Portal:Hispanic and Latino Americans/Selected Individual/Archive
These are all the biographical articles which rotate randomly at the Selected individual section of Portal:Hispanic and Latino Americans
Cesar Chavez (born César Estrada Chávez, locally [ˈsesaɾ esˈtɾaða ˈtʃaβes]; March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) was an American farm worker, labor leader and civil rights activist, who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (later the United Farm Workers union, UFW).
A Mexican American, Chavez became the best known Latino American civil rights activist, and was strongly promoted by the American labor movement, which was eager to enroll Hispanic members. His public-relations approach to unionism and aggressive but nonviolent tactics made the farm workers' struggle a moral cause with nationwide support. By the late 1970s, his tactics had forced growers to recognize the UFW as the bargaining agent for 50,000 field workers in California and Florida. However, by the mid-1980s membership in the UFW had dwindled to around 15,000.
During his lifetime, Colegio Cesar Chavez was one of the few institutions named in his honor, but after his death he became a major historical icon for the Latino community, with many schools, streets, and parks being named after him. He has since become an icon for organized labor and leftist politics, symbolizing support for workers and for Hispanic empowerment based on grass roots organizing. He is also famous for popularizing the slogan "Sí, se puede" (Spanish for "Yes, one can" or, roughly, "Yes, it can be done"), which was adopted as the 2008 campaign slogan of Barack Obama. His supporters say his work led to numerous improvements for union laborers. Although the UFW faltered after a few years, after Chavez died in 1993 he became an iconic "folk saint" in the pantheon of Mexican Americans. His birthday, March 31, has become Cesar Chavez Day, a state holiday in California, Colorado, and Texas. (more...)
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (born June 12, 1941) is an American jazz and fusion pianist, keyboardist, and composer.
Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever. Along with Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner and Keith Jarrett, he has been described as one of the major jazz piano voices to emerge in the post-John Coltrane era.
Corea continued to pursue other collaborations and to explore various musical styles throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He is also known for promoting and fundraising for a number of social issues, such as eradicating social illiteracy. He was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts. He is of southern Italian and Spanish descent.(more...)
Selena Quintanilla-Pérez (April 16, 1971 – March 31, 1995), known simply as Selena, was an American singer-songwriter. She was named the "top Latin artist of the '90s" and "Best selling Latin artist of the decade" by Billboard for her fourteen top-ten singles in the Top Latin Songs chart, including seven number-one hits. She was called "The Queen of Tejano music" and the Mexican equivalent of Madonna. Selena released her first album, Selena y Los Dinos, at the age of twelve. She won Female Vocalist of the Year at the 1987 Tejano Music Awards and landed a recording contract with EMI a few years later. Her fame grew throughout the early 1990s, especially in Spanish-speaking countries, and she had begun recording in English as well.
Selena was murdered at the age of 23 on March 31, 1995 by Yolanda Saldívar, the former president of her fan club. On April 12, 1995, two weeks after her death, George W. Bush, governor of Texas at the time, declared her birthday "Selena Day" in Texas. Warner Bros. produced Selena, a film based on her life starring Jennifer Lopez, in 1997. Selena's life was also the basis of the musical Selena Forever starring Veronica Vazquez as Selena. In June 2006 Selena was commemorated with a life-sized bronze statue (Mirador de la Flor) in Corpus Christi, Texas, and a Selena museum opened there. She has sold over 90 million albums worldwide, making her one of the best-selling artists of all time. She is the 3rd best selling Latin artist of all time, just behind Shakira in 2nd place and Gloria Estefan in 1st place. She is also the only female artist to have five albums on the US Billboard 200 at the same time. The Albany, NY Times Union named her one of "100 Coolest Americans in History". (more...)
Julia Alvarez (born March 27, 1950) is a Dominican-American poet, novelist, and essayist. Born in New York of Dominican descent, she spent the first ten years of her childhood in the Dominican Republic, until her father’s involvement in a political rebellion forced her family to flee the country.
Alvarez rose to prominence with the novels How the García Girls Lost Their Accents (1991), In the Time of the Butterflies (1994), and Yo! (1997). Her publications as a poet include Homecoming (1984) and The Woman I Kept to Myself (2004), and as an essayist the autobiographical compilation Something to Declare (1998). Many literary critics regard her to be one of the most significant Latina writers and she has achieved critical and commercial success on an international scale.
