Claribel Joy Alegría: 1924—: Poet, novelist. One of the most poignant poets on the subjects of oppression and injustice in the Hispanic world, Claribel Joy Alegría has used her place in the world of literature to speak out against numerous countries and leaders who have misused their power to keep the citizens of Hispanic countries impoverished. Much of her poetry is influ…
Linda Alvarado: 1952—: Entrepreneur. Linda Alvarado personifies the classic American dream. Born to a poor family in New Mexico, she earned an academic scholarship to college and began an unlikely career in the male-dominated construction business. She told the website for the book, American Dreams, that when she opened Alvarado Construction in the early 1970s, "the number of wom…
Jorge Amado: 1912-2001: Brazilian novelist. "The hero of my novels is the Brazilian people," said novelist Jorge Amado in an interview quoted in the Los Angeles Times. Amado's 32 novels honored the lives of ordinary Brazilians, especially those in Amado's home state of Bahia, with sweeping historical novels and, later in his life, with humorous, lusty romantic tales…
Marc Anthony: 1969—: Singer, songwriter, actor. Called "one of the finest male vocalists recording today," by Time magazine, Marc Anthony has pulled himself from a youth of singing with his father, standing on the kitchen table, to playing sold out concerts at Madison Square Gardens. He started out with great success in the Latin music market, and has taken this success ma…
Oscar Arias Sánchez: 1941—: Former Costa Rican president, writer, activist. At a time of great regional discord, Dr. Oscar Arias Sánchez, former president of Costa Rica, envisioned a Central America that would be free from war, strife, and repression. His legacy has been the Arias Peace Plan, the basis for negotiations to end the Central American conflict. For his efforts,…
Miguel Angel Asturias was both a writer and a social champion. He spent his life fighting for the rights of Indians, for the freedom of Latin American countries from both dictatorships and outside influences—especially the United States—and for a more even distribution of wealth. He wrote mainly about the ancient Quiche culture. He was best known for his novels, such as El senor pres…
Antonio Banderas: 1960—: Actor, director. Antonio Banderas made a quick transition from little-known Spanish actor to Hollywood heartthrob with his 1992 American film debut in The Mambo Kings. Though he seemed to have come from nowhere, he had already made a name for himself in his native Spain, having acted in more than 30 films. He never considered himself a sex symbol during the earl…
Rubén Blades: 1948—: Salsa singer, actor, activist. Rubén Blades has three very distinct careers that rarely, if ever, meet. As a Grammy Award-winning musician and salsa singer, Blades has released Buscando America, Escenas, Mundo, and Siembra, one of Latin music's most popular albums. As a popular Hollywood actor, he has appeared in such films as The Milagro Beanfi…
David Blaine: 1973—: Magician and daredevil. Part magician, part street performer, and perhaps part mystic, David Blaine emerged as one of the entertainment world's most intriguing figures in the late 1990s. Blaine grabbed public attention with a series of amazing televised feats, including spending three days encased in a block of ice. He became known for approaching ordinary in…
Julio Bocca: 1967—: Ballet dancer. Since his spectacular win at the 1985 International Ballet Competition, Julio Bocca has established himself as one of the twentieth century's most renowned dancers. "There's something about his very person that attracts you," a ballet director told Dance Magazine, "not only his great technique and talent, but he dance…
Leonardo Boff: 1938—: Theologian. Brazilian Leonardo Boff served as a Franciscan priest from 1964 until 1992, when he resigned after several years of differences with the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy. A prolific writer, Boff espoused liberation theology, which called for Christians to take up the cause of the poor and oppressed, and to bring about liberation, not just on a spiritual …
Sonia Braga: 1950—: Actress. Few press reports on the actress Sonia Braga ever fail to mention her nickname, "the Brazilian Bombshell." Best known for her role in the acclaimed 1985 film Kiss of the Spider Woman, Braga has made dozens of films, both in her native Brazil and for Hollywood studios, and many of the performances have been marked by a smoldering sensuality. The…
Benjamin Bratt: 1963—: Actor. Benjamin Bratt wasn't sure he wanted to be an actor, but for someone who thought that at least he could teach if his acting career didn't pan out, he has certainly built himself a promising career. He started out acting in a few small spots in movies, then landed the role that shot him to fame as Detective Reynaldo Curtis on Law & Order…
