Nina Schmidt ~ Vancouver German and Spanish Lessons

Category: Biographies

  • Isabel Allende

    Isabel Allende

    Isabel Allende is a famous Chilean author. She spent the first years of her life inChile until her relative, the president of Chile Salvador Allende, was assassinatedin 1973. Thereafter, she moved to the United States and worked as a journalist for many years. She had two children with her first husband.

    In 1981 Allende began writing a letter to her grandfather who was dying. The letter turned into the basis for her first novel titled “The House of the Spirits.” She wrote it in the style of magical realism. Allende had a lot of success with this first novel and has since written numerous popular novels.

    In 1992 her daughter, Paula, became ill and Isabel wrote her first nonfiction book.The book is a biography of the Allende family. Unfortunately, after a year in a coma, her daughter died.

    Isabel has won many literature awards and currently lives in Northern California with her second husband and two dogs. I continue to enjoy all of her new books and highly recommend them to students of Spanish.

  • Biography ~ Shakira

    Biography ~ Shakira

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    Shakira is a very popular Colombian singer. She was born in Baranquilla in February 1977. Her father’s family is of Lebanese origin and her mother’s family comes from Catalonia and Italy. Their ethnic roots have had a great influence on the music of Shakira. She is the only daughter of the second marriage of her father but she has eight half siblings from the first marriage of her father.

    She started singing and dancing at age four. She is very famous for her belly dancing. As a child she also wrote many poems. These poems were the basis of her first album. The release of her first album Magic occurred when she was only thirteen years old. In the following years Shakira recorded five more albums in Spanish. With her first English song Whenever, Wherever she became a worldwide superstar.

    Shakira has a boyfriend named Gerard Piqué. He is a Spanish soccer player a few years younger than her. They have two sons together. Shakira has won many awards for her music and continues to produce hits year after year. She also works with many charitable foundations to help poor people in Latin America. In particular with her own foundations in Colombia.

  • Che Guevara

    Che Guevara

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    Ernesto Che Guevara was born on June 14, 1928 in Argentina. After studying medicine, he became a Marxist revolutionary and fought during the Cuban revolution of 1959 with Fidel Castro.

    While traveling through South America as a medical student, he found very hungry and sick people. He believed that the cause of this was the capitalist exploitation of Latin Americans by the United States. As a consequence, he became radicalized in Marxist political ideology. Later in life he met Raul and Fidel Castro in Mexico City and after helping them achieve their revolution in Cuba in 1959, he played a number of key roles in their new government.

    In addition to his government duties he was also an avid writer and wrote a souvenir of his journey on motorcycle that has become a movie.

    In 1965 Guevara went to the Congo and later Bolivia trying to export his communist ideology. Guevara died in Bolivia after being captured by the CIA in 1967 at the age of 39. To this day he is a controversial figure, but he is undoubtedly one of the most influential people of the twentieth century. He received his nickname Che as people from Argentina often use this expression.

  • Biografía ~ Celia Cruz

    Biografía ~ Celia Cruz

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    Celia Cruz nació el 21 de octubre de 1925 en La Habana, Cuba. Ella era una persona muy positiva y muy querida. Fue una gran cantante con una voz muy poderosa. Le encantaba cantar y bailar y ¡llevar vestidos increíbles!

    Cruz salió de Cuba después de la Revolución en 1959 e hizo una nueva casa en Manhattan. Tuvo una carrera increíble y ella actuó junto a otras superestrellas como Tito Puente y Ruben Blades. Celia fue la primera mujer hispana en cantar en Carnegie Hall. Ella fue nominada para 12 premios Grammy y ganó uno en 1989.

    Como no podía tener hijos propios, adoptó a cientos de ahijados y ella los apoyó durante toda su vida. Siempre sonreía y siempre tenía su marido Pedro Knight a su lado. Cuando murió en 2003, los dos habían pasado 41 años juntos. Ella fue enterrada en Nueva York junto con un puñado de tierra que había traído con ella de Cuba años antes.