Many of Alvarez’s works are influenced by her experiences as a Dominican in the United States, and focus heavily on issues of assimilation and identity. Her cultural upbringing as both a Dominican and an American is evident in the combination of personal and political tone in her writing. She is known for works that examine cultural expectations of women both in the Dominican Republic and the United States, and for rigorous investigations of cultural stereotypes. In recent years, Alvarez has expanded her subject matter with works such as In the Name of Salomé (2000), a novel with Cuban rather than solely Dominican characters and fictionalized versions of historical figures. (more...)
Luis Walter Alvarez (June 13, 1911 – September 1, 1988) was an American experimental physicist, inventor, and professor who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1968. The American Journal of Physics commented, "Luis Alvarez was one of the most brilliant and productive experimental physicists of the twentieth century."
After receiving his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1936, Alvarez went to work for Ernest Lawrence at the Radiation Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. Alvarez devised a set of experiments to observe K-electron capture in radioactive nuclei, predicted by the beta decay theory but never observed. He produced 3
H
using the cyclotron and measured its lifetime. In collaboration with Felix Bloch, he measured the magnetic moment of the neutron. (more...)
Sandra Cisneros (born December 20, 1954) is an American writer best known for her acclaimed first novel The House on Mango Street (1984) and her subsequent short story collection Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991). Her work experiments with literary forms and investigates emerging subject positions, which Cisneros herself attributes to growing up in a context of cultural hybridity and economic inequality that endowed her with unique stories to tell. She is the recipient of numerous awards including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and is regarded as a key figure in Chicana literature.
Cisneros's early life provided many experiences she would later draw on as a writer: she grew up as the only daughter in a family of six brothers, which often made her feel isolated, and the constant migration of her family between Mexico and the USA instilled in her the sense of "always straddling two countries ... but not belonging to either culture." Cisneros's work deals with the formation of Chicana identity, exploring the challenges of being caught between Mexican and Anglo-American cultures, facing the misogynist attitudes present in both these cultures, and experiencing poverty. For her insightful social critique and powerful prose style, Cisneros has achieved recognition far beyond Chicano and Latino communities, to the extent that The House on Mango Street has been translated worldwide and is taught in American classrooms as a coming-of-age novel. (more...)
Hilda Lucia Solis (/soʊˈliːs/; born October 20, 1957) is an American politician and the member-elect of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Solis previously served as the 25th United States Secretary of Labor from 2009 to 2013, as part of the administration of President Barack Obama. She is a member of the Democratic Party and served in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2009, representing the 31st and 32nd congressional districts of California that include East Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley.
Solis was raised in La Puente, California, by immigrant parents from Nicaragua and Mexico. She gained degrees from the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona and the University of Southern California and worked for two federal agencies in Washington, D.C. Returning to her native state, she was elected to the Rio Hondo Community College Board of Trustees in 1985, the California State Assembly in 1992, and the California State Senate in 1994. She was the first Hispanic woman to serve in the State Senate, and was reelected there in 1998. Solis sought to pass environmental justice legislation. She was the first female recipient of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in 2000. (more...)
Sonia Maria Sotomayor /ˈsoʊnjə ˌsoʊtoʊmaɪˈjɔːr/, Spanish: [ˈsonja sotomaˈʝor]; (born June 25, 1954) is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving since August 2009. She is the 111th appointment to the Court, has the distinction of being its first justice of Hispanic heritage, and its third female justice. Sotomayor shares with John Roberts and Elena Kagan being among the youngest justices on the Supreme Court.
Sotomayor was born in The Bronx, New York City to Puerto Rican-born parents. Her father died when she was nine, and she was subsequently raised by her mother. Sotomayor graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1976 and received her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1979, where she was an editor at the Yale Law Journal. She was an advocate for the hiring of Latino faculty at both schools. She worked as an assistant district attorney in New York for four and a half years before entering private practice in 1984. She played an active role on the boards of directors for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, the State of New York Mortgage Agency, and the New York City Campaign Finance Board. (more...)
Sylvia Mendez (born 1936) is an American civil rights activist of Mexican-Puerto Rican heritage.
At age eight, she played an instrumental role in the Mendez v. Westminster case, the landmark desegregation case of 1946. The case successfully ended de jure segregation in California and paved the way for integration and the American civil rights movement.
Mendez grew up during a time when most southern and southwestern schools were segregated. In the case of California, Hispanics were not allowed to attend schools that were designated for "Whites" only and were sent to the so-called "Mexican schools." Mendez was denied enrollment to a "Whites" only school, an event which prompted her parents to take action and together organized various sectors of the Hispanic community who filed a lawsuit in the local federal court. The success of their action, of which Sylvia was the principal catalyst, would eventually bring to an end the era of segregated education. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor, on February 15, 2011. (more...)