Louis Caldera: 1956—: Educational administrator. Louis Caldera made a surprise return to his first career when U.S. President Bill Clinton appointed him to serve as secretary of the Army in 1998. A West Point graduate and former army captain, Caldera proved both an enthusiastic and somewhat maverick leader, stressing the need for this branch of the military to provide better educational…
Hector Camacho: 1962—: Boxer. Starting out in life as a street fighter and car thief on the tough streets of New York's Spanish Harlem, Hector "Macho" Camacho became one of boxing's most flamboyant and entertaining showmen in the 1980s and 1990s. In his younger days, Camacho had phenomenal speed and quickness and, at five-foot five inches tall, won six titles…
José Canseco: 1964—: Baseball player. As the American League's Rookie of the Year in 1986 and the first player to hit forty home runs and steal forty bases in a single season, José Canseco was one of the outstanding baseball players of his day. Named the Most Valuable Player in the American League in 1988 during his first stint with the Oakland Athletics (A's…
Ernesto Cardenal: 1925—: Poet. It is nearly impossible to separate Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Cardenal from his country, or his poetry from his politics. He rose to prominence during the dark days of the four-decade-long dictatorship of the Somoza family. Cardenal used his pen as a sword to help undermine the Somoza regime, exposing its atrocities to the world. Some of his most renowned wo…
Richard Carmona: 1949—: U.S. Surgeon General. In April of 2002, President George W. Bush nominated Dr. Richard Carmona for the position of U.S. Surgeon General. Before the U.S. Senate confirmed him, the nation learned that their "Top Doc" had a resume that read like the remarkable biography of an action hero. The high school dropout from a poor, Puerto Rican family, Carmon…
Alejo Carpentier: 1904-1980: Writer. One of the most important figures in modern Latin American literature, Alejo Carpentier wrote in a variety of forms that explored the ways that history and politics influenced the region's culture. His fiction, essays, and poetry consider the epic theme of European colonialism and its impact on the region's indigenous peoples. His work, which …
José Carreras: 1946—: Opera singer. With classic Latin good looks and one of the great voices of the twentieth century, José Carreras has lived the image of what it means to be a star operatic tenor. Carreras had already become a success on opera stages and in the world of classical-pop "crossover" music, when he endured a near-death experience in 1987—…
Dennis Chavez: 1888-1962: Legislator. As the first native-born Hispanic to serve in the U.S. Senate, Dennis Chavez burned with a desire to provide minorities with equal protection under the law. Long before Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus, and years before Martin Luther King, Jr., had his dream, Dennis Chavez, the gentle liberal, was demanding equality for all. As early as 19…
Evelyn Cisneros: 1959—: Ballerina. For nearly a quarter of a century, Evelyn Cisneros captivated audiences as the prima ballerina of the prestigious San Francisco Ballet. She gained worldwide acclaim for her dancing which was both dramatically expressive and technically precise. Choreographers clamored to create dances for her. Partners were eager to share the stage with her. Critics we…
Willie Colón: 1950—: Salsa performer, producer, composer, activist. Willie Colón was one of the founders of the jazz-inflected Latin American dance music known as salsa. In the words of the Los Angeles Times, he was "the unifier, the alche-mist, [and] the enabler" of the rhythmic salsa style. An unusually multitalented musician, Colón became a star him…
Victor Hernández Cruz: 1949—: Poet, essayist. Victor Hernández Cruz is an important modern poet in both of the localities where he has divided his time: Puerto Rico and New York. One of the founders of the Nuyorican (New York-Puerto Rican) cultural movement in the 1960s, he has, in the words of the 2002 Griffin Poetry Prize committee, "long been the defining poet of…
Francisco Dallmeier: 1953—: Biologist. Dr. Francisco Dallmeier is one of the world's leading wildlife biologists and an expert on biological diversity. Dallmeier has devoted himself to integrating studies of biodiversity among species and natural resources with conservation and management programs that promote sustainable development. As director of the Smithsonian Institution&#x…
Sheila E.: 1957—: Percussionist, singer, composer, producer. Percussionist, singer, composer, and producer Sheila E. broke out onto the pop music scene in the 1980s, fueled by her singing debut with pop superstar Prince on his "Erotic City" single. She immediately proved she had the mettle to make it on her own, though, and had two hit albums, Sheila E. in The Glamorous Li…
