Today’s Video: Marta

Over the past few days we’ve featured videos on interesting Latin American women from the fields of literature, journalism, and politics. Tonight we look at another field (so to speak): sports.

Her real name is Marta Vieira da Silva but she is best-known simply by her first name. Marta is a phenomenal Brazilian striker who is the reigning FIFA Women's World Player of the Year since 2005. She has won a pair of Olympic silver medals for Brazil in women’s soccer and was named the best player in the 2007 Women’s World Cup. She will play for the Los Angeles Sol of the inaugural Women's Professional Soccer which begins later this month.

The following is likely Marta’s best goal which she scored against the U.S. during the ’07 World Cup. The Brazilian announcer was on the nose when he screamed that “there are no words to describe the goal by Marta”!

Online Sources- Women's Professional Soccer, Wikipedia, USA TODAY, The Latin Americanist, YouTube

Today’s Video: Rosalía Arteaga

In honor of International Women’s Day we’ve so far featured Chilean author Isabel Allende and Mexican journalist Elena Poniatowska. Today we look at one female politician whose historical feat has been largely forgotten.

Slowly but surely women in Latin America have ascended the political ladder and have become leaders, ministers, and heads of state. Argentina’s Cristina Kirchner and Chile’s Michelle Bachelet are two women who are currently presidents of their respective countries.

In February 1997, Rosalía Arteaga was named as Ecuador’s first female president. Amidst great political instability, however, her achievement was diminished since she served one of the shortest terms ever for a head of state: two days.

On February 6 1997…President Abdalá Bucaram was declared unfit to govern by Congress. Arteaga and congressional leader Fabián Alarcón became locked in a dispute over who should succeed Bucaram, as the constitution was vague on the issue…On February 9, however, Arteaga, who had insisted as vice-president she should become president, was sworn in instead…Two days later, however, on February 11, with the support of Congress and the army, Alarcón was sworn in again and Arteaga resigned.

The Spanish-language video below shows Arteaga interviewed a decade after her 48-hour presidency. After failing to regain the presidency via election in 1998 she left Ecuadorian politics. Arteaga is currently a member of the editorial board of the Encyclopædia Britannica as well as the secretary-general of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization.

Online Sources- britannica.com, Wikipedia, PBS, The Latin Americanist, YouTube