Mark Travis John Sanchez (born November 11, 1986) is an American football quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft as the fifth overall pick by the New York Jets and the second quarterback taken overall. He played college football at the University of Southern California (USC).
Sanchez grew up in a well-disciplined and athletic family. In the eighth grade, he began to play football and learn the intricacies of the quarterback position, training with his father, Nick. A well-regarded prospect, Sanchez committed to Southern California following his successful high school career in which he led his team to a championship title during his final season. At USC, Sanchez was relegated as the backup quarterback during his first three years though he rose to prominence due to his brief appearances on the field in 2007 due to injuries suffered by starting quarterback John David Booty. Sanchez also became popular within the community due to his Mexican-American heritage. Named the starter in 2008, Sanchez led USC to a 12–1 record and won the Rose Bowl against Penn State for which Sanchez was awarded the Most Valuable Player award for his performance on offense. (more...)
Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III (March 2, 1917 – December 2, 1986), better known as Desi Arnaz, was a Cuban-born American musician, actor and television producer. He is best remembered for his role as Ricky Ricardo on the American TV series I Love Lucy, starring with Lucille Ball, to whom he was married at the time. Arnaz was also internationally renowned for leading his Latin music band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra. He and Ball are generally credited as the inventors of the rerun in connection with the I Love Lucy show.
Desi Arnaz was born in Santiago de Cuba to Desiderio Alberto Arnaz II (March 8, 1894 – May 31, 1973) and his wife Dolores de Acha (April 2, 1896 – October 24, 1988). His father was Santiago's youngest mayor and also served in the Cuban House of Representatives. His maternal grandfather was Alberto de Acha, an executive at Bacardi Rum. According to Arnaz, in his autobiography A Book (1976), the family owned three ranches, a palatial home, and a vacation mansion on a private island in Santiago Bay, Cuba. Following the 1933 Cuban Revolution, led by Fulgencio Batista, which overthrew President Gerardo Machado, Alberto Arnaz was jailed and all of his property was confiscated. He was released after six months when his brother-in-law Alberto de Acha intervened on his behalf. The family then fled to Miami, Florida, where Desi attended St. Patrick Catholic High School. In the summer of 1934 he attended Saint Leo Prep (near Tampa) to help improve his English. (more...)
Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino; October 17, 1918 – May 14, 1987) was an American dancer and film actress who achieved fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars. Appearing first as Rita Cansino, she agreed to change her name to Rita Hayworth and her natural dark brown hair color to dark red to attract a greater range of roles. Her appeal led to her being featured on the cover of Life magazine five times, beginning in 1940.
Hayworth appeared in a total of 61 films over 37 years. She is one of six women who have the distinction of having danced on screen with both Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly. She is listed by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 Greatest Stars of All Time. (more...)
Martha Ivelisse Pesante Rodríguez (born March 4, 1972), known as Ivy Queen, is a Puerto Rican-American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. She was born in Añasco, Puerto Rico, but later moved with her parents to New York City, where she lived until she finished her public education, before returning to Añasco. When she was 18 years old, Queen moved to San Juan where she met record producer DJ Negro, who helped her gain performing spots with a group called "The Noise" at a local club. There she performed her first song "Somos Raperos Pero No Delincuentes". The Noise gained much attention due to their violent and explicitly sexual lyrics. Queen went solo in 1996, and released her debut studio album En Mi Imperio which was quickly picked up by Sony Discos for distribution in 1997. (more...)
John Alberto Leguizamo (/ˌlɛɡwɪˈzɑːmoʊ/; born July 22, 1964) is an American actor, comedian, voice actor, producer and screenwriter. John Leguizamo was born in Bogotá, Colombia, to Alberto and Luz Leguizamo. According to Leguizamo, his paternal grandfather was of Puerto Rican and Italian descent and his maternal grandfather was Lebanese. Leguizamo has also described himself as being of Amerindian and Mestizo heritage. Leguizamo's father was once an aspiring film director and studied at Cinecittà, but eventually dropped out due to lack of finances. When Leguizamo was four years old, his family immigrated to the United States and lived in various neighborhoods of Queens in New York City, including Jackson Heights.
He later credited growing up as one of the first Latino children in his Jackson Heights neighborhood as formative in his acting ability: "It was tough. There were lots of fights. I would walk through a park and be attacked, and I had to defend myself all the time. But this helped me to become funny so that I wouldn’t get hit." Leguizamo attended the Joseph Pulitzer Middle School (I.S.145) and later the Murry Bergtraum High School. As a student at Murry Bergtraum, Leguizamo wrote comedy material and tested it out on his classmates. He was voted "Most Talkative" by his classmates. After graduating from high school, he began his theater career as an undergraduate at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts from which he eventually dropped out in favor of a career in stand-up comedy. Post NYU Leguizamo enrolled at Long Island University C.W. Post Campus where he took theater classes. (more...)
