day to bring in customers.  It promotes their business with their supposably authentic Mexican food.
The day is also often confused with Mexico's Independence day.  That was marked on September sixteenth of 1810.  In Mexico there are military parades, but it is still not a federal holiday.  Mariachi music, however, is very popular.  Where ever you are on the next Cinco de Mayo means its time to party.

Spanish In Xbox

The other day I was playing Xbox and I was playing MW3.  My friends decided to switch to game chat so I went with.  While I was in game chat I could hear someone speaking in Spanish.  I believe he said he was going to win in Spanish that match and I thought it was weird how I understood him so easily and he thought he was gonna win and I beat him.

T.V.

I woke up last Saturday morning and got breakfast like I usually do. I walked out into the living room and to my surprise my little ten year old brother was watching a weird show on T.V. called 'Perro y Gato' I just had to laugh because then mason says "I really have no idea what they are saying but dang it sounds sooo cool!" I then got to feel very smart because since it was a spanish cartoon they talked slow enough and used little enough words that I could catch a few sentences here and there. But if he asked me what a sentence was and  didn't quite understand it I would just make something up that sounded believable  Its crazy how much Spanish you can pick up in a short time. I may not be very fluent but hearing it I am getting good at picking up the meanings of words.
~Sabela

Penelope Cruz

For my spanish blog I decided to do it over Penelope Cruz. Penelope Cruz was born in Madrid. Her mother was a hairdresser and her father was a retailer. As a child she was born to be an actress, she used to re-enact commercials to her family. Then she got older and decided she like to try to do dance. She studied ballet and other major dances for fifteen years. At age 15 she entered in a talent agency and blew all the other girls away, and landed her a job starting in spanish  TV shows, and movies. These small roles led her to larger roles in movies like "debut" Then she started in a oscar-winning movie called, "The Age of Beauty." I believe she is very successful and has had a good life. I do believe she will keep moving forward and keep doing what she does best. She is now married and has beautiful children and is living a good life.

Mariano Rivera grew up in Puerto Caimito, Panama. This wasn't the ideal spot for a future baseball star 
to grow up as equipment was sparse. He was forced to play with sticks for bats and hallowed out milk cartons for gloves. His love and dedication for the game however earned him a chance in the minor leagues. It wouldn't be long, still in his rookie season, that he would play in the major league. Shortly after he would move from being a starter to being a closer. He would define the prototype of this postion for years. His calmness allowed him to succeed in pressure moments and often set the mood for the whole team. For many years you knew if the Yankees were up and Mariano was in the game it was as good as won and the rest was just a formality. His domince feed itself as his reputation grew teams would fear him and avoid being down in the late game at all costs. To me, Mariano was one of the most exciting players to watch and in many cases cheer against. When he was in the game it was a good game up to that point and you know with his reputation even a base hit seems great and if you could manage to win it was unbelievable. Sadly, it appears his career may be over due to recently tearing his ACL. He'll be missed by many including me.




http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/52JdWJNTWDG_TtUBiFgpgg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD05NDc7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/gettyimages.com/file-mariano-rivera-tears-acl-20120504-043026-791.jpg


Martelli, A.J. "Mariano Rivera A Bio of the Greatest Closer in Baseball."Bleacher Report. March 24, 2009. Web. May 4, 2012.

Experience

A few days ago I was watching TV with my parents. After the show we were flipping through the stations. My mom stopped on one of the stations, and we didn't know the name of the show but it dealt with doctors. The guy was talking to a woman he thought was attractive, but she was mad at him. As she was walking away from him he yelled you are "muy bonita" and I instantly knew what he was saying. My mom asked what it meant and I told her he said you are very pretty. It was kind of cool to understand it and be able to tell your family what is being said by someone in Spanish especially since they don't know the language.

Dancing With The Stars is, in my opinion, an amazing show. This season, a man named William Levy is partnered with Cheryl Burke. William has made it through week seven in season 14. He is from Havana, Cuba. Leaving Cuba early on, William was living in Miami, Florida, by age fifteen and learning how to speak English. He appeared in Telemundo's Los Teens, a series about Hispanic teenagers growing up in the United States. Before Los Teens, he appeared in a music video and two reality shows. This kicked off his careers towards acting and modeling. William was a model, traveling outside of the U.S., and then moved to Los Angeles to take acting lessons and  start auditions. He did Spanish soap operas and a very famous novela called "Pasion". This gave him incredible recognition and really threw him into the acting world. He then traveled to do more of this work. William did acting in Ecuador and Mexico. In Mexico, he took acting jobs and traveled Mexican cities. He has become well known around Mexico, South America, and the United States. Dancing With The Stars is just the latest thing from this Latino's life.


