- published: 30 Nov 2009
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Gracias is a small Honduran town/municipality that was founded in 1536, and has a population of approximately 25,000 people (12,000 in the urban center). It is found in the mountainous centre of western Honduras, in the Lempira departamento.
Elevation ranges from roughly 800 meters at the town square to 2,870 meters at the peak of Montaña Celaque (Celaque Mountain, also known as Cerro Las Minas). Climate is greatly influenced by elevation, with the low-lying portions having a wet-dry (monsoonal) pattern. Montaña Celaque is the highest mountain and largest cloud forest in Honduras, and is protected through Celaque Mountain National Park.
Gracias serves as a transportation hub for the immediate region. The town is connected to the northern city of Santa Rosa de Copan by a paved 2 lane highway, and construction of a paved 2 lane highway to La Esperanza has been underway for several years.
Agriculture is both subsistence and export based (primarily coffee). Agricultural crops vary with elevation and climate, with corn and beans grown at lower altitudes and fruits/vegetables grown at higher altitudes. Coffee harvest occurs in November and December.
Marcos Witt (born May 19, 1962), is an American, four-time Latin Grammy Award-winning Christian singer and pastor.
Marcos Witt is the second born of three children to Jerry and Nola Witt, a young American missionary couple. The Witt family moved to Durango, México, in 1964 and they started a missionary outreach. The work was unexpectedly halted after Jerry's death that same year.
Years later, Marcos’ mother, Nola Holder, found a companion in Frank Warren and remarried. Warren embraced the vision God had originally given Jerry and Nola as his own and together they would begin to build new churches in Durango, México. The second marriage not only provided a husband for Nola, but equally important, a father figure for Marcos, Jerry, and Felipe. Later, the couple would give birth to two additional children, twin daughters Nola and Lorena Warren.
Marcos' education began with basic studies at the American School of Durango. He then studied classical music at the University of Juarez (Durango, México) and eventually he started his theological studies at International Bible College in San Antonio, Texas. Currently, Marcos is working towards his masters degree at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Enrique Iglesias (born Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler; May 8, 1975) is a Spanish singer, songwriter and occasional actor, popular in both the Latin market and the Hispanic American market in the United States. He is the son of the famous Spanish singer Julio Iglesias. Within five years of beginning his musical career in the 1990s, he became the biggest seller of Spanish-language albums of that decade. He made his crossover into the mainstream English language market before the turn of the millennium, signing a multi-album deal with Universal Music Group for an unprecedented US$50,000,000 with Universal Music Latino to release his Spanish albums and Interscope to release English albums. In 2010, he parted with Interscope and signed with another Universal Music Group label, Universal Republic.
Iglesias has sold over 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best selling Spanish language artists of all time. He has had five Billboard Hot 100 top five singles, including two number-ones, and holds the record for producing 22 number-one Spanish-language singles on the Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks. He has also had ten number-one songs on Billboard's Dance charts, more than any other single male artist. Altogether, Iglesias has amassed 55 number-one hits on the various Billboard charts. Billboard has called him The King of Latin Pop and The King of Dance. Billboard also named Enrique the number two Latin artist of the years 1986–2011 (Luis Miguel taking the first spot).