Jennifer Muniz (née Jennifer Lynn Lopez; born July 24, 1969) is an American actress, author, fashion designer, dancer, producer, and singer. She became interested in pursuing a career in the entertainment industry following a minor role in the 1986 film My Little Girl, to the dismay of her Puerto Rican parents, who believed that it was an unrealistic career route for a Hispanic. Lopez gained her first regular high-profile job as a Fly Girl dancer on In Living Color in 1991, where she remained a regular until she decided to pursue an acting career in 1993. She received her first leading role in the Selena biopic of the same name in 1997. Lopez became the first Latina actress to earn over $1 million for a role the following year, with the film Out of Sight. She ventured into the music industry in 1999 with her debut studio album, On the 6, joining a select few in successfully converting from a film to a music career. (more...)
José Julio Sarria (December 12, 1922 or 1923 – August 19, 2013) was an American political activist from San Francisco, California who, in 1961, became the first openly gay candidate for public office in the United States. He is also remembered for performing as a drag queen at the Black Cat Bar and as the founder of the Imperial Court System.
Following the closure of the Black Cat in 1964, Sarria went to work with restaurateur Pierre Parker. The pair operated French restaurants at World's Fairs. While at the 1964 New York World's Fair, Sarria learned that Jimmy Moore had committed suicide. Sarria worked at several more Fairs before retiring in 1974. After living with Parker in Phoenix, Arizona for several years, Sarria returned to San Francisco. He continued to reign over the Courts for 43 years, before abdicating in 2007. For his lifetime of activism, the city of San Francisco renamed a section of 16th Street in Sarria's honor. (more...)
Antonio Ramón Villaraigosa (/ˌviːəraɪˈɡoʊsə/; né Villar Jr.; born January 23, 1953) is an American politician who served as the 41st Mayor of Los Angeles from 2005 to 2013. Prior to being elected Mayor he was a member of the California State Assembly from 1994 to 2000, the Democratic leader of the Assembly from 1996 to 1998, and the Speaker of the California State Assembly from 1998 to 2000. After leaving the State Assembly due to term limits he was elected to the Los Angeles City Council from 2003 until he was elected Mayor in 2005.
Villaraigosa is a member of the Democratic Party, national co-chairman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, a member of President Barack Obama's Transition Economic Advisory Board, and Chairman of the 2012 Democratic National Convention in September 2012.
He ran for Mayor in 2001 against Los Angeles City Attorney James Hahn, but lost in the second round of voting. He ran again in 2005 in a rematch against Hahn and won. During his tenure as Mayor, he gained national attention for his work and was featured in Time's story on the country's 25 most influential Latinos. However, in June 2009, Villaraigosa made the cover of Los Angeles Magazine, titled "Failure," with an accompanying article written by Ed Leibowitz, which claimed that Villaraigosa often confused campaigning with governance, wasted 22 weeks in his first term trying to take over the school board, and did little to help education in the City of Los Angeles. He was the third Mexican American to have served as Mayor of Los Angeles, and the first in over 130 years. He was term limited and could not run for re-election in 2013. Villaraigosa is open to running for Governor of California sometime in the future. (more...)
Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino KSG (/ˌmɒntəlˈbɑːn/; Spanish pronunciation: [montalˈβan]; November 25, 1920 – January 14, 2009), known professionally as Ricardo Montalbán, was a Mexican actor. His career spanned seven decades, during which he became known for many different roles. During the 1970s, he was a spokesman in automobile advertisements for Chrysler, including those in which he extolled the "soft Corinthian leather" used for the Cordoba's interior.
From 1977 to 1984, Montalbán played Mr. Roarke in the television series Fantasy Island. He played Khan Noonien Singh in the original Star Trek series (in the 1967 episode "Space Seed") and the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. He won an Emmy Award in 1978 for his role in the miniseries How the West Was Won, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild in 1993. In his 80s, he provided voices for animated films and commercials, and appeared as Grandfather Valentin in the Spy Kids films. (more...)
Freddie James Prinze, Sr. (born Frederick Karl Pruetzel; June 22, 1954 – January 29, 1977) was an American actor and stand-up comedian. Prinze was the star of 1970s sitcom Chico and the Man. He is the father of actor Freddie Prinze, Jr.
