by Hispanically Speaking News
Simón Bolivar
Venezuelen actor Edgar Ramírez is set to star in a biopic about Simon Bolivar, a Latin American freedom fighter in director Alberto Arvelo Mendoza’s “Libertador”.
Bolivar often called “El Libertador”, along with Jose de San Martin were key in helping Latin America gain independence from Spain during the Spanish American wars of the 19th century. The country of Bolivia is actually named after the leader, originally named the Republic of Bolívar.
Ramírez will be joined onscreen by Maria Valverde, Danny Huston, Iwan Rheon, Gary Lewis, and Imanol Arias.
“Libertador”is a co-production between Venezuela and Spain and will primarily be in Spanish, but will also have some French and English dialogue.
Bolivar was an integral leader and his influence is hard to forget as many towns and cities in Venezuela and Colombia have a statue or bust of Bolivar.
The script was penned by Timothy Sexton and will follow the Venezuelan leader’s “military campaign to wrestle independence from Spain and unify Latin America.”
“Libertador” is scheduled to be released in 2013, but ahead of the film’s release, Ramírez can be seen in “Zero Dark Thirty”, a movie about Osama Bin Laden. He can also been seen in “Wrath of the Titans”, “The Bourne Ultimatum”, and “Domino”.
Though Spanish was his first language growing up in Caracas, Venezuel, Ramírez speaks five languages: Spanish, English, French, Italian and German.
World’s Largest Chocolate Sculpture Modeled After Mayan Temple Kukulkan
To celebrate their 30th anniversary, Qzina Specialty Foods, has broken a Guinness World Record for building the largest chocolate sculpture. The sculpture models an ancient Mayan temple and weighs 18,239 pounds, far surpassing the previous record set in Italy in 2010 by more than 7,500 pounds.
Qzina chose the Mayan theme because of the crucial role the culture played in the origins of chocolate. The Mayans were one of the first civilizations to cultivate Cacao trees and discover the true potential of the cocoa bean. Realizing the delicious possibilities of this powerful discovery, the Mayans worshipped the Cacao tree and praised its beans as the food of the Gods.
Extensive planning and research set the groundwork to accurately capture the details and intricacies of an authentic Mayan temple down to the exact number of steps and panels representing numbers significant to the Mayan calendar. Built proportionally to the ancient temple’s true size, the solid chocolate pyramid is six feet tall and its base measures 10 feet by 10 feet – exactly one-thirtieth the size. The sculpture’s base alone weighs more than 3,000 pounds.
The chocolate pyramid will be displayed at the Qzina Institute of Chocolate & Pastry, located in Irvine, California, and will be available to view beginning June 4, 2012 when the institute and product showroom is officially open to the public Monday – Friday, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
