Latin America often refers to the regions in the Americas in which Romance languages are the main languages and the culture and Empires of its peoples have had significant historical, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural impact. It is "commonly used to describe South America, plus Central America, Mexico, and most of the islands of the Caribbean". In a narrow sense, it refers to Spanish America, and often it may also include Brazil. The term "Latin America" may be used broader than Hispanic America, which specifically refers to Spanish-speaking countries; and narrower than categories such as Ibero-America, a term that refers to both Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries from the Americas, and sometimes from Europe. It could also theoretically encompass Quebec or Louisiana where French is still spoken and are historical remnants of the French Empire in that region of the globe.
The year 1968 in film involved some significant events, with the release of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as two highly successful musical films, Funny Girl and Oliver!, the former earning Barbra Streisand the Academy Award for Best Actress and the latter winning both the Best Picture and Best Director awards.
Y tu mamá también is a 2001 Mexican coming-of-age comedy drama road film directed by Alfonso Cuarón, who co-wrote the script with his brother Carlos. It follows two teenage boys who take a road trip with a woman in her late twenties and stars Diego Luna, Gael García Bernal, and Maribel Verdú, with narration by Daniel Giménez Cacho. It is set in 1999 against the backdrop of Mexico's political and economic realities, specifically at the end of the uninterrupted seven decades of presidents from the Institutional Revolutionary Party and the rise of the opposition led by Vicente Fox.
Trailer Park Boys is a Canadian mockumentary television sitcom created by Mike Clattenburg that began airing in 2001 as a continuation of his 1999 film bearing the same name. The show follows the misadventures of a group of trailer park residents, including two lead characters in and out of prison, living in the fictional "Sunnyvale Trailer Park" in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The series premiered on Showcase on April 20, 2001, and originally ran for seven seasons before concluding with a one-hour special on December 7, 2008. The series spawned three films: The Movie, released on October 6, 2006; Countdown to Liquor Day, released on September 25, 2009; and Don't Legalize It, released on April 18, 2014.
Duets is a 2000 American road trip musical comedy-drama film co-produced and directed by Bruce Paltrow and written by John Byrum. The motion picture features an ensemble cast with Gwyneth Paltrow, Huey Lewis, Paul Giamatti, Maria Bello, Angie Dickinson, Scott Speedman, and Andre Braugher among others. The movie "revolves around the little known world of karaoke competitions and the wayward characters who inhabit it."
Roberto Alejandro Avellanet Negrón, known professionally as Robert Avellanet or Roba, is a Puerto Rican singer who was a member of Menudo. His uncle is the famous Puerto Rican singer Chucho Avellanet.
The Spain men's national basketball team represents Spain in international basketball competitions. They are managed by the Spanish Basketball Federation, the governing body for basketball in Spain. Spain is the current European champion.
Angélica Espinoza Stransky, known as Angélica Aragón, is a Mexican film, television and stage actress and singer. She is daughter of the Mexican composer José Ángel Espinoza "Ferrusquilla". She is recognized for her performances in various Mexican film productions such as Cilantro y perejil (1997), Sexo, pudor y lágrimas (1999) and El crimen del Padre Amaro (2002) and in diverse American productions like A Walk in the Clouds (1995) and Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2002) among others. She is also famous for having starred in two famous Mexican telenovelas: Vivir un poco (1985) and Mirada de mujer (1997).
Jaime Federico Said Camil de Saldanha da Gama is a Mexican actor, singer and television personality. He is best known for his roles as Fernando Mendiola in La Fea Más Bella and Rogelio de la Vega in Jane the Virgin, the latter of which brought him two nominations for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
Bordertown is a 2007 American crime drama film written and directed by Gregory Nava, and starring Jennifer Lopez, Martin Sheen, Maya Zapata, Sônia Braga and Antonio Banderas. This is the second film which featured the collaboration between Nava and Lopez, following the 1997's biopic film Selena.
Carmen Margarita Zapata often referred to as "The First Lady of the Hispanic Theater" was an American actress best known for her role in the PBS bilingual children's program Villa Alegre. Zapata is also the co-founder and director of the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts in Los Angeles. Zapata took an active part in the Chicano movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Zapata was born in New York City to Julio Zapata, a Mexican immigrant, and Ramona Roca, an Argentine immigrant.
Guns of the Magnificent Seven is a 1969 Western, styled in the genre of a Zapata Western, the second sequel to the classic 1960 Western action film The Magnificent Seven, itself based on Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (1954). The film was directed by Paul Wendkos and produced by Vincent M. Fennelly. It stars George Kennedy as Chris Adams, the character Yul Brynner portrayed in the first two films.
Karl Cameron Porter, known as K.C, is an American record producer, singer-songwriter, arranger and composer, winner of six Grammy Awards and two Latin Grammy Awards. Porter has worked on more than 40 albums, including production work on Santana's album Supernatural and for producing and writing some of the most popular Spanish-language singles for Ricky Martin.
The Yacht Isabel Arrived This Afternoon is a 1949 Venezuelan-Argentine film directed by Carlos Hugo Christensen. It was shown at the 1951 Cannes Film Festival, where it also won for Best Cinematography.
Olga Segura is a Mexican actress and producer.
Jonas H. Rivera is an American film producer. As of September 2022, he is the executive vice president for film production at Pixar Animation Studios, meaning that he oversees operational issues for all film and streaming production. He produced the animated films Up (2009), Inside Out (2015), and Toy Story 4 (2019), all of which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Rivera is an alumnus of San Francisco State University and has worked at Pixar since starting there as an intern in 1994.
In Mexican culture, it is now relatively common to see gay characters represented on Mexican sitcoms and soap operas (telenovelas) and being discussed on talk shows. However, representations of male homosexuals vary widely. They often include stereotypical versions of male effeminacy meant to provide comic relief as well as representations meant to increase social awareness and generate greater acceptance of homosexuality. However, efforts to represent lesbians have remained nearly non-existent, which might be related to the more general invisibility of lesbian subcultures in Mexico.
Alfonso Arau Incháustegui is a Mexican filmmaker and actor. He worked as an actor and director in both Mexican and Hollywood productions for over 40 years, before his international breakthrough with the 1992 film Like Water for Chocolate, based on his wife Laura Esquivel's novel of the same name. His other films include A Walk in the Clouds (1995), Picking Up the Pieces (2000), The Magnificent Ambersons (2002) and Zapata: El sueño del héroe (2004). He is a five-time Ariel Award winner, including Best Director for Like Water for Chocolate, and a BAFTA nominee.
Maria Entraigues-Abramson is an Argentine-American singer, composer, and actress, and is the Director of Development for the SENS Research Foundation.
Elizabeth Karlsen is an American–British film producer. Her career has spanned over three and a half decades, and In 2019, she was awarded the BAFTA award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema. Her work has garnered a total of 52 BAFTA nominations and wins, and 20 Academy Award® nominations and wins. In 2002, she co-founded Number 9 Films with production partner and husband, Stephen Woolley.