Prinze was born Frederick Karl Pruetzel in New York City, the son of Edward Karl Pruetzel and his wife Maria Graniela Pruetzel. His mother was Puerto Rican and his father was a Hungarian immigrant who had arrived in the U.S. in 1934.
Prinze was raised in a mixed neighborhood in Washington Heights, New York City. When Prinze was a small child, his mother enrolled him in ballet classes to deal with a weight problem. Without telling his parents, Prinze successfully auditioned for the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts, where he was introduced to drama and continued ballet — and where he discovered his gift for comedy while entertaining crowds in the boys restroom. He dropped out of school in his senior year to become a stand-up comedian.(more...)
Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez (born July 27, 1975), nicknamed "A-Rod", is a Dominican American former professional baseball shortstop and third baseman. He played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers, and New York Yankees. Rodriguez was one of the sport's most highly touted prospects and is considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time. During his 22-year career, Rodriguez has amassed a .297 batting average, 696 home runs, over 2,000 runs batted in (RBI), over 2,000 runs scored, and over 3,000 hits. He is a 14-time All-Star and has won three American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) Awards, ten Silver Slugger Awards, and two Gold Glove Awards. Rodríguez is the career record holder for grand slams with 25. However, he has led a highly controversial career due to signing two of the most lucrative sports contracts in history while incurring criticism from the media for his behavior and use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs. (more...)
Juan Verde Suárez (born July 7, 1971) is a business and social entrepreneur that worked on the political campaigns of Senator Ted Kennedy, President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, Senator John Kerry, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, besides of serving as International Co-Chair for the reelection campaign of President Barack Obama in 2012. In addition to developing and directing a strategy designed to mobilize millions of American citizens residing outside of the United States, Mr. Verde serves as an advisor to President Obama on international trade,the Hispanic vote as well as sustainability related issues. (more...)
Oscar Zeta Acosta (April 8, 1935 – disappeared 1974) was an American attorney, politician, novelist and Chicano Movement activist, perhaps best known for his friendship with the American author Hunter S. Thompson, who characterized him as his Samoan attorney, Dr. Gonzo, in his acclaimed novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Acosta was born in El Paso, Texas, and raised in the small San Joaquin Valley rural community of Riverbank, California, near Modesto. Acosta's father was drafted during World War II.
After finishing high school, Acosta joined the U.S. Air Force. Following his discharge, Acosta worked his way through Modesto Junior College, then he attended San Francisco State University where he took up creative writing becoming the first member of his family to get a college education. He attended night classes at San Francisco Law School and passed the California Bar exam in 1966. In 1967, Acosta began working as an antipoverty attorney for the East Oakland Legal Aid Society in Oakland, California. (more...)
Joan Baez (/ˈbaɪ.ɛz/; born January 9, 1941 as Joan Chandos Báez) is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Baez has performed publicly for over 55 years, releasing over 30 albums. Fluent in Spanish as well as in English, she has also recorded songs in at least six other languages. She is regarded as a folk singer, although her music has diversified since the counterculture days of the 1960s and now encompasses everything from folk rock and pop to country and gospel music. Although a songwriter herself, Baez is generally regarded as an interpreter of other people's work, having recorded songs by the Allman Brothers Band, the Beatles, Jackson Browne, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Violeta Parra, Woody Guthrie, The Rolling Stones, Pete Seeger, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder and many others. In recent years, she has found success interpreting songs of modern songwriters such as Ryan Adams, Josh Ritter, Steve Earle and Natalie Merchant. Her recordings include many topical songs and material dealing with social issues.
She began her recording career in 1960, and achieved immediate success. Her first three albums, Joan Baez, Joan Baez, Vol. 2, and Joan Baez in Concert all achieved gold record status, and stayed on the charts of hit albums for two years. (more...)
Richard Edward Cavazos (born January 31, 1929), a Korean War recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross as a first lieutenant, who advanced in rank to become the United States Army's first Mexican American four-star general. During the Vietnam War, as a lieutenant colonel, Cavazos was awarded a second Distinguished Service Cross. In 1976, Cavazos became the first Mexican American to reach the rank of brigadier general in the U.S. Army. Cavazos served with great distinction for thirty-three years, with his final command as head of the U.S. Army Forces Command. (more...)
Linda Chavez-Thompson (born August 1, 1944) is a second-generation Mexican American union leader. She was elected the executive vice-president of the AFL–CIO in 1995 and served until September 21, 2007. She is also a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee. She was the Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Texas in the 2010 election.
