Maria's Journal

Hispanic Heritage Month In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month I present to you five world renowned Hispanic authors you should get to know. Please see below in alphabetical order: Isabel Allende is a Chilean writer who also pens in the “magic realist” tradition.. In 2004, Allende was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and she received Chile’s National Literature Prize in 2010. Jorge Luis Borges was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator. But he was much more than that. Borges contributed to the so-called philosophical literature movement, and he became a literary icon beyond frontiers, though never recognized with a Nobel Prize. Carlos Fuentes was a Mexican novelist and essayist. This great author was honored with the Miguel de Cervantes Prize as well as Mexico’s highest award, the Belisario Dominguez Medal of Honor. Fuentes, like Borges, never won the Nobel Prize. Gabriel Garcia Marquez also known as ‘Gabo’, was a Col...

Cinco de Mayo, (Spanish for “Fifth of May”), also called Anniversary of the Battle of Puebla, is a holiday celebrated in parts of Mexico. This particular holiday celebrates the date of the Mexican army’s 1862 victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War. While it is a relatively minor holiday in Mexico, in the United States, Cinco de Mayo has evolved into a commemoration of Mexican culture and heritage, particularly in areas with large Mexican-American populations. In the state of Puebla in Mexico, the day is celebrated with parades, speeches, and reenactments of the 1862 battle, though it is not much noticed in most of the rest of the country. In the mid-20th-century in the United States, the celebration of Cinco de Mayo became among Mexican immigrants a way of encouraging pride in their Mexican heritage. Click here to learn more about the Battle of Puebla. Happy Cinco de Mayo! Maria