Luis Echeverría Álvarez: 1922—: Lawyer, Politician. When Luis Echeverría Álvarez took over as Mexico's president in 1970, he pledged to close the economic gap between the country's poor, rural peasants and its well-to-do urbanites. For six years Echeverría walked a political tight-rope as he tried to implement social programs to make life…
Mary Joe Fernández: 1971—: Tennis player, television sports analyst. Mary Joe Fernández is an American Olympic tennis champion who has won two gold medals for doubles competition and a bronze medal for singles competition. She was a tennis sensation at the age of 13 and she turned professional at the age of 14. She was the youngest ever women's tennis player to win …
Rudy Galindo: 1969—: Ice skater. Rudy Galindo was the first Mexican American and the first openly gay figure skater to win a United States National Championship. Galindo overcame family problems and financial difficulties to become an accomplished and popular skater. He began his career as a pairs skater with champion Kristi Yamaguchi and then focused on his singles career. After winnin…
Jerry Garcia: 1942-1995: Musician. When Jerry Garcia died on August 9, 1995, at the age of 53, there was an outpouring of grief from longtime fans of the Grateful Dead. David Gates wrote in Newsweek, "If Garcia didn't get his threescore and ten, he still made more music, touched more hearts and lifted more spirits than seemed humanly possible." Although the band had never …
Anthony Nomar Garciaparra: 1973—: Baseball shortstop. Called "one of baseball's best ambassadors" by Baseball Digest, Anthony Nomar Garcia-parra has made quite a name for himself as a shortstop on the Boston Red Sox baseball team. During his 1997 rookie season, he set several major league, American league, and Red Sox rookie records. Baseball Weekly called it …
Alberto Ginastera: 1916-1983: Argentine composer. "His music drew nourishment from folklore but was cast in an advanced harmonic idiom," wrote music historian Joseph Machlis of composer Alberto Ginastera in his book Introduction to Contemporary Music. Ginastera integrated powerful musical symbols of Argentine identity with highly complex European and American compositional trends…
Roberto Crispulo Goizueta: 1931-1997: Businessman, chemical engineer. Roberto Goizueta was a Cuban American chemical engineer who chose to forge his own destiny with the Coca-Cola company rather than simply work for his father. He began his career with the company as a production supervisor for Coke plants in Cuba and he worked his way up the corporate ladder to become the company's chi…
Richard Gonzales: 1928-1995: Tennis player. Richard "Pancho" Gonzales was known as the greatest male tennis player to never win Wimbledon. A self-taught tennis player, Gonzales became a champion at the age of 20. After winning the United States National Championship two years in a row, Gonzales turned professional. During this time the great tennis tournaments like Wimbledon did …
Nicolás Guillén: 1902-1989: Writer, journalist, social activist. When Nicolás Guillén passed away in 1989, many Cubans felt that they had lost a voice in the fight for freedom. Over his illustrious career as a political journalist and revolutionary poet, he spoke out against everything from racism against blacks in Cuba to oppression stemming both from the Cuban gov…
Carolina Herrera: 1939—: Fashion designer. Carolina Herrera's designs offer a certain chic, well-heeled style, with a classic feminine sensibility, for her devoted base of women clients. The Venezuelan-born couturier, who led a life chronicled in the pages of fashion magazines well before her first dress went out on a runway, creates suits, sportswear, formal gowns, and all mann…
In the mid-1980s María de Lourdes Hinojosa became the first Latina correspondent on National Public Radio (NPR). Her balanced and incisive stories on Latino life in the United States helped usher in a new era, when multicultural media coverage of American life became more commonplace. Since 1997 Hinojosa has been with the Cable News Network (CNN), based at their New York City bureau, where …
Julio Iglesias: 1943—: Singer. Since the late 1960s, singer Julio Iglesias has established himself as an international star and sex symbol. By 1983 he had sold over 100 million records, setting a Guinness World Record, and by 2002 that figure had risen to more than 200 million. "There's an oddly appealing mix of pride and modesty about Julio Iglesias," wrote Andrew …
Antonio Carlos "Tom" Jobim: 1927-1994: Musician. Antonio Jobim was a writer, composer, and arranger whose music spurred a revolution in sound in the late 1950s, both in South America and around the world. Although he modestly credited João Gilberto with creating the bossa nova (new wave), Jobim became its most innovative practitioner, writing nearly 400 compositions. Mark …