In 1967, Chavez-Thompson became a secretary on the staff of the Construction Laborer's Local 1253 in Lubbock, Texas (Laborers' International Union of North America). When a tornado struck the Lubbock area that year, she volunteered to coordinate the Texas AFL–CIO's relief efforts. She enjoyed the job so much, she became a staff organizer for the North Texas Laborers District Council. Her first organizing campaign was to help city workers in Lubbock form a union. They were successful. (more...)
Henry Gabriel Cisneros (born June 11, 1947) is an American politician and businessman. He served as the mayor of San Antonio, Texas, from 1981 to 1989, the second Latino mayor of a major American city and the city's first since 1842 (when Juan Seguín was forced out of office). A Democrat, Cisneros served as the 10th Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the administration of President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997. In his role as the President's chief representative to the cities, Cisneros personally worked in more than two hundred cities spread over all fifty states. Cisneros' decision to leave the HUD position and not serve a second term was overshadowed by controversy involving payments to his former mistress. (more...)
Oscar De La Hoya (born February 4, 1973) is a retired American professional boxer of Mexican descent. Nicknamed "The Golden Boy," De La Hoya won a gold medal at the Barcelona Olympic Games shortly after graduating from James A. Garfield High School.
De La Hoya was born in East Los Angeles, California, and comes from a boxing family. His grandfather Vicente, father Joel Sr. and brother Joel Jr. were all boxers. De La Hoya was The Ring's "Fighter of the Year" in 1995 and Ring Magazine's top-rated Pound for Pound fighter in the world in 1997 & 1998. De La Hoya officially announced his retirement from the sport at a press conference held in Los Angeles on April 14, 2009.
De La Hoya has defeated 17 world champions and has won ten world titles in six different weight classes. He has also generated more money than any other boxer in the history of the sport, an estimated $696 million pay-per-view income.
De La Hoya founded Golden Boy Promotions, a combat sport promotional firm. He is the first American of Hispanic descent to own a national boxing promotional firm and one of the few boxers to take on promotional responsibilities while still active. (more...)
Freddy Fender (June 4, 1937 – October 14, 2006), born Baldemar Garza Huerta in San Benito, Texas, United States, was a Mexican-American Tejano, country and rock and roll musician, known for his work as a solo artist and in the groups Los Super Seven and the Texas Tornados. He is best known for his 1975 hits "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" and the subsequent remake of his own "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights".
In 1959, Fender recorded the blues ballad "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights". The song was a hit, but he was beset by legal troubles in May 1960 after he and a band member were arrested for possession of marijuana in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. After serving nearly three years in the Angola prison farm, he was released through the intercession of then Governor Jimmie Davis, also a songwriter and musician. Davis requested that Fender stay away from music while on probation as a condition of his release. However, in a 1990 NPR interview on Fresh Air with Terry Gross (rebroadcast October 17, 2006), Fender said that the condition for parole was to stay away from places that served alcohol. (more...)
Jeffrey Jason Garcia (born February 24, 1970) is a retired American football and Canadian football quarterback who is currently the quarterbacks coach for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League. After attending high school and junior college in Gilroy, California, Garcia played college football at San Jose State University.
A four-time CFL All-Star and four-time NFL Pro Bowl selection, Garcia began his professional football career with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League (CFL) as an undrafted free agent in 1994. In 1999, Garcia debuted in the National Football League (NFL) with the San Francisco 49ers. With the 49ers, Garcia made three Pro Bowl appearances (for the 2000, 2001, and 2002 seasons) and led the team to the playoffs in the 2001 and 2002 seasons. Afterwards, Garcia encountered a low point in his career, starting with a lackluster 2003 season with San Francisco then two losing seasons with Cleveland Browns in 2004 and Detroit Lions in 2005. With the Philadelphia Eagles, Garcia would return to form late in the 2006 season, starting for an injured Donovan McNabb and leading Philadelphia to the playoffs. Garcia joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2007 and was starting quarterback for most games of the 2007 and 2008 seasons. Again, Garcia led Tampa Bay to the playoffs in 2007 and made his fourth career Pro Bowl appearance. (more...)
Matthew Edward Gonzalez (born June 4, 1965) is an American politician, lawyer, and activist prominent in San Francisco politics. He currently serves as chief attorney in the San Francisco Public Defender's office.
Gonzalez was a member and president of San Francisco County's Board of Supervisors. He was also one of the first Green Party candidates elected to public office in the San Francisco Bay area. In 2003, Gonzalez ran for mayor of San Francisco but lost in a close race to Democrat Gavin Newsom. In the 2008 presidential election, Gonzalez ran for vice president as the running mate of candidate Ralph Nader.
