On this Day in Latino History

On this day in history, in the year 1507, German cartographer Martin Waldseemueller, names the large mass of land in the Western Hemisphere “America,” after Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci , who may or may not have “discovered” America before Columbus. Because of the controversy, Waldseemueller later tries to take the name Amerigo back, but 1000 copies of the cartographer’s map are already distributed, and the name sticks (a precursor, I suppose, of putting things out on the internet and not getting them back). Today is also Al Pacino’s 67th birthday, the actor responsible for the role of Cuban drug dealer Tony Montana and that of Puerto Rican drug dealer Carlito “Charlie” Brigante. And in other significant events in This Day In Latino History, San Antonio Spurs forward Tim Duncan turns 31.

Comments

[karim]

Are you implying that TD is Latino? That would be a good post, because it brings up questions like who is more Chicano the Nugget's Eduardo Najera or the Spur's Tim Duncan? Who is more popular in Mejico and who is more popular in Aztlan? And of course LA cats are gonna want to say Kobe is Latino, after all he grew up in Italy, Al Pacino's patria.