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Christianne Meneses Jacobs | |
|---|---|
| Born | 28 March 1971 Managua, Nicaragua |
| Occupation | Publisher, Editor, Teacher & Writer |
| Nationality |  Nicaraguan |
| Spouse | Marc Jacobs |
Christianne Meneses Jacobs (born March 28, 1971) is a Nicaraguan American writer, editor, and teacher. She is the publisher of Iguana; a Spanish language magazine for children. [1]
Meneses Jacobs was born in Managua, Nicaragua. [2] Her mother Thelma was a legal secretary, [3] and her father, Enrique, was a lawyer and vice president of the National Liberal Party, [3] who had been jailed more than once in Nicaragua for political reasons. [1] Her grandfather was Dr. Ildefonso Palma Martinez; a lawyer, law professor and a justice of the Nicaraguan Supreme Court. [3] Due to the Sandinista National Liberation Front and their coup d'état, fighting and food shortages were massive problems during her childhood. The Sandinista revolution occurred when Jacobs was eight years old. [3]
Despite a privileged upbringing, attending private school and ballet lessons, with domestic servants managing childcare, cooking, driving, gardening, cleaning, laundry, and ironing. [3] Her childhood was not without hardship. Food was rationed, with the family's card granting only "one pound of beans, one pound of sugar, and one quart of oil per person in the household for a two-week period". [3]
On March 19, 1988, 17-year-old Meneses Jacobs and her family fled Nicaragua amid political tensions. Her father, an attorney, had previously represented an American pilot whose plane was shot down by Sandinista forces in December 1987. [3] [4] The pilot was accused of being a CIA agent, furthering the family's anxieties and prompting their escape [3] Permitted to take only $500 with them, they began a new life in Los Angeles, California. [3]
After her family settled in Los Angeles, her parents worked at the Los Angeles International Airport and she attended Los Angeles High School, [1] where she served as editor in Chief of both the Spanish and English newspapers. [2] Her biggest difficulty when moving to the US was the language barrier. She was placed in 10th grade at Los Angeles High School because she did not speak English well. [3] She credits her high school teachers in helping her to overcome her difficulty with the language. [3] She was inspired by Today in L.A. anchorwoman Carla Aragon, whom she developed a friendship with for several years. [3] She enjoyed her new home in the U.S and the idea of meritocracy and the American Dream. [3] She graduated from L.A. High when she was 20 years old.
Meneses received a four-year scholarship to Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. [3] At Wesleyan University, Meneses Jacobs majored in Government with an emphasis in International Relations.
Meneses began her career as a second grade elementary school teacher in Los Angeles after graduating from Wesleyan [5] In 2001, Meneses received a Master of Arts degree in Education, [5] and in 2005 she received her Reading Specialist Certification. [2] She was a bilingual teacher for several years in Los Angeles before the program was eliminated by a statewide proposition. [6]
In 2007, Meneses was awarded $5,000 as one of 10 honorees of the Anna Maria Arias Memorial Business Fund, which recognizes entrepreneurial Latinas. [1] [7]
Meneses is President of NicaGal, LLC. She continues to work as an educator, currently teaching middle school in Phoenix, Arizona. [6]
Meneses Jacobs was raised Catholic but converted to Judaism in March 1998, after graduating college. [3] In October 1998, she married graphic artist Marc Jacobs, and they had their first daughter, Isabelle, in 2002, and their second, Katherine, in 2005.
She moved to Arizona in 2002 and currently resides in Scottsdale, Arizona with her husband and their two daughters. [2]
Iguana was a Spanish language magazine aimed at children ages 7–12 who grow up learning and speaking Spanish. [3] [8] Meneses founded Iguana Magazine with her husband, Marc, and its first issue came out in 2005. Meneses Jacobs served as the editor and her husband served at the art director. The magazine was published by Cricket, but ceased publication in December 2014. [9]
The magazine was created because Meneses and her husband had a hard time teaching their children how to read Spanish. [10] The only educational materials available at the time were poorly translated books from English to Spanish. [10] The couple personally financed the launch of the magazine through their own savings. [3] By 2007 the magazine had a core group of 30 writers and 35 illustrators. [10]
Iguana featured fictional stories with characters, experiences, and settings that are familiar to the targeted readership. [11] Additionally, it presented biographies and interviews with personalities that influenced the lives of Latinos in America, historical articles, stories about children around the world, science articles with experiments to try at home, nature articles, recipes, craft projects, and reader-submitted works. [10] [11]
The magazine received the 2009 Multicultural Children's Publication Award from the National Association for Multicultural Education. [3]
¡YO SÉ! (meaning "I Know!"), created after Iguana, is a Spanish-language children's magazine which includes articles about popular culture, short stories, nature, biographies and interviews with Latino personalities. [4] It debuted nationwide at the end of January 2008 [7] and was freely distributed in Spanish-language newspapers of Hoy Fin de Semana (weekend edition) in Los Angeles and Chicago and in El Sentinel in Orlando and South Florida (Broward/Palm Beach counties), with a monthly distribution of over 750,000 copies. [12]
Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest country in Central America, comprising 130,370 km2 (50,340 sq mi). With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America after Guatemala and Honduras. Nicaragua is bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean and shared maritime borders with El Salvador to the west and Colombia to the east. The country's largest city and national capital is Managua, the fourth-largest city in Central America, with a population of 1,055,247 as of 2020. Nicaragua's multiethnic population includes people of mestizo, indigenous, European, and African heritage. The country's most spoken language is Spanish, though indigenous tribes on the Mosquito Coast speak their own languages and English.