Gonzalez entered politics when he ran for San Francisco District Attorney in 1999. He campaigned in a field of five candidates, including incumbent Terence Hallinan. His campaign focused on cleaning up alleged political corruption, prosecuting environmental crimes, and fighting illegal evictions. Hallinan won the race but the campaign raised Gonzalez's profile. He finished third with 11 percent of the vote, or 20,153 votes. (more...)
Gabriela D. Lemus is the executive director of the Progressive Congress, the non-profit partner organization affiliated with members of the Progressive Caucus since September 2013. Previously she was the director of the Office of Public Engagement at the Department of Labor from 2009 to 2013. She was born in Mexico City on January 23, 1963, to Guillermo Felix Lemus Covarrubias and Brenda Lemus Marcellini. She holds a BS in International Studies and Business Administration from St. Mary of the Woods College and a Ph.D. from the University of Miami. In 2012 she was appointed to the board of the University of the District of Columbia. (more...)
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George Lopez (born April 23, 1961) is an American comedian, actor, and talk show host. He is mostly known for starring in his self-produced ABC sitcom George Lopez. His stand-up comedy examines race and ethnic relations, including Mexican American culture. He was the host of the late-night talk show Lopez Tonight on TBS until its cancellation on August 12, 2011.
Lopez was born in Mission Hills, Los Angeles, California, of Mexican descent. He was deserted by his father when he was two months old and by his mother when he was 10 years old, then was raised by his maternal grandmother, Benita Gutierrez, a factory worker, and step-grandfather, Refugio Gutierrez, a construction worker. Lopez attended San Fernando High School, graduating in 1979. (more...)
Father Antonio José Martínez (January 17, 1793) was a New Mexican priest, educator, publisher, rancher, farmer, community leader, and politician. He lived through and influenced three distinct periods of New Mexico's history: the Spanish period, the Mexican period, and the American occupation and subsequent territorial period. Martínez appears as a character in Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop.
Martínez was born Antonio José Martín in Abiquiu in 1793, when New Mexico was a very isolated and desolate territory of the Spanish Empire. In 1804, the Martín family, including his father Severino and five siblings, moved to Taos, a prosperous outpost, where they came to be known as Martínez. (more...)
Eliseo Vasquez Medina (born January 24, 1946) is a Mexican American labor union activist and leader, and advocate for immigration reform in the United States. From 1973 to 1978, he was a board member of the United Farm Workers. He is currently secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union. He was previously an international executive vice president, the first Mexican American to serve on the union's executive board. Medina announced his resignation as an SEIU executive vice president effective October 1, 2013. (more...)
Lloyd Monserratt (December 2, 1966 - January 9, 2003), was born in Los Angeles, California, the eldest son of Ecuadorian immigrants Carlos and Olga Monserratt. His father was an architect and named his eldest son after Frank Lloyd Wright.
Monserratt attended Saint Francis High School in La Cañada. A graduate of UCLA, Lloyd was a leader in the student movement, as a student commissioner, and later as student body president.
Known for his energy and enthusiasm, he had an impact on the California and Latino political scenes. He trained a number future Latino politicians while a director at NALEO and was himself a political and community leader. He was serving as chief-of-staff for Los Angeles City Councilmember Nick Pacheco at the time of his death. His death, from a pulmonary embolism after a gastric bypass surgery, sent a shock through the California Democratic circles. (more...)
Felicitas Mendez (1916 - April 12, 1998) was a Puerto Rican woman who became an American civil rights pioneer. In 1946, Mendez and her husband led an educational civil rights battle that changed California and set an important legal precedent for ending de jure segregation in the United States. Their landmark desegregation case, known as Mendez v. Westminster, paved the way for meaningful integration, public school reform, and the American civil rights movement.
Mendez (birth name: Felicitas Gomez) was born in the town of Juncos in Puerto Rico. The Gomez family moved from Puerto Rico to Arizona. There they faced, and were subject to, the discrimination which was then-rampant throughout the United States. Mendez and her siblings were racialized as "black." (more...)
Luisa Moreno (August 30, 1907 – November 4, 1992) was a leader in the United States labor movement and a social activist. She unionized workers, led strikes, wrote pamphlets in English and Spanish, and convened the 1939 Congreso de Pueblos de Habla Española, the "first national Latino civil rights assembly", before returning to Guatemala in 1950.
