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Amalia Hernandez’s 100th Birthday



Today’s Doodle celebrates dancer and choreographer Amalia Hernandez. She founded the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico and used it to share Mexican culture with the world.

Born in 1917, Hernandez developed a passion for performing and dance early in life. She became a choreographer at the Fine Arts National Institute, where she taught modern dance. She then turned her focus to traditional Mexican folk dances. She combined these dances with more choreographed movements from her formal training, helping to create an entirely new style of dance known as baile folklorico.

In 1952, Hernandez founded the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico. Beginning with just eight dancers, the troupe grew to over three hundred in the years to follow. The company performed on television for the first time in 1954, after which they were featured in a weekly broadcast. This success allowed Amalia’s group to tour North America and even represent Mexico in the Pan American Games in 1959.

The Ballet Folklorico de Mexico still performs to this day. Since its inception, the group has danced for more than 22 million people. Hernandez remained involved with the company until her death in 2000, working alongside her daughters and grandson.

Happy 100th birthday to Amalia Hernandez, remembered as an ambassador of Mexican culture whose legacy lives on through the Ballet Folklorico.

Noor Jehan’s 91st Birthday



The sad longing in the plaintive strains of "Awaaz De, Kahaan Hai." The dreamy romance of the sweetly sung "Chandni Ratein." The playful affection in the lilting melody of "Ve Mundiyan Sialkotiyan." These are just a few of the thousands of songs sung by the legendary Noor Jehan, known as Malika-E-Taranum (Queen of Melody) in the world of Punjabi, Urdu, and Hindustani music.

Born Allah Rakhi Wasai to a family of local musicians in Kasur, Punjab, Jehan began her singing career when she was just five years old. Success at rural taka theater performances encouraged the family to move to Calcutta and the bigger stage of maidan theater. Theatrical recognition soon led Jehan to the silver screen.

After Partition, Noor Jehan moved to newly independent Pakistan, but her voice continued to endear her to millions across the entire subcontinent. Her renditions of patriotic songs gave courage to many Pakistanis, and her visit to India in 1982 was met with overwhelming love and enthusiasm.

Madam, as she was popularly addressed, was best known for her voice. But she was also an accomplished actress, and became Pakistan’s first female director when she codirected Chan Wey in 1951. For her contributions to the arts, the Government of Pakistan awarded her the Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Star of Excellence) and the Tamgha-e-Imtiaz (Medal of Excellence).

Today’s Doodle captures Jehan's unique singing stance — her chin tilted up, her hand flung out, and a flower in her hair. Happy Birthday, Madam!

Spring Equinox 2017 (Southern Hemisphere)



Fall Equinox 2017 (Northern Hemisphere)

Asima Chatterjee's 100th Birthday



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Gloria E. Anzaldúa’s 75th Birthday



For writer and scholar Gloria E. Anzaldúa, a border wasn't just a line on a map: it was a state of mind and a viewpoint on life. Born on this date in 1942 in the Rio Grande Valley, Anzaldúa possessed an astounding gift for transforming dividing lines into unifying visions.

Growing up on ranches and farms in Texas-Mexico border towns, Anzaldúa developed a profound appreciation for the earth and its riches. She fell in love with art and writing as a way to capture the magic of the landscape around her. She also faced racism and isolation, but that didn't stop her from becoming a stellar scholar. After graduating from Pan American University in 1969, Anzaldúa taught migrant students, traveling with them to serve as a liaison with school boards.

She realized early on that she lived in many worlds at once: she was both American and Mexican, both native and foreigner. "It's not a comfortable territory to live in, this place of contradictions," Anzaldúa noted. She understood that the way forward was not to choose a side, but to embrace a third place — a land of both, not either/or.

Anzaldúa mapped this new frontier with her pen. Her most famous work, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, alternates between English and Spanish and includes a variety of forms — from poem to prose, from critique to confessional. This striking mix of voices and perspectives earned Borderlands a place on Literary Journal's list of best books of 1987.

In 1977, she moved to California, where her writing soon became known in academic circles. Her theories had impact across disciplines, including Chicano/a Studies, Women's Studies, LGBT Studies, and Postcolonial Studies. She was awarded a posthumous Ph.D. in literature by the University of California Santa Cruz.

Today's Doodle celebrates Anzaldúa's ability to live across borders, whether geographical, social, or philosophical. She put it best: "To survive the Borderlands / you must live sin fronteras / be a crossroads."

Google's 19th Birthday



They say life is full of surprises, and Google’s history is chock-full of them. In fact, we wouldn’t be here without them.