    Celia fue conocida como la Reina de Salsa. Sus canciones más populares incluyen: Azúcar, Quimbara quimbara y Yo viviré. Su música sigue siendo popular hoy en día en todo el mundo.

  • Biography ~ Pablo Picasso

    Biography ~ Pablo Picasso

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    Pablo Picasso was born in 1881 in Malaga, Spain. His father was an art teacher and drew very well. Pablo began taking classes from his father when he was ten. Just a few years later he was drawing better than his father!

    He had his first exposition at thirteen. The family then moved to Barcelona in 1895 and Pablo entered La Llotja art academy. At that time he used to go to cafes, restaurants and theaters to find inspiration.

    In 1898 he decided to change his style and began to spend time with other artists who had connections with the world of art in Paris. In 1904 he moved to Paris and began to develop his new style of cubism. Cubism broke with tradition and played with perspective and illusion. At first the critics did not like this new art form. However, little by little with the support and influence of his friends who were part of the artistic world, he began to gain fame.

    One of his most famous paintings is called Guernica. It was painted in 1937 and shows the horror of modern warfare. It represents a bombing during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). It is a very large painting and it’s displayed in the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid. During his 91-year life, Picasso produced 1885 paintings, 1228 sculptures, 2880 ceramics and about 12,000 drawings. Today his works are sold in art auctions for millions of dollars.

  • Biography: Porfirio Diaz

    Biography: Porfirio Diaz

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    José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz was a Mexican soldier and politician Born in Oaxaca, Mexico in 1830. Diaz was of mixed Spanish and indigenous blood. His father died when he was only three years old and he was sent away to school at the age of six. His family was devoutly Catholic and he began training for the priesthood but he was called out to serve as a soldier during the Mexican-American war. During his early life he met Benito Juarez another politician who served as the governor of Oaxaca and later president of Mexico from 1868-1872. Diaz was also present during the Battle of Puebla in the Franco- Mexican war of 1867. He seized power in 1876 during a coup. He served seven times as the president of Mexico being in power for over 35 years between 1876 and 1911! The time in which he was in power is known as the Porfiriato.

    Like many men of great power, Diaz is a controversial figure. During the time in which Diaz was in power, industry and the economy prospered. It was the only time in which the Mexican peso was equivalent to the US dollar. However this economic growth mainly benefited the elite both inside and outside of Mexico, including Diaz himself who amassed a large personal fortune. Diaz permitted heavy investment in mining and railways by both the Americans and British while taking a cut of the earnings. In addition, the already wealthy landowners increased their landholdings leaving many campesinos (subsistence farmers) unable to make a living. These policies lead directly to the Mexican Revolution of 1910. In 1911, Díaz fled to France where he later died in 1915.

     

     

  • Biography – Fidel Castro (In Spanish)

    Biography – Fidel Castro (In Spanish)

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    Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, nació el 3 de agosto 1926 en Birán, Cuba. De niño asistió a escuelas católicas en la Habana. Su familia era rica porque su padre era un agricultor exitoso. C
    astro tenía dos hermanos y cuatro hermanas. De 1945 hasta 1950 él estudió derecho en una universidad en la Habana. En 1948 Castro se casó y tuvo un hijo. Su primera esposa y él se divorciaron seis años más tarde. Con su segunda esposa Castro tuvo cinco hijos más.fidel-castro-157570__180

     

    En julio de 1953 Castro trató de derrocar al Presidente Batista de Cuba pero él fracasó. Castro deseaba formar un gobierno izquierdista en Cuba. Vivió en el exilio en Méjico por tres años. En 1956 regresó a Cuba con una banda de guerrilleros incluyendo Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara. En enero de 1959 Castro por fin asumió poder y inmediatamente estableció un estado comunista. Nacionalizó todo, por ejemplo los hoteles, restaurantes y bancos. Muchas personas de los Estados Unidos que vivían entonces en Cuba, perdieron su propiedad y salieron del país.

