HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH.

That's right, another one of these special months devoted to making certain ethnic groups feel better about their contributions! LOLOLOL! What, we have low self-esteem you say? NAH!

Okay. Let's get it going. I'm an avid hispanophile as you may already know, and am going to share with you some facts I've been mulling over and want to share with you that you may not have been aware of!

Cool Facts Relating to Hispanic/Latino Culture:

--Christina Aguilera's (our little singing machine extraordinaire) father was born in Ecuador.

--Martin Sheen's (notable actor and activist) real name is Ramón Estévez. There's his son Charlie, whose real name is Carlos, and that other one who kept his original name altogether.

--The English word alligator comes from the Spanish word el lagarto, which literally means, "the lizard."

--Spain has the ninth largest economy in the world.

--One country in Africa has Spanish as its official language, a small little place called Equatorial Guinea.

--Spain was largely influenced by the Romans of course, but also received tremendous Jewish and Arab contributions as well. Fully one quarter of current Spanish words are of Arab origin, including the term, ¡Olé!

--The Philippines, were named after King Philip II (Felipe II) of Spain in the 1500s, Las Filipinas.

--Linda Carter, of Wonder Woman fame, was born to a Mexican-American mother.

--The oldest European settlement in the United States is St. Augustine, FL which was founded by the Spaniards in 1565.

--La Paz, Bolivia is the highest capital city in the world at 11,811 ft. Hope you can breathe!

--Rita Moreno, born in Puerto Rico, is one of only nine people to ever win all four top entertainment awards: Oscar, Emmy, Tony, and a Grammy.

--The late great Beatle George Harrison's widow and the mother of his only son Dhani was born Olivia Arias, in Mexico.

--Hip-shaking Colombian superstar Shakira's father is of Lebanese descent.

--Charo, the crazy and eccentric accomplished flamenco guitarist (one of the best in the world), was born in Spain with the following full name: María del Rosario Pilar Martínez Molina Baeza de Rasten.

--The city with the most Spanish speakers in the world is Mexico City.

--Fresno, is the Spanish word for ash tree.

--Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha, III was the birthname of the beloved Cuban actor who played Ricky Ricardo on I Love Lucy.

--10 Nobel Prizes in Literature have been awarded to Spanish speaking authors, including Gabriela Mistral from Chile and Miguel Ángel Asturias from Guatemala, for their contributions to world literature.

--Monica Lewinsky (famous for pleasuring Clinton and getting clothing stained), is the daughter of a Jewish doctor who was born and raised in El Salvador.

--What many consider to be the first modern novel and the greatest ever is Don Quixote de la Mancha, written by the Spaniard, Miguel de Cervantes.

--Talented actor Joaquin Phoenix was born in Puerto Rico and speaks Spanish.

--In Madonna's song Who's That Girl?, the title of the song is repeated in Spanish as "¿Quién es esa niña?" followed by the line, "Señorita, más fina", which means: "A fine little lady."

--The background vocals in The Clash's huge hit Should I Stay or Should I Go are sung in broken Spanish.

I may do a part two to this. Till then...

¡Hasta la vista!