Latino & Hispanic History & Heritage – Spotlight
America Georgine Ferrera
America Georgine Ferrera (born April 18, 1984) is an American actress. Born in Los Angeles, California, to Honduran parents, Ferrera developed an interest in acting at a young age performing in several stage productions at her school. Ferrera is the […]
Sophie Cruz
Little Sophie Cruz, who is the daughter of illegal immigrants, managed to make her way through the crowd of thousands lining Constitution Avenue and got within feet of Pope Francis’ open-air popemobile before Secret Service agents stopped her. However, the […]
Herb Albert
Herb Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an American jazz musician most associated with the group variously known as Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass, or TJB. Alpert is also a recording industry executive, the “A” […]
Charles Rice – Gonzalez
Charles Rice-González, born in Puerto Rico and reared in the Bronx, is a writer, long-time community and LGBT activist, co-founder of BAAD! In 1998, Charles co-founded, with award-winning choreographer/dancer Arthur Aviles, BAAD! – The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, […]
Hispanic & Latino Activists
Cesar Chavez Union leader and labor organizer Cesar Chavez dedicated his life to improving treatment, pay and working conditions for farm workers. Born near Yuma, Arizona, on March 31, 1927, Cesar Chavez employed nonviolent means to bring attention to the […]
Loreta Janeta Velázquez
(June 26, 1842 – c.1902), was a Cuban-born woman who claimed that she masqueraded as a male Confederate soldier during the American Civil War. After her soldier husband’s accidental death, she enlisted in the Confederate States Army in 1861. She […]
Dennis Chavez
The first Hispanic American to be elected to the United States Senate, Democrat Dennis Chavez had a long and distinguished career in government service, first as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and then as a senator from […]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lin-Manuel Miranda is the Tony-winning composer-lyricist of Broadway’s In the Heights. In the Heights received four 2008 Tony with Lin-Manuel receiving a Tony Award for Best Score, as well as a nomination for Best Leading Actor in a Musical. Lin-Manuel’s […]
Diego Rivera
Painter and muralist Diego Rivera sought to make art that reflected the lives of the working class and native peoples of Mexico. Born on December 8, 1886, in Guanajuato, Mexico, Diego Rivera sought to make art that reflected the lives […]
Ellen Ochoa
Selected by NASA in 1990, Ellen Ochoa became the world’s first Hispanic female astronaut in 1991. Born on May 10, 1958, in Los Angeles, California, Ellen Ochoa received her master of science and doctorate degrees at Stanford University. She was […]
Corky Gonzales
Corky Gonzales became an important leader for young and poor Mexican Americans in the 1960s. In Denver, he started The Crusade for Justice, a group that pushed for civil rights and equality for Mexican Americans. Gonzales wrote the poem I […]
Severo Ochoa
Severo Ochoa was a Spanish-American biochemist and molecular biologist who was co-awarded the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering an enzyme that enables the synthesis of RNA. Born in 1905, Severo Ochoa was a Nobel Prize-winning scientist […]
Sonia Sotomayor
Nominated by President Barack Obama on May 26, 2009, Sonia Sotomayor became the first Latina Supreme Court Justice in U.S. history. Sonia Sotomayor was born June 25, 1954, in the Bronx borough of New York City. Her desire to be […]
Joan Baez
Joan Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter and activist who is best known for her distinctive voice and for her role in popularizing the music of Bob Dylan. Joan Baez was born in Staten Island, New York, on January […]
Aida Giachello
Latinos are three times as likely as non-Hispanic whites to suffer from potentially life-threatening diabetes. They are far more likely to be plagued by asthma and hypertension too. Aida Giachello, 59, founded the Midwest Latino Health Research, Training and Policy […]
Mario Molina
At the University of California at Berkeley in 1973, Molina and Sherwood Rowland began researching chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), then widely used in refrigerators, spray cans, and cleaning solvents. They discovered that the release of CFCs could destroy the ozone layer in […]
Alberto Gonzales
Lawyer, and former U.S. attorney general Alberto R. Gonzales made history in 2005 as the first Hispanic appointed U.S. attorney general. Alberto R. Gonzales was born August 4, 1955, in San Antonio, Texas. The son of a construction worker, he […]Site Visitors Map