    Durante la Guerra Fría Castro luchó contra los Estados Unidos, lo que resultó en un embargo contra Cuba. En 2015 el presidente Obama anunció un cambio en las restricciones contra Cuba. Desde febrero 2008 el hermano menor de Fidel, Raúl, es el presidente de Cuba por la mala salud de Fidel.

     

     

     

     

  • Biography: Salvador Dali

    Biography: Salvador Dali

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    Salvador Dali was born in 1904 in the Catalonia region of Spain. He was an excellent draftsman and his painting skills were influenced by Renaissance masters. He was a very imaginative man and had an eccentric manner. He was also famous for his unique mustache.

    Dali exhibited his first paintings from his family home at the age of 15. His mother was very supportive of his talents but died when he was only 16 years old. He was friends with many other surrealist painters and artists including the famous poet Federico Garcia Lorca and the painter Joan Miró.

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    In his lifetime he met Pablo Picasso and experimented with Cubism and also Dadaism, artistic movements of his day. He did not limit himself to art. He was also interested in natural sciences and mathematics. He was particularly fascinated by optical effects and performed many experiments at home. He also had a lifelong fascination with film, fashion and photography.

    Although Dali passed away in 1989, he continues to be a cultural icon. He has been portrayed in a number of films including the film Little Ashes (2008) featuring Robert Pattinson as Salvador Dali.

  • Biography: Sigmund Freud (in German)

    Biography: Sigmund Freud (in German)

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    Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) war ein bedeutender österreichischer Arzt und Psychologe. Er ist Begründer der Psychoanalyse. Obwohl er als Jude geboren war, war er nicht ein religiöser Mann.

    Freud hat an der Universität in Wien studiert, wo er neue Theorien entwickelte über die Art des Denkens. Er hat viele Experimente über das Unterbewusstsein gemacht. Er hat Leute hypnotisiert, so dass er ihre unterdrückten Erinnerungen herausfinden könnte. Freud hat auch Träume interpretiert.

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    1906 traf Freud den Fachkollegen Carl Jung zum ersten Mal. Sie fingen zusammen zu arbeiten an, da sie ähnliche Ideen hatten. Obwohl Freud und Jung für viele Jahre zusammen arbeiteten, Jung dachte dass Freud zu negativ und zu abhängig von seinen Theorien über Sexualität war. Danach haben sie zusammen arbeiten aufgehört.

    Die Ideen von Freud über Sexualität und seine Theorien und Methoden werden immer noch heute kontrovers diskutiert. Dennoch gilt Freud als einer der einflussreichsten Denker des 20. Jahrhunderts.

     

     

     

  • Spanish Biography – Frida Kahlo

    Spanish Biography – Frida Kahlo

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    Frida Kahlo de Rivera was born in a town outside Mexico City in 1907. She was born in her parents’ home that is now called Casa Azul, or Blue house, owing to its color. She had three sisters and two half-sisters from her father’s first marriage. Her father was from Germany and her mother was Mexican, indigenous and Spanish in origin.

    At the age of 18, Frida was a passenger on a bus involved in a serious accident. She suffered injuries to her back, her right leg and her uterus. For the rest of her life Frida was in pain and had many operations. Also, she could never have a baby. All this caused her to suffer serious episodes of depression.

    Frida first began painting during her recovery from the accident. She painted many self-portraits in bed. Her paintings show the influence of the indigenous culture of Mexico. In 1929 Kahlo married Diego Rivera, another famous artist. Their marriage was tumultuous. For example, they divorced and married again the next year! They were active communists and knew many famous  people of the time such as Leon Trotsky.

    Kahlo produced at least 140 portraits before her death at the age of 47 in 1954. While not famous in her lifetime, Kahlo’s works have gained in popularity over the past three decades both in Mexico and abroad. A film of her life, Frida, was produced in 2002 with Salma Hayek in the main role.