Mes nacional de la herencia hispana
From September 15th to October 15th, we celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month to recognize the contributions and influence of Hispanic Americans to the history, culture, and achievements of the United States. The 2020 Census estimated that there were almost 65.3 million Hispanics and Latinos of any race living in the United States and its territories, about 16% of the population. Since 2010 the Hispanic and Latino population has increased 23%, making it the second largest in the U.S.
Hispanic Heritage Month started as one week and was expanded in 1988. It begins on Sept. 15 to coincide with the national independence days of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Mexico commemorates its independence on September 16, Chile on September 18, and the celebration of Columbus Day on October 12th (or the nearest Monday). Día de la Raza, Day of the Race, an alternative to Columbus Day, is also referred to as Native American Day and is celebrated throughout the Americas to recognize and celebrate the Latin heritage of the Americas.
The Hispanic community in Maryland is relatively small compared to other states, ranking twentieth in terms of population size and twenty-eighth in terms of share of State population. Hispanics are the second largest minority group in Maryland,
One of the earliest recorded Hispanic communities in Maryland was established in the early 18th century. That Sephardi Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community was in Baltimore.
You can research the contributions of Hispanic/Latino figures in U.S. history yourself. Here are a few important people you may not have heard of before:
Ellen Ochoa
Born in Los Angeles and raised in La Mesa, California, Ellen Ochoa, PhD, was the first Hispanic woman in space. After earning her doctorate in engineering from Stanford University, Ochoa joined NASA in 1988 as a research engineer and was selected to be an astronaut in 1990. Her first mission in space was aboard the shuttle Discovery in 1993. She went on to serve three more missions, spending almost 1,000 hours in orbit. Ochoa was the 11th director of the Johnson Space Center and the center’s first Hispanic director.
José Andrés
Critically acclaimed chef José Andrés came to the United States from Spain in 1991 and began a long career of award-winning culinary innovation. After the tragic 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Andrés formed the World Central Kitchen (WCK), an organization that provides hot meals to those affected by natural disasters. After Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico in 2017, he gathered 19,000 volunteers to serve 3.5 million meals to distraught residents who had limited access to electricity, clean water, and food. In 2019, Andrés fed furloughed workers during a month-long government shutdown. WCK is currently working in the Ukraine, in Hawaii aiding wildfire surviviors, as well as earthquake zones throughout the world.
Richard Cavazos
Texan and Mexican American Richard E. Cavazos was the first Hispanic person to become a four-star general in the United States Army. He graduated from Texas Tech University and served in the Korean War as commander of the 65th Infantry Regiment. He then served in Vietnam as commander of the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Division. He became the first Hispanic four-star general of the United States Army in 1982, and received several military honors, including the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and the Purple Heart.
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was born in Cuba in 1952 and immigrated to the United States at the age of eight. Her family settled in Miami. She was elected to the Florida House of Representatives and then to the Florida Senate, becoming the first Hispanic woman to serve in both. In 1989, she ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives against Democrat Gerald F. Richman, who used the campaign slogan, “This is an American seat.” Many viewed this as anti-Cuban and anti-Hispanic rhetoric, and in a backlash, Ros-Lehtinen won the election, making her the first Hispanic woman to serve in the United States Congress.
Roberto Clemente
Originally from Puerto Rico, Roberto Clemente Walker came to the United States to play major league baseball in 1954. He spent his career as a right fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Although he was an elite athlete, achieving more than 3,000 base hits by the end of his career, Clemente faced racial bias in the United States. This led Clemente to become an advocate for Latino and Black players’ rights in baseball. He died in a plane crash in 1972, en route to bringing relief to earthquake-stricken Nicaragua. He believed in a life of serving others.
Octaviano Larrazola
Born in Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1859, Octaviano Larrazola immigrated to the United States as a boy and was raised in New Mexico. A Republican from New Mexico, Larrazola was a champion of civil rights and equal treatment for Hispanic Americans. This made him popular with New Mexican voters, who would elect him to be the fourth governor of New Mexico in 1918. Ten years later, he was elected to the United States Senate, making him the first Hispanic American to serve as a U.S. Senator.
Ruben Salazar
Ruben Salazar was just an infant when his family immigrated to the United States from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. He would go on to become one of the first Mexican American journalists in mainstream media. His work was particularly significant because it highlighted the lives of Chicanos. Salazar was raised in El Paso and served in the army before becoming a journalist for the Los Angeles Times. In his career, he focused on injustices being done to those in the Chicano community. While covering a protest of the Vietnam War, the Chicano Moratorium in 1970, he was killed by a tear gas projectile thrown by the police.
Sylvia Mendez
Few know that seven years before 1954’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling integrated America’s schools, a young California girl’s family fought for her to attend an “all-White” school. Sylvia Mendez was a small girl when she tried to register to attend school in Westminster, California. The school’s superintendent testified that those of Mexican descent were “intellectually, culturally, and morally inferior to European Americans.” Sylvia Mendez’ parents, Gonzalo and Felicitas, would have none of it. They united with other local Chicano families and hired a lawyer. They won their case, and in 1946, California schools became integrated by law.
Gabriela Mistral
Born as Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga in Chile in 1889, poet and educator Gabriela Mistral was the first Hispanic person to win a Nobel Prize in Literature. Although she was no stranger to tragedy, she used her pain to create lasting works of poetry. Throughout her career, Mistral traveled the world as a writer and educator, teaching at Columbia University, Vassar College, and the University of Puerto Rico. She died in New York in 1957, 12 years after winning the Nobel Prize.
Cesar Chavez
Once called “one of the heroic figures of our time” by then-Senator Robert Kennedy, Cesar Chavez lived a life of service to justice and equal rights. As the first-generation American son of farmworkers in Arizona, he was drawn to a life of activism. After serving in the Navy in 1946, Chavez returned home and became a community organizer, first as a leader in the San Jose Community Service Organization (CSO), and then by establishing the National Farm Workers Association. Chavez led successful marches, strikes, fasts, and protests, and was inspired by peaceful resistance movements and leaders including Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi. His legacy lives on in Latinx and workers’ rights movements going on today.
Severo Ochoa de Albornoz
Severo Ochoa de Albornoz was born in Spain in 1905. His father, a lawyer, died when he was seven years old. He attended the University of Madrid Medical School and the University of Glasgow and developed a method to measure small levels of muscle creatinine. He came to the United States in 1940 and continued research on protein synthesis and replication of RNA viruses until 1985, when he returned to now democratic Spain as a science advisor. Severo Ochoa de Albornoz was a Nobel laureate in medicine who discovered the enzyme that synthesizes RNA
France Córdova
France Córdova was born August 5, 1947, to Mexican American and Irish American parents. France Córdova is an astrophysicist who became the youngest person and first woman named chief scientist at NASA. She is known for her work and research with X-rays, gamma rays, and space instruments. She is also the director of the National Science Foundation and has served as president of several Universities.