Managua is the capital and largest city of Nicaragua, and one of the largest cities in Central America. Located on the shores of Lake Managua, the city had an estimated population of 1,055,247 as of 2020, and a population of 1,401,687 in its metropolitan area. The city also serves as the seat of Managua Department.
Violeta Barrios Torres de Chamorro is a Nicaraguan former politician who served as the 55th President of Nicaragua from 1990 to 1997. She was the first and, to date, only woman to hold the position of president of Nicaragua. Previously, she was a member of the Junta of National Reconstruction from 1979 to 1980.
Gioconda Belli is a Nicaraguan-born novelist and poet known for her contributions to Nicaraguan literature.
Culture of Nicaragua is a fusion of Mesoamerican, Chibcha, and Spanish influence. The western part was colonized by the Spanish and its culture is similar to western El Salvador in that western Nicaragua was dominated by the Nahua people, specifically the Nicarao, a branch of the Pipil people. Nahua heritage can still be seen in Nicaraguan culture especially in its cuisines, the etymologies of many of its place names, and even DNA analysis. While western Nicaragua is mostly Indigenous of Nahua or Oto-manguean origin, eastern Nicaragua is mostly of Chibcha, Miskito, and African origin.
Nora Josefina Astorga Gadea de Jenkins was a Nicaraguan guerrilla fighter in the Nicaraguan Revolution, a lawyer, politician, judge and the Nicaraguan ambassador to the United Nations from 1986 to 1988.
The Nicaraguan Literacy Campaign was a campaign launched in 1980 by the Sandinista government in order to reduce illiteracy in Nicaragua. It was awarded the prestigious UNESCO Literacy Award. There have been many other literacy campaigns in the country since the first one was launched in 1980.
The following is an alphabetical list of topics related to Nicaragua.
A Nicaraguan American is an American of Nicaraguan descent. They are also referred to as "nica" or "nicoya".
Jewish Nicaraguans or Nicaraguan Jews are Nicaraguans of Jewish ancestry who were born in or have immigrated to Nicaragua. They are part of the ethnic Jewish diaspora.
Idania de Los Angeles Fernandez Ramirez was a Nicaraguan revolutionary in the Sandinista Front.
Sofía Montenegro Alarcón is a Nicaraguan journalist, social researcher, and feminist. Montenegro's family were militarily aligned with the Somoza forces, but her feminist and Marxist studies moved her to join with the opposition to the regime. She fought in the Sandinista Revolution and though initially supportive of the Sandinista Party, later became an outspoken critic, saying it had moved to the right. She served as an editor of various divisions of the official Sandinista newspaper, Barricada, until 1994, when she founded the Center for Communication Research (CINCO) as an independent research organization free of government influence. She has written broadly on power, gender, and social interaction.
Vilma Reyes Díaz is a Puerto Rican poet, storyteller and educator. She has served as a teacher of Spanish language and has chaired the International Poetry Festival in Puerto Rico since 2010. She has been an influence on young Puerto Ricans in literary creation by offering free workshops for children and youth poetry and has published several books as a result of that work.
Nicaragua sent a delegation to compete at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7–18 September 2016. This was the Central American country's third appearance at the Summer Paralympic Games, having made its debut twelve years earlier at the 2004 Summer Paralympics. They were represented by three athletes, sprinter Jennifer Osejo, middle-distance runner and sprinter Gabriel Cuadra Holmann and powerlifter Fernando Acevedo, who all qualified for the games by achieving the minimum qualifying standard in international competition. Neither Holmann or Osejo claimed a medal in their respective events and Acevado finished fifth in the men's −72kg powerlifting class.
Vidaluz Meneses Robleto was a Nicaraguan librarian, poet, dean, and social activist.
Yo is the sixth studio album by Romanian singer Inna, released on 31 May 2019 by Global Records and Roc Nation. Inna began work on the record in 2016; inspired by a recent trip to Latin America, she decided the album would feature only Spanish language material. Inna contributed significantly to the songwriting process of Yo, and collaborated extensively with Romanian producer David Ciente on its songs. An experimental and heavily gypsy music-influenced effort, Yo marks the first time Inna took control over an album's creative process; it acts as a departure from her past EDM releases. Lyrically, Inna sings about love, and presents several female characters seen from different perspectives throughout the album.
Humberto Belli Pereira is a Nicaraguan politician and writer. The former Minister of Education in Nicaragua during the presidency of conservative Violeta Chamorro, Belli is also the author of five books.
Cristiana Chamorro Barrios is a Nicaraguan journalist, nonprofit executive and political candidate. Vice-president of La Prensa, she was an aspiring presidential candidate in the 2021 Nicaraguan general election until the Ortega government disqualified her from running and ordered her arrest in early June 2021.