From artists to astronauts and writers to politicians, many great Hispanic history makers have inspired the world
September is National Hispanic Heritage Month, making it the perfect time to introduce the kiddos to historical figures who changed the world. After all, celebrating the contributions these Hispanic heroes have made to our country helps us find unity in our diversity. This list includes social activists, scientists, and artists who have made a lasting impact.
Bianca Jagger
photo: See Li from London, UK, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The Nicaraguan-born Bianca Jagger is a former actress and lifelong human rights activist. She founded the human rights foundation that bears her name, which fights to support indigenous people, address climate change and end violence against women and girls. In 1981 she was part of a US congressional delegation that chased after a Honduran death squad to liberate 40 captured refugees.
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Jean-Michel Basquiat
photo: Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American neo-expressionist artist of Haitian and Puerto-Rican descent. His art was overtly political, attacking systemic power structures and racism. This Hispanic hero’s work is still shown globally, years after his death, as the themes he tackled still feel relevant today.
Elizabeth Martinez
photo: Jerome Rainey, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Elizabeth Martinez held many roles during her life—writer, editor, publisher, social activist, and feminist, to name but a few. She helped define the Chicana movement and was one of the early voices to discuss overlapping systems of oppression before the term intersectionality became mainstream. Martinez’s book 500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures is widely taught in elementary and secondary schools.
Juan Felipe Herrera
photo: slowking, GFDL 1.2 via Wikimedia Commons
Juan Felipe Herrera was the 21st United States Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017. His early experiences as a migratory farm worker in California have strongly influenced his creative works, such as 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross the Border.
Maribel Dominguez
photo: Hmlarson, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Mexico-born soccer player Maribel Dominguez immigrated to the US in 2002 to play for the Kansas City Mystics and went on to play for the Chicago Red Stars during the 2013 season of the National Women’s Soccer League. She made international headlines in 2004 when she signed with Atletico Celaya (a men’s team in Mexico), but FIFA barred her from joining the club.
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Nicole Hernandez Hammer
photo: NMHHE, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
In 1992, when she was only 16 years old, Nicole Hernandez Hammer lost her South Florida home to Hurricane Andrew. It was a defining moment that led Hammer to study climate science and sea-level rise, which can disproportionally affect Latinx communities. Hammer served as a climate-science advocate at the Union of Concerned Scientists and her work was so prominent that she was First Lady Michelle Obama’s guest to the 2015 State of the Union address.
Raul Julia
photo: movie studio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
For many, Puerto Rican actor Raul Julia was best known for his role as Gomez Adams of The Addams Family. But his acting career spanned both screen and theatre, earning him a nomination for the Tony Award and two nominations for the Golden Globe Award. He won a posthumous Golden Globe, Primetime Emmy, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for his work in The Burning Season.
Sylvia Mendez
photo: US Department of Agriculture / Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
Sylvia Mendez is a Mexican-Puerto Rican American who played a key role in desegregating California schools. When the Westminster school district declined to admit the Mendez children into the local school due to their skin color, the family took the district to court. In the 1947 federal court case Mendez v. Westminster, the court ruled that forced segregation was unconstitutional, setting a precedent for ending segregation in the US.
Cesar Chavez
photo: Joel Levine, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Cesar Chavez is a LatinX hero best known as the civil rights activist and labor leader who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association with fellow activist Dolores Huerta. His work led to the passing of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975, which granted farmworkers the right to collective bargaining. In 1994 he post-humously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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Raffi Freedman-Gurspan
photo: US Department of Labor, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Raffi Freedman-Gurspan is a transgender rights activist. In 2015 she became the first openly transgender person to work as a White House staffer for President Barack Obama. Freedman-Gurspan has worked on criminal justice and incarceration reform, homeless shelter policies as well as other issues facing transgender people of color.
