La Plata (English: The Silver) is the capital city of the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and of La Plata partido. According to the 2001 census [INDEC], the partido has a population of 574,369 and its metropolitan area has 694,253 inhabitants. The city itself has a population of 186,524.

La Plata was planned and developed to serve as the provincial capital after the city of Buenos Aires was federalized in 1880, and it was officially founded by Governor Dardo Rocha on 19 November 1882. Its construction is fully documented in photographs by Tomás Bradley Sutton. La Plata was renamed Eva Perón City (Ciudad Eva Perón) between 1952 and 1955.

The city is home to two football (soccer) teams that play in the first division: Estudiantes de La Plata and Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata.

Rocha decided to erect a new city to host the provincial government institutions and the planned university. Urban planner Pedro Benoit designed a city layout based on a rationalist conception of urban centers. The city has the shape of a square with a central park and two main diagonal avenues, north-south and east-west. (In addition, there are numerous other shorter diagonals.) This design is copied in a self-similar manner in small blocks of six by six blocks in length. Every six blocks, one finds a small park or square. Other than the diagonals, all streets are on a rectangular grid, and are numbered consecutively. Thus, La Plata is nicknamed "la ciudad de las diagonales" ("city of diagonals"). It is also called "la ciudad de los tilos" ("city of tilia (linden trees)") because of the large number of linden trees lining many streets and squares.

Diomedes de Jesús Díaz Maestre (born May 26, 1957 in the corregimiento of La Junta, La Guajira) is a Colombian vallenato singer and composer. He is the most widely recognized performer of this musical genre. His well known El Cacique de la Junta was given early in his career by vallenato singer Rafael Orozco Maestre in honor of his birthplace; La Junta.

Diomedes was born and raised on a farm called "Carrizal" on the outskirts of La Junta; his father, Rafael Maria Díaz, and his mother, Elvira Maestre, were very poor, something that Diomedes always sought to change. His childhood was spent helping his parents and eight brothers with farm duties, while he was musically influenced by his locally renowned uncle, Martin Elias. His friends nicknamed him El Chivato ("the little goat"), making fun of his young vibrating voice; he became part of the attraction for every party in the house.

Eventually Díaz' uncle decided to help him train his voice and compose songs; Díaz quickly mastered his vocal training and was invited to perform at parties. Eager to succeed, he moved to Valledupar to work as a gardener. He also worked as a messenger and office boy for a local radio station, Radio Guatapuri, pursuing the opportunity to convince disc jockeys to play his future songs. Between 1974 and 1975, he got his first song recording deal with Jorge Quiróz and Luciano Poveda, a well known vallenato group; they recorded the song Cariñito de Mi Vida which put Díaz in the spotlight.

Jota Quest is a Brazilian pop rock band. The band was founded in 1995, in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais as J. Quest, but due to trademark issues with Hanna-Barbera, they renamed themselves Jota Quest (jota being the Portuguese name for the letter j). The band members include: Rogério Flausino (vocals), Marco Túlio (guitar), Márcio Buzelin (keyboards), "PJ" – Paulo Roberto Diniz, Jr. (bass) and Paulinho Fonseca (drums). Jota Quest initially stood apart from Minas Gerais' musical tradition by garnering national success with pop rock and blue eyed soul-tinged pop. Eventually the band exposed its Clube da Esquina influences, including collaborations with Minas Gerais exponents Paulinho Pedra Azul and Milton Nascimento in Oxigenio as well as jams with 14 Bis and a collaboration with Roberto Carlos over his hit single "Alem do Horizonte". Jota Quest sold over 4,000,000 copies in Brazil, Latin America and Portugal.^{[citation needed]}

Natalia Marisa Oreiro Iglesias (born May 19, 1977 in Montevideo, Uruguay) is a Latin Grammy-nominated Uruguayan singer, actress and fashion designer of Galician ancestry, who developed most of her career in Argentina. Oreiro began her career in telenovelas. Since 2008 she has switched to work primarily in films. Oreiro has worked on social awareness shows and events for organizations like Greenpeace and UNICEF, the latter of which designated her as ambassador for Argentina and Uruguay in September 2011. She has been included in Esquire magazine's "The Sexiest Woman Alive Atlas" list. In 2012, La Nación named her the queen of telenovelas.

Natalia Oreiro, daughter of Carlos Florencio Oreiro Poggio and Mabel Cristina Iglesias Bourié, was born on May 19, 1977. Natalia studied drama at the age of eight and at twelve started auditioning for advertisements. During her teens she appeared in more than 30 television commercials for such trade marks as Coca Cola, Pepsi and Johnson & Johnson. At the age of 16 she moved to Argentina to work there and unleash her ambition to be a star. She worked as an MTV VJ and in 1995, she landed a role in the soap opera Dulce Ana. She was then cast in the TV series 90-60-90 modelos (1996) and next in Ricos y famosos (1997, playing Valeria). Next, she starred in the Argentinian film Un Argentino en New York (1998). After the movie, Natalia launched her first album, Natalia Oreiro and the single "Cambio dolor" became the opening theme for her next acting project, the prime time show Muñeca Brava (1998–1999). For her performance in Muñeca Brava, Natalia was nominated twice (1998 and 1999) for a Martín Fierro Award as best actress in a leading role. In January 2000, Natalia was named "Celebrity of the Year" by E! Entertainment Television. She became popular in Russia due to the success of Muñeca brava in that country and was even invited to star in a Russian telenovela.

Álvaro José Arroyo González (also known as Joe Arroyo or El Joe; 1 November 1955 – 26 July 2011) was a Colombian salsa and tropical music singer, composer and songwriter. Considered one of the greatest performers of Caribbean music in his country.

Joe Arroyo was born in Cartagena. Born and raised in the neighborhood Nariño in Cartagena, Arroyo began his career at an early age, at the age of eight when he sang in brothels in Tesco, a red-light zone in his hometown. In the beginning he sang with groups like "Los Caporales del Magdalena", "Manuel Villanueva y su Orquesta", "La Protesta" and "Super Combo Los Diamantes", in 1971 he recorded with "La Promiscua".

In 1971 Arroyo had his biggest opportunity of becoming a nationally known artist. He was discovered by Julio Ernesto Estrada, the bass player and director of the band Fruko y sus Tesos and signed up with Colombian record label Discos Fuentes. He performed with the band for ten years until 1981 when he began his solo career leading his band, named "La Verdad" (The truth).