Raúl Juliá: 1940-1994: Actor, humanitarian. Versatile stage and screen actor Raúl Juliá produced a huge body of critically successful work before his untimely death in 1994. The handsome Puerto Rican actor earned four Tony Award nominations on the New York stage, and played roles in such films as Kiss of the Spider Woman, Romero, Presumed Innocent, The Addams Famil…
John Leguizamo: 1964—: Comedian, actor. The New York Post once wrote, "John Leguizamo is a force of nature, a volcano of words, a torrent of ideas. He moves a lot, too." He has grown from a prankster who was called a troublemaker in his youth into a comedian and then an actor. Leguizamo has produced, directed, and starred in two solo shows: Spic-o-Rama and Mambo Mouth, an…
Rebecca Lobo: 1973—: Basketball player. Rebecca Lobo emerged as one of the biggest stars of the fledgling Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) in 1997, when she was drafted by the New York Liberty. Already a media sensation from her days as a leading force behind the University of Connecticut women's basketball team's NCAA championship in 1995, Lobo…
Ricky Martin: 1971—: Singer, actor. Ricky Martin was already a superstar entertainer in Latin and South American nations, beginning with his stint in the hugely popular group, Menudo. But his singing the soccer anthem at the 1998 World Cup, and a sensational performance at the 1999 Grammy Awards ceremony, propelled the singer/actor to international megastar status. A music idol since t…
Rachel McLish: 1958—: Bodybuilder. When Rachel McLish earned the inaugural Ms. Olympia bodybuilding title in 1980 she brought the much-misunderstood sport of women's bodybuilding to the international spotlight. Her physique was well-defined, muscle-packed, and yet still very feminine. A 1981 Muscle & Fitness article describing the competition noted that up until that poin…
Rigoberta Menchú: 1959—: Activist, author. Rigoberta Menchú soared to international fame in 1992 when she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work on behalf of native Guatemalans. I, Rigoberta Menchú, her 1983 memoir detailing the abuses her people suffered under Guatemala's vicious military dictatorship, had already brought her international acclaim in…
Lydia Mendoza: 1916—: Tejano vocalist, songwriter. One of the first real vocal stars in Mexican-American music, Lydia Mendoza was a pioneer in another way as well: she was a woman in a man's world. "It's more difficult to build a career like I did for a woman than for a man," Mendoza recalled in the book, Lydia Mendoza: A Family Autobiography. Mendoza'…
Carlos García Montoya: 1903-1993: Guitarist. Carlos Montoya transformed flamenco guitar in the 1950s and 1960s, showing that it deserved consideration as an art form outside of its traditional context as background music for dancers with casta-nets. "Hailed by guitar wizards such as Steve Howe, Robbie Krieger, and Eddie Van Halen as a genius and inspiration," wrote Guille…
Juan Pablo Montoya: 1975—: Race car driver. Formula One (F1) auto racing is the most elite, well funded, avidly followed, and competitive sport in the world. The drivers of F1 are the most talented racing car drivers in the world, and Colombian driver Juan Pablo Montoya quickly became a serious contender in the series after entering F1 in 2001. In a sport where the stakes are incredibl…
Widely recognized as "the father of modern-day Puerto Rico," Luis Munoz Marin served as the island's first elected governor from 1948 until early 1965, when he surrendered the governor's mansion to Popular Democratic Party protégé Robert Sanchez Vilella. Although as a young man he had set his sights on a career as a journalist and poet, Munoz Marin soon fo…
Judith Ortiz Cofer: 1952—: Poet, novelist, educator. Best known for her poetry and novels on the meaning of identity and ethnicity, Judith Ortiz Cofer used her often rootless childhood as a basis for some of her most well known works. Many critics feel it is the journey that Ortiz Cofer takes her readers on that so many readers can relate to, a quest of sorts to discover what it means …
Américo Paredes: 1915-1999: Folklorist, educator. Surely the only scholar to have had a corrido—a Mexican-American border ballad —composed in his honor, Américo Paredes was a pioneer in the academic study of the Mexican-American experience in the United States and of the culture of the U.S.-Mexico border. His 1958 study With His Pistol in His Hand: A Border Ballad …
Pablo Picasso: 1881-1973: Artist. Pablo Picasso was without a doubt the most talked-about visual artist of the twentieth century. For some art lovers, he was the greatest of them all; for others, he was an over-sexed self-promoting novelty act who produced too much art too quickly. But even casual museumgoers could not only recognize Picasso's work but also place it within one of the w…
Dolores Prida: 1943—: Playwright, journalist, poet. Cuban-American playwright Dolores Prida began her writing career while working for a restaurant chain, and went on to write more than a dozen plays and musicals that achieved critical acclaim. Her plays are known for their frank portrayal of the difficul-ties faced by immigrants who try to embrace a new culture without losing their ol…