"William Levy." William Levy. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 May 2012. 


http://www.wallpaperama.com/post-images/forums/201101/17p-8026-handsome-william-levy-7.jpg

Vanessa Hudgens

Vanessa Hudgens is best known for her role on the High School Musical series.  Hudgens was born in Salinas, California in 1988. Her mother is of Chinese-Filipino-Spanish descent. Her father is of Native American and Irish descent. Vanessa started at the age of eight performing in musical theaters. When she was 15 years old Hudgens started her acting career.  Her breakthrough role was when she starred in High School Musical.  While on set for the series she became romantically involved with her co-star Zac Efron. They ended their relationship in 2010, unfortunately! Other successful movies Hudgens has starred in are Bandslam, Beastly, and Sucker Punch. Hudgens has also released several songs, and has received many awards for acting and singing.

http://static.go4celebrity.com/wallpapers/Vanessa-Hudgens/Vanessa-Hudgens-007.jpg
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1227814/bio

Mariano Rivera- Carlitos

Mariano Rivera is a Panamamian right handed pitcher for the New York Yankees. He was born and raised in Panama and is currently 42 years old.  He is one of the most productive pitchers in the MLB and is the closer for the Yankees. This means at the ends of games he steps in and shuts down the opposing team.  He is said to be a for sure hall of fame pick in the future and will most likely be considered the best closer in baseball.  He started as a starting pitcher but did not do as well as they hoped so they moved him to the set up man.  After he did that for awhile they felt as if he would excel as a closer and that is where he found his groove.  His personality is known as friendly and considerate.  He is a 12-timne All-Star and a 5-time World Series Champion.  Unfortunately, he torn his ACL recently and is out for the remainder of the season.  "Mo", as they call him, will go down in history and will never be forgotten.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/_/id/3240/mariano-rivera

I have found that working hard in Spansh class really does pay off. Reading Spanish on the spot can show up just about anywhere, including the strip mall. Today I went shopping in Cedar Rapids with my Mom, and we visited the Dress Barn. I was reading a sign in the store about saftey regulations and the bottom half was in Espanol. I tested myself to read the rest in spanish before quizzing myself and reading the rest of the english. I did pretty well!! I understood the overall idea of the sign and felt like an accomplished 17 yearold to be out in the real world reading spanish signs with only three years of spanish under my belt. If a person looks around, almost everything is translated into spanish. Clothing tags, signs, airport announcements, internet website translations, instruction manuals, etc. To be a foreign tourist in America, or even a citizen, seems like it would be pretty convenient with all the translated directions. I wonder how people of different languages that are as common as spanish feel when they have trouble with english. Hermosa

Baby Bash

            I was listening to my ipod a few days ago and I heard the song Cyclone by Baby Bash featuring T-Pain.  I heard Baby Bash throw a little Spanish into his rap so.  I realized I didn't know that much about him so I figured he would be a good person to blog about.
            Ronnie Ray Bryant was born on October 18, 1975.  His mother is Mexican American and his father was English American.  He planned on playing semi pro basketball but ruined his chances after tearing his ankle and not having it repaired.  In 1995 he joined a group called Potna Deuce and started performing under the stage name Baby Beesh.  After working with this group he changed his name to Baby Bash and got a deal with Universal Records.  On his third studio album Cyclone in October 2007, he became a big hit.  His song Cyclone had over 750,000 digital and ringtone sales before the song was released.  He became Myspace's number one Latin artist.
            Baby Bash is a great artist.  Some of my favorite songs of his are Cyclone, What Is It featuring Sean Kingston, and Baby I'm Back featuring Akon.  I am a big fan of Baby Bash and I hope he comes out with something new soon.
"MyuzikBox: Killa, Baby Bash Ft. Cousin Fik & The Stooie Bros." MyuzikBox. Web. 03 May 2012.
 Starpulse.com ." Starpulse. Web. 03 May 2012. 