Moreno was born Blanca Rosa López Rodríguez to a wealthy family in Guatemala City, Guatemala. While still a teenager, she organized La Sociedad Gabriela Mistral, which successfully lobbied for the admission of women to Guatemalan universities. Rejecting her elite status, she went to Mexico City in her teens to pursue a career in journalism. While there, she also wrote poetry. She married Angel De León, an artist, in 1927, and together they moved to New York City the following year. (more...)
"Vicious" Victor Ortiz (born January 31, 1987) is an American professional boxer and movie actor of Mexican descent. He is a former WBC Welterweight Champion.
He was previously in the light welterweight division, where he held the USBA & NABO titles. Ortiz, with a crowd-pleasing, aggressive style, two-fisted power and boyish charm, was made the 2008 ESPN Prospect of the Year.
He was formerly rated as one of the "top three" welterweight boxers in the world by most sporting news and boxing websites, including The Ring, BoxRec.com, and ESPN. (more...)
Estela Ruiz is an alleged Marian visionary in Phoenix, Arizona.
On the night of December 3, 1988, Ruiz, Reyes, their son Fernando, and Fernando's wife Leticia, who was pregnant with their fourth child, were all praying the Rosary. Ruiz in particular was praying for her son Reyes Jr., who was struggling with cocaine addiction and for Fernando and Leticia's marriage. During the final decade, Ruiz says she saw a light emanating from a portrait of the Immaculate Heart of Mary that grew brighter until it forced her to close her eyes. At that moment, the Virgin spoke to her: "Don't you know that I am going to take care of your children?" Ruiz was overcome with emotion and began to cry, calling out, "Qué linda! Qué linda!" ("She's beautiful! She's beautiful!") (more...)
Baldemar Velásquez (born February 15, 1947) is an American labor union activist. He co-founded and is president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL–CIO. He was named a MacArthur Fellow (the so-called "Genius Grant") in 1989, and awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle in 1994, the highest honor Mexico can bestow on a non-citizen.
Velásquez was born in February 1947 in Pharr, Texas. He was the third of nine children born to Cresencio and Vicenta Castillo Velásquez. Baldemar's father was born into a Mexican-American family in Driscoll, Texas. His grandfather died when Cresencio was just 11 years old, forcing the young Cresencio to seek employment as a migrant worker. Baldemar's maternal grandparents fled to Pharr in 1910 after the Mexican Revolution, and his mother, Vicenta, was born there in 1920. His parents worked as migrant farm produce pickers in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Texas. Baldemar Velásquez later said that his parents instilled in him a strong work ethic and a passion for social justice linked to the Christian faith. (more...)
Fernando Valenzuela Anguamea (Spanish pronunciation: [ferˈnando βalenˈswela]; born November 1, 1960) is a Mexican former Major League Baseball pitcher. During a 17-year baseball career, he achieved his greatest success with the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1980-1990, and went on to pitch for five more major league teams.
In 1981, the 20-year-old Valenzuela took Los Angeles (and Major League Baseball) by storm, winning his first 8 decisions and leading the Dodgers to the World Series. That year, Valenzuela became the only player in Major League history to win the Rookie of the Year award and the Cy Young Award in the same season, adding the Silver Slugger Award and World Series championship for good measure. With his youthful charm, devastating screwball, "Ruthian physique", and a connection with Los Angeles' large Latino community, Valenzuela touched off an early '80s craze dubbed "Fernandomania". (more...)
Luis Valdez (born June 26, 1940) is an American playwright, actor, writer and film director. Regarded as the father of Chicano theater in the United States, Valdez is best known for his play Zoot Suit, his movie La Bamba, and his creation of El Teatro Campesino. A pioneer in the Chicano Movement, Valdez broadened the scope of theatre and arts of the Chicano community.
Luis Valdez was born in Delano, California to migrant farm worker parents. The second of ten children in his family, Valdez began to work in the fields at the age of six. Throughout his childhood, the family moved from harvest to harvest around the central valleys of California. Due to this peripatetic existence, he attended many different schools before the family finally settled in San Jose, California. (more...)
Rosa Maria "Rosie" Perez (born September 6, 1964) is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, director and community activist.
Perez was first noticed in a dance club by Spike Lee in 1988, who hired her for her first major acting role in Do the Right Thing. Perez started her career in the late 1980s as a dancer on Soul Train. She was the choreographer for the dancing group the Fly Girls who were featured on the Fox television comedy program In Living Color.
She made her Broadway debut in Terrence McNally's Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. Perez had her third major role in the hit comedy White Men Can't Jump co-starring Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson.
Perez was nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Peter Weir's 1993 film Fearless. In 1997, she starred in Perdita Durango. (more...)
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