Freddie Prinze, Jr.: 1976—: Actor. With leading roles in She's All That, Summer Catch, and Scooby-Doo, Freddie Prinze, Jr. made his way into the ranks of Hollywood's leading men while he was still in his early twenties. Although his rise to stardom seemed magical, Prinze had to overcome the shadow of his famous father's death when he was just ten months old and the…
Laura Restrepo: 1950—: Journalist, political activist, novelist. Few writers have been able to craft together fact and fiction so flawlessly to produce a created world that deals with so many real world issues as Laura Restrepo. Making a splash in the 1980s with her journalism and spending time as an exile because of it, Restrepo is no stranger to the dangers that are prevalent in the …
Chi Chi Rodríguez: 1935—: Golfer. Golfer Chi Chi Rodríguez owes much of his fame to his charismatic personality, wit, and sincere generosity. He seldom won on the regular pro golfing tour. However, Rodríguez went on to win many golf victories on the Champions Tour (formerly Senior PGA). …
Daniel Rodríguez: 1964—: Former law enforcement officer, singer. Twelve days after the horrific terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, on New York's World Trade Center, New York City police officer Daniel Rodríguez took the stage at Yankee Stadium's mass memorial service, "Prayer for America," and sang "God Bless America." The p…
Narciso Rodríguez: 1961(?)—: Fashion designer. Narciso Rodríguez won the coveted Perry Ellis award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1998. The annual honor is bestowed on the best new women's wear designer to emerge in the past year, and Rodríguez had recently become a household name across North America when he created the ethereal slip dr…
Robert Rodriguez: 1968—: Director, filmmaker, screenwriter. Filmmaker Robert Rodriguez amazed the moviegoing world in 1992 with his debut feature El Mariachi, shot for the unheard-of total of $7,000 when Rodriguez was 23 years old. That film introduced to the world a director with a dazzling visual style and a fabulous flair for storytelling. The making of El Mariachi was widely descri…
Cesar Romero: 1907-1994: Dancer, actor. Cesar Romero's career on stage, screen, and film spanned more than 60 years and included over 100 movies, as well as an array of stage and television appearances. Romero was well-known for his two-year stint in the 1960s as the sinister Joker on the television show Batman, but his heyday was as a studio actor for Twentieth Century-Fox during the …
Linda Ronstadt: 1946—: Singer. Linda Ronstadt has released more than 35 albums during a career that has spanned nearly 40 years, with sales topping more than 50 million copies. With a total of 13 platinum albums to her credit, she was the first woman ever to have four consecutive albums sell more than one million copies. Gaining fame by covering popular pop-rock songs, Ronstadt has als…
Lucille Roybal-Allard: 1941—: U.S. Congresswoman. In 1992 Lucille Roybal-Allard became the first woman of Mexican descent to win election to the U.S. Congress. Politics had been a part of her life from childhood; her father, Edward Roybal, served in Congress for 30 years. She developed a strong commitment to social justice early on, and became well known and respected for her activity …
George Santayana: 1863-1952: Philosopher. The Spanish-born American philosopher George Santayana is popularly known for a single sentence that has entered the stock arsenal of American political rhetoric: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," Santayana wrote in his 1905 book Reason in Common Sense. Students of Santayana's work complain that the …
Ayrton Senna: 1960-1994: Race car driver. Brazilian race car driver Ayrton Senna was a famous professional race car driver and sportsman at the time of his death in a racing crash in 1994. After an outstanding career on the kart racing circuit, Senna was a three-time champion of the elite Formula One (F1) series. In his brief but spectacular career, Senna proved he was arguably "the mo…
Jimmy Smits: 1955—: Actor. Jimmy Smits broke new ground on television in the 1980s with his portrayal of an impassioned, principled attorney on the Emmy-winning NBC drama series L.A. Law. As Victor Sifuentes, the Brooklyn-born actor represented one of the first positive, recurring images of a Hispanic character in the history of prime-time network television. He went on to spend four s…
Miguel Tejada: 1976—: Baseball player. Baseball sensation Miguel Tejada, named the American League's Most Valuable Player in 2002, traveled an obstacle filled road to athletic stardom. The youngest of eight children, Tejada grew up in the slums of Bani in the Dominican Republic, where opportunities to succeed were few. His prospects became even more bleak when at the age of thir…