Cameron Diaz

Cameron Diaz is one of the most recognizable actresses in this world. I was recently watching a movie of hers, and I wondered if she was of latin decent because of her last name. I decided to do research, Cameron Diaz was born in 1972 in San Diego California. She is the daughter of Billie and Emilio Diaz. Her father was Cuban and her mother was German. When she was younger, she was known for being very adventurous and outgoing. When she was 16, she left her home and traveled the world. She visited Morocco, Mexico, and Australia. When, she was 21 she returned to California. She began to model and act. 

Her first big role was the movie, The Mask, in 1994. Her next films were The Last Supper and My Best Friend's Wedding. Some of her most recent roles were What Happens in Vegas and Shrek. She has won awards such as the People's Choice Award for Favorite Leading Lady and an MTV Movie Award. Cameron is also one of the highest paid actresses in the world. She seems to have an interesting life. 

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000139/bio

Jay Hernandez

Javier "Jay" Hernandez was born on February 20, 1978, in Montebello, California. Him and his two older brothers and a sister are all of Mexican descent. His career began as a chance encounter with a Hollywood agent in a Los Angeles elevator. The agent noticed his star aspects and mentioned that he should try acting. His acting debut began as Antonio Lopez on the NBC sitcom Hang Time.
After that first performance, Jay's career skyrocketed. He has appeared in big films such as Joy Ride, The Rookie, Ladder 49, and Friday Night Lights. The first time I became aware of Hernandez was in Friday Night Lights, one of my favorite movies. Jay ended up marrying one of his Hang Time costars, Daniella Deutscher. I have not seen Hang Time, but all of the other movies that Hernandez has been a part of are some of my favorite movies. If it was not for his Mexican-esque look, I would not have known that Jay Hernandez was of Mexican descent. He speaks very fluent English without an accent. I hope to see Hernandez in more films as his career goes on!

http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/15595567/homepage/name/homepage.jpg?type=sn

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0379596/bio

Michelle Rodriguez

Michelle Rodriguez was born July 12, 1978, in Texas. Her father was Puerto Rican and her mother was from Dominican Republic. She moved to the Dominican Republic at age eight, and later moved to Puerto Rico at 11. She then moved to New Jersey.
Michelle Rodriguez is well known for playing the tough girl "Letty" on the Fast and Furious movies, which are some of my favorite movies. She also starred in another one my favorite movies, Blue Crush in 2002. Michelle also played roles in the TV series Lost, Avatar, S.W.A.T, and many more. She also has a few movies coming out in 2013, which I'm sure will be good. She is known for playing the "tough girl" in all her movies and shows. The characters she plays fit her real presonality, because as a teen she dropped out of high school and was kicked out of school six times. I really enjoy all of her movies and I think she is a terrific actress.

http://fcdn.filmonic.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/normal_0021.jpg
http://people.famouswhy.com/michelle_rodriguez/

My Dinning Destination

The other day my sister came back for the weekend, and we decided that we wanted to go get some Mexican food.  We didn't really want to drive to far so we choice Las Flores as the dinning destination.  When we arrived there was a Mexican waiter helping us.  After the few times that me and my sister talked about Spanish, I felt like if either one of us would talk to him in Spanish it should be me.  So I said hello in Spanish and then he started talking way too fast for either one of us to understand.  I didn't know what to do at first so I simply told him in english that I didn't know that much Spanish and went through the rest of my meal in English.  My sister and I had a wonderful time though and once finished we left him a wonderful tip for being so understanding.

Spanish Encounters

  We are adding onto our porch and we poured some cement and there were some Hispanic people that were helping with the cement.  They were talking in Spanish to each other.  I was standing on the porch listening to them.  They were talking about my dog (Holly).  Then they were telling each other what tools to get.  There boss was telling them commands in Spanish.  I still can't believe that they talk that fast.  In instenses like these knowing Spanish is a good thing otherwise they would not be able to communicate with each other.  Knowing Spanish is a great thing it could help you in your career.

Tv

The other day I accidently flipped the tv over to a spanish speaking channel and I understood part of what they were saying.  If I had enough time to figure out all the words they were saying, I'm pretty sure I could understand most of what they said.  It's surprising how much I already know.