In 1997, one of Google’s co-founders, Larry Page, had just arrived at Stanford University to pursue his P.h.D in computer science. Of all the students on campus, Google’s other co-founder, Sergey Brin, was randomly assigned to show Page around. This chance encounter was the happy surprise that started it all.

From there, the two came together with a common goal in mind: to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful, a mantra that would go on to become Google’s mission statement. The two hunkered down in a garage - Google’s first office - and got to work.

Billions of searches later, perhaps the happiest happenstance has been how Google has grown throughout the past 19 years. Named for the number “googol” (a 1 followed by one hundred zeroes), Google inches closer to its namesake each year, currently serving more than 4.5 billion users in 160 countries speaking 123 languages worldwide.

German Reunification Day 2017



It began with the Peaceful Revolution. The movement started with prayers at churches around the country and spilled out into the streets. Following months of this, the Berlin Wall fell in November of 1989. Less than a year later in October of 1990, Germany became a unified nation again, after four decades of separation. Families were reunited, travel was reinstated, and the border that separated a people was dissolved.

German Reunification Day is still a relatively young holiday! Today’s Doodle, by guest artist Andreas Preis, symbolizes the joyous reunion between East and West, as the characteristic cars continue down the road side by side.

Gerardo Murillo's (Dr. Atl) 142nd birthday



Today's Doodle celebrates "Dr. Atl," born Gerardo Murillo in Guadalajara in 1875.

In a time of revolution and renaissance, Murillo greatly influenced Mexico’s political and cultural identity. He was an activist, artist, writer, journalist, and overall cultural leader.

Murillo pioneered the idea of artistic nationalism. To show his pride in his Mexican heritage, he took on the name "Atl," meaning water in Náhuatl. He worked his entire life to promote Native Mexican culture, writing extensively on folk art, music, and dance.

Murillo loved nature, and in volcanoes, he found his greatest inspiration. He frequently hiked to Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl, living and painting on the volcanic slopes for weeks at a time. In 1943, he witnessed the birth of Paricutín and documented the experience in his book Cómo nace y crece un volcán, el Paricutín (How a Volcano Is Born and Grows – Paricutín).

For his contributions to the artistic and cultural heritage of Mexico, he was awarded the Belisario Domínguez Medal of Honor and the National Arts Award.

Today’s Doodle, by artist Julian Ardila, depicts Murillo painting one of his beloved volcanoes.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Dr. Atl!

Chuseok 2017



Today marks the start of Chuseok (also called Hangawi), the three-day autumnal harvest festival celebrated across Korea. On this day, families honor their ancestors by making food offerings (charye) and visiting ancestral graves (beolcheo and seongmyo).

Today’s Doodle showcases Korea’s rich culture through the panels of a traditional byungpoong. The first panel shows young children in the hanbok, Korea’s colorful national dress. The second panel depicts a persimmon tree, which symbolizes the importance of education and transformation and carries deep cultural significance in Korea. Half moon shaped sweet rice cakes called songpyeon (on the third panel) form part of the ritual ancestral offerings. Traditional games are a fundamental aspect of Chuseok celebrations. The remaining three panels depict the games of yut nori (a traditional board game), tuho (in which one throw sticks in a jar from a distance), and neolttwigi (which involves jumping high in the air on a seesaw).

On this important day of the autumn harvest, these traditions celebrate and honor the cornerstone of Korean life — family. Wishing everyone a Happy Chuseok!

Violeta Parra’s 100th Birthday



Today we celebrate the 100th birthday of Violeta Parra, the Chilean composer, folk singer, social activist, author, and artist.

Born in the small, southern Chilean town of San Fabián de Alico, Parra picked up the guitar at an early age and began writing songs with her siblings. Early in her career, she performed in nightclubs and other small venues, then traveled across Chile to record a large breadth of traditional Chilean folk music. Her increasing popularity eventually earned her her own radio show and an invitation to perform at a youth festival in Poland. While in Europe, she also explored the visual arts, creating oil paintings, wire sculptures, ceramics, and burlap tapestries called arpilleras which were exhibited in the Louvre Palace in Paris in 1964.

She is perhaps best remembered as the “Mother of Latin American folk” for pioneering the Nueva canción chilena, a renewal of Chilean folk traditions that blossomed into a movement which celebrated the fight for social justice throughout Latin America. Upon her return to Chile in 1965, she focused her energy on establishing a community center for the arts and political activism, now called Centro Cultural La Carpa de La Reina.

Though her life met with an early end, we will always remember her for the joy and beauty she created through her art and music. To borrow a verse from Violeta herself, “Gracias a la vida.”

Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto

Me dio dos luceros que cuando los abro

Perfecto distingo lo negro del blanco

Y en el alto cielo su fondo estrellado

Y en las multitudes el hombre que yo amo