Antonio Gaudí is a GREAT idea Eddie. If the kids don´t know him already they´d surely be fascinated to see his wierd and wonderful architecture .
How old are these boys , Esperanza ? That may give us more ideas of what to suggest .

these boys are 17 years old...high school juniors and seniors.
Poor Spanish students, very limited grammar skills.

Esperanza, Let us know who you settle on and how it goes!

Mine include many of those already mentioned: Federico García Lorca, Antonio Machado, El Cid, Elsa Pataki, Antonio Gaudí, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Manolete (that'd be a great one for these boys, probably), and.. umm... Goya, Velázquez, Cervantes, Zapatero, Isabel II, Plácido Domingo, Julio Iglesias, David Bisbal, Antonio Banderas, Penélope Cruz, Pau Gasol, Fernando Alonso, Rafael Nadal, Iker Casillas, Camarón de la Isla, Paco de Lucia, Pedro Almodóvar

Saludos, MadridMan

well, I think I have the list I plan to use: Dani Pedrosa;
Fernando Alonso; Penélope Cruz ; Plácido Domingo; Pau Gasol; Rafael Nadal; Pedro Almodóvar; El Rey Juan Carlos I de Borbón; Salvador Dalí; Pablo Picasso; Javier Bardem; Miguel de Cervantes; Iker Casillas; José Luis Zapatero. Mostly contemporary, with a few people from the past.

I am going to ask them to do the research and then make a pretend "facebook" page for the person. I have a fb template that they will fill in with photos and information. Then I will correct it and then they will prepare to share it with the rest of the class when they talk to the class about the person they researched.
Hopefully it will be a fun activity and they will enjoy it.

Sounds like a great activity for your class, esperanza! Looks like you already have a list, but if you need additional names for now or for the future, here are a few:

Nobel Prize for Literature -- winners from Spain are: Jose Echegary, Jacinto Benavente, Juan Ramon Jimenez, Vicente Aleixandre, and Camilo Jose Cela.

Actors and directors (some have made/been in American films) -- Luis Tosar, Luis Bunuel, Carlos Saura, Fernando Trueba, Alejandro Amenebar, and Fernando Fernan Gomez.

Musicians and dancers -- Alejandro Sanz, Ketama (and entire Habichuela family), Flores family (Lola, Lolita, Rosario, Antonio), Joaquin Cortes, and Morente family (Enrique and Estrella).

Famous chefs -- Jose Andres and Ferran Adria

Architects (in addition to Gaudi) -- Santiago Calatrava, Ricardo Bofill, Churriguera family (from several centuries ago).

Bullfighters -- Francisco & Cayetano Rivera Ordonez.

Also, I didn't see artists Joan Miro or Joaquin Sorolla mentioned above.

Good luck! Buena suerte!

Esperanza , that´s a great idea to do the pretend fb page !! And the list of people you´ll be using , as well as those suggested afterwards by La Historiadora , goes to show what an amazing country Spain is culturally !
I did a project with some 15 year olds at a municipal school where I told them that , for their homework , they had to imagine they were holding a dinner party . They had to invite 5 famous people . They had to tell me why they chose those people . I had to also tell them that they should consider whether those people would get on together . I gave the example that sitting Pope Benedict next to Paris Hilton may not be a good idea . It worked out great and , importantly , the kids enjoyed it .
You´ll have to tell us how your class went .

Esperanza, Super idea about the fb mock-up! I've been a volunteer teacher w/ Citizen Schools for a couple of years now; teach media & how to make a PSA to 6-7-8th graders. Would love to incoprorate the concept of fb w/ the kids going forward - doing a blog in addition to the PSA (3 this term) is driving me nuts. FB would be a much more 'stand-alone' concept & not reliant on me as a once-a-week volunteer! Would you mind emailing me the format - or info on where I can grab it?
Thanks!!!!!!!

Puna, hope you got my email. For anyone interested, you can find templates of FB on the internet and then I just adapted it and translated it into Spanish. Lots of work for a class that probably won't appreciate it, but I had fun doing it and I know I will be able to use it again with another class.