Hispanic Heritage
How Willie Velásquez Organized for Latino Voting Rights
Few people have had as profound an impact on the political empowerment of America’s Latino electorate as Willie Velásquez. His grassroots work registering and mobilizing Latino voters, starting in his home state of Texas, parlayed the frustrations, hopes and pride of a diverse, ...read more
How 1968 East L.A. Student Walkouts Ignited the Chicano Movement
In the early days of March 1968, as many as 22,000 mostly Mexican American students walked out of their classrooms at seven Los Angeles schools, garnering national attention. The unprecedented event spotlighted educational inequality, galvanized the Chicano civil rights movement ...read more
The Origins of 7 Key Latin Music Genres
Most of what is known as Latin music comes from the melding of cultures that took place during the Spanish and Portuguese colonization of the Americas. Musicians of various races and cultures came into contact with instruments they’d never heard before—the European guitar, ...read more
How a Devastating Bus Accident Changed Frida Kahlo's Life and Inspired Her Art
When Frida Kahlo was 18 years old, she seemed on the verge of claiming the life she’d imagined. The daughter of a German artist father and a Mexican mother, Kahlo had wanted to be a doctor since she was a child. She was pursuing that dream through her studies at the National ...read more
7 Latin American Holiday Traditions
Holidays in Latin America celebrate faith, family and community in a festive, sometimes whimsical, style. Traditions range from waking people up with Christmas songs in the middle of the night to sculpting massive radishes to burning effigies to ward off bad spirits from the year ...read more
Puerto Rico's 65th Infantry Fought Bravely in Korea—Then Had to Fight for Redemption
The U.S. Army’s 65th Infantry Regiment, the only all-Hispanic unit that hailed mostly from Puerto Rico, inspires pride for their dogged combat in the Korean War in the early 1950s. These soldiers also spent decades trying to clear their name. The segregated regiment—which took ...read more
7 Groundbreaking Inventions by Latino Innovators
Latino inventors have created revolutionary devices that have transformed our everyday world—and often changed how we live. These innovations have helped advance technological, pharmaceutical and environmental products that we use daily. Below are a list of inventions by Latinos ...read more
How Puerto Rican Baseball Icon Roