Mercè Font

FÉLIX RODRÍGUEZ DE LA FUENTE

BIOGRAPHY

Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente was born in Poza de la Sal, Burgos (Spain), on March 14 1928. He died in Shaktoolik (Canada) on March 14 1980. Mr. Rodriguez was probably the first person who worked with falcons.

His studied at the University of Valladolid to be a doctor-dentist, but he only worked as a dentist for four years, because his passion were animals, and especially: wolves.

In 1967 he began to work with other people to make a TV programmes, for exemple "FAUNA" "EL HOMBRE Y LA TIERRA", etc.

His parents were Marcelina and Samuel, and  his wife is still alive. Her name is Marcelle Genevieve. They had three daughters.

Until his death, Rodríguez de la Fuente wrote a lot of books about animals and nature in general.

I admire him because he defended the animals in danger of extinction.

Maite Solé

ROSA PARKS

BIOGRAPHY

Rose Louise McCauley, known as Rosa Parks, was born in Tuskegee, Alabama (USA), on February 4 1933. She died on October 24 2005 in Detroit, Michigan (USA). Rosa Parks was an important figure in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States of America.

She was an African-American woman. She grew up in a farm where she lived with her family and she was brought up in the Methodist religion. Rosa worked as a weaver. She married Raymon Parks in 1932, so Rosa changed her last name into Parks.

Mrs Parks became famous because she refused to give up her seat and to move to the back of the bus. The most important thing was her rebellion, the principle of equality between black people and white people. She was imprisoned because of her activism. 

Rosa Parks is frequently cited as the spark of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States of America.

I admire her because she was a brave woman.

Ghita Abdelbaki

ANNE FRANK

BIOGRAPHY

Annelies Marie, known as Anne Frank ,vas born on June 12 1929 and died on March 12 1945. She wrote her story on a diary which has been read by millions of peple around the world. 

Anne Frank was one of the Jewish victims of the World War II nazi holocaust. She was born in Germany, but she and her family moved to Amsterdam and had to hide for two years there because of the nazist hunting to the Jewish people. During that time, Anne wrote about her experiences and wishes. She was 15 years old when the family was found and sent to a concentration camp where she died.

Anne Frank is famous for being a brave girl and because of her books:

• Anne Frank Diary
• Secret hiding tales

Some quotes: 

"Who happy makes those of more happy."

"What has courage and faith should never appear missfortune."

In my opinion, Frank was a strong and intelligent girl. This is very beautiful, because you don't have to be big to be famous.                                                                              

Video and song about Anne Frank:

Xavier Codony

                               RIGOBERTA MENCHÚ TUM

BIOGRAPHY

          Rigoberta Menchú was born on January 9, 1959 in San Miguel Uspantán (Guatemala). She’s a Guatemalan indigenous leader and a woman fighter for peace and dignity.

        She grew up in a very poor family and she does not have any university degrees because she started working in a coffee farm, in such terrible conditions that they were the cause of the death of her brothers and friends when she was five years old.

            Her father was a farmer and her mother was a midwife. Her mother was tortured and killed by the military and her father, Vicente, was one the 37 people who the National Police of Guatemala burned alive with white phosphorous.

           Menchú is famous for her struggle in favour of the indigenous people and farmers. In 1992, she won the Nobel Peace Prize for her fight for social justice and for the rights of indigenous people. After that, in 1998 she also won the Prince of Asturias award for International cooperation. She’s a human rights defender and a goodwill Unesco ambassador.

          She’s an exemple to follow because, from total poverty, she has fought a lot for her people. She has been mentioned in the Guinness book for being the youngest woman to have won the Nobel Prize. 

April 2018

                              

               

Agustí Corominas

FRANCESC FERRER I GUÀRDIA

BIOGRAPHY

Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia was born in 1859 in the village of Alella in Catalonia. He was a teacher.

His family members were farmers. Francesc Ferrer had thirteen brothers. When he was a child he went to the local school for ten years.

When he was thirteen he started to work and he moved to Barcelona. When Francesc Ferrer was fourteen, he joined the factory workers association Ateneu to study. There, he contacted with the labour movement. Francesc Ferrer first became interested in political movements and he collaborated with them.

In 1879 he worked on the railway from Madrid- Zaragoza- to the border with France. There he met his first wife, Teresa. They had four daugthers: Trinitat, Pau, Llum and Sol.

In 1895 he exiled to France and divorced Teresa and vinater worked and wrote the book in French: L'espagnol practique and he collaborated with the Spanish resistence. At that time he read philosophy books and wrote to Kropotkin, Tolstoi... and he came to the conclusion that only education could change the world.

He met his second wife, Lepoldine, and also Mme. Meunié. When Mme. Meunié died, he received her inheritance, so Ferrer could make his dream The Modern School come true.

In 1901 Ferrer came back to Barcelona and he founded the Modern School. However political, military and religious powers did not like the Modern School. So Ferrer was accused of making the Setmana Tràgica a success and he was sentenced to death.

He was shot at Montjuic castle on October 13, 1909.

I admire him because he died standing up and,  looking at the soldiers, he shouted:

--It isn’t  your fault!

--I'm innocent!

--Long life the Modern School.

  

Quinti García

VIRGINIA WOOLF

BIOGRAPHY

Adeline Virginia Stephen, known as Virginia Woolf, was born on 25 January 1882 in South Kensington, London. She was a writer.

She didn’t go to school because she received private lessons from her father.

Woolf is considered to be one of the most outstanding figures of Anglo-Saxon Modernism in the twentieth century and of International feminism. Woolf was a significant figure in the literary society of London and a member of the Bloomsbury group.

Woolf suffered her first depression when she was thirteen years old because of her father’s death. That provoked an alarming attack and was briefly followed by recurrent periods of depression. She also suffered abuse from her stepbrothers.

In 1912, when she was thirty years old, she married the writer Leonard Woolf.

His most famous Works are:

• Mrs Dalloway
• To the Lighthouse
• A room of his own

On March 28, 1941 Woolf committed suicide.

My comments:

I admire her because she was the first feminist writer.

Bibliography:

• Gran Larouse Universal, Ed. Plaza & Janés, S:A., 1984
• Wikipedia

April 2018

Àngels Amat

JOAN BAEZ

BIOGRAPHY

Joan Chandos Baez, known as Joan Baez, was born on January 9, 1941 in Staten Island, New York (USA). She is a singer and activist.

She started her brilliant carrer in Boston in 1959. Joan Baez sang on political actions like «The March on Washington» for civil rights and she fought against Vietnam War. She was married to Davis Harris, and they had a son. Nowadays, they are divorced. She has performed concerts around the world, and this summer she is going to be in Cap Roig Garden in Palafrugell, Girona (Spain). She is a famous singer of protest and justice songs. She is known as «The Queen of Protest song». I admire her because she is an activist woman defender of people rights.

Some of the songs she sings are:

Blowing in the wind

 Where have all the flowers gone

Don’t cry for me Argentina

Vicky Crous

MAGDALENA AULINA I SAURA

BIOGRAPHY

Magdalena  Aulina i Saura was born on December 12 1897 in Banyoles, near Girona. She died on May 15 1956 in Barcelona. She was a secular nun and she joined the Irish Secular Institute of Parish  Workers.

She was the sixth daugther to Narcís Aulina. Her father was a wool and a coal merchant. Her mother was a housewife and a deeply Catholic woman. When Magdalena was  a little girl, she accompanied her older sister to do charity work. Later her older sister became a Carmelite nun. Another Aulina's sister was also a nun in Maria – Lestonac order.

When Magdalena was 15 years old, in 1912, she red Gemma Galgani´s biography and she was impressed, so she decided to become a God`s servant.

In 1921 she got a heart disease and her family and her doctors believed she would die. Then, Magdalena prayed to Galgani and wrote a novena dedicated to Galgani. On Abril 23 1923, Magdalena felt healthy and thought it was thanks to Galgani. So, in 1934 Aulina became an ardent promotor of devotion to Galgani.

In 1922 she founded  the Patronat d'Obres, in Banyoles, for girls' education,  so girls could improve their lives.

In 1926 Aulina collaborated with the families in her village to organize activities for women's liberation. Afterwards with some donations by wealthy families, she organized homes and schools for young women workers. Their name was Casa Nostra. 

In 1929 Aulina began to teach morning and evening lessons. and she opened a healh center with other fourteen people in the summer.

In 1939, Josep Cartaña, bishop of Girona forbade Magdalena's community of women, but then the bishop of Pamplona mediated and Magdalena and succeded. So in December, she signed an abjuration of her errors.

In 1941 after her conflict with the bishop Cartaña, Aulina had to move her Institute to Navarra, where she continued her activity and education to the poor people.

She founded houses in Aragon, Valencia and Rome.

I admire her became she devoted her life to the poor.

April 2018

Àfrica Garriga

COCO  CHANEL

BIOGRAPHY

Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel, known as Coco Chanel was born on August 19,1883 in Saumur, La Loire (France). She died in Paris on January 10, 1971 when she was 87 years old. She was a fashion designer.

When Gabrielle was twelve years old, her mother died and she was sent to a boarding orphanage school.

When she was 22 years old, she became a cabaret singer, but she dreamt of becoming a dressmaker.

She married Paul Iribe and, later, Étienne Balsam.

In 1909 she moved to Paris and opened a hat shop named “CHANEL MODES”.

Coco created comfortable clothes for women, straight straight and simple, but elegant.

She also made tanning fashionable in the mid 20s. Some years later, Coco created “CHANEL-5”, her famous perfume.

Coco Chanel is probably the most important fashion designer in the world of style and fashion history.

Some of her best known quotes are:

“Less is more”

“Everything that is fashionable is going out of style”

“Dress up elegant and people will see the woman”

I admire Coco Chanel because of her courage.

April 2018

Pol Serrano

MICHAEL JACKSON

BIOGRAPHY

Michael Joseph Jackson (Gary, Indiana 1958 - Los Angeles 2009) was an American Pop-Rock Singer.

He grew up in Indiana and when he was five he formed a band with four of his brothers called ‘The Jackson 5’. A few years later, when he was older, the band was renamed ‘The Jacksons’. Michael had a humble childhood with no luxuries.

In 1979 he released his first CD as a solist, ‘Off the Wall’, and in 1982, his album ‘Thriller’ was the world best selling album with over thirty million sold copies. In 1985 he sang the solidarity song ‘We are the world’ with other famous artists.

I admire him because he fought for peace, equality, genders and all humanity rights.

Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 in Los Angeles of a ‘Propophol’ sedative overdose. His last song was ‘This Is It’.

To me, his best song is: Speechless 

April 2018

Mercè De Arce

ELISABETH  EIDENBENZ

BIOGRAPHY

Elizabeth Eidenbenz was born on June 12, 1913 in Wila, Swizerland. She died on May 23, 2011. Elisabeth was a teacher and a nurse.

She moved to Spain in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War, where she was a volunteer to help Spanish children.

After the second Spanish Civil War was over, she helped exiled republicans when they were in concentration camps in the south of France. There, she founded the Maternity Hospital in Elna. In that hospital, she helped pregnant women from the concentration camps and their babies.

From 1956, and for many years on, she devoted all her time to rehabilitating working women.

In 2006, she was given the Catalan award Creu de Sant Jordi.

I admire her because she saved nearly 600 Spanish Refugees, women and children, travellers and Jewish during World War II.

April 17 2018

Javier Lima

 MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA

BIOGRAPHY

Anejezë Gonxhe Bojoxhv, known as Mother Teresa of Calcutta, founded “The home for dying” in Calcutta in 1946.

She was born in 1910 in Albania. When she was a child, she went to a nun´s school. When she was 18 years old, she travelled to Ireland to join the Sisters of Loreto at the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a nuns’ community with missions in India. Six weeks later, she travelled to India to work as a teacher for a long time in the order’s school in Calcutta. There, she founded a religious order: “The missioners of charity”. Very soon the order became a non governmental organization and now there are 727 missions spread in a several countries.

She received some prizes, among them: The Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.

In the 80s his health was bad. She had a heart disease, malaria and pneumonia. Finally, she died on September 5, 1997.

The Pope Jean Paul II changed the church rules to beatify her earlier on October 19, 2003. She’s now a saint and a lot of people are following her example.

I admire her because when I was in India and when I saw what she did I was really impressed.

Granollers, April 29, 2018

We need an adaptor socket (1 per bedroom, at least-com a mínim):

Dublin Map

Dublin Map

Molly Malone (Cockles & Mussels)

Drunken' Sailor - Irish Rovers

Dirty old Town

The Wild Rover

Visit Dublin - Top 10 places to see in the city

Biography of PAU CASALS (by Fina Iglesias)

I’m going to write about a musician man who was the best one in his period.

He was born in El Vendrell in 1876. He started studying piano, flute and violin when he was five years old.

One day, he saw a person who was playing an instrument in a special position. It was a cello, he became keen on that instrument and decided to learn violoncello. When he was studying, he met Isaac Albeniz who helped him to get some contacts. Afterwards he could continue his classes in Madrid. He got a degree very early and he played the cello on a particular and personal way.

He travelled around the world giving concerts and played side by side with other musicians. 

In 1971 he composed “The Hymn of United Nations” and received the Peace Medal.

Pau Casals always fought to give support to freedom for Catalonia and he participated in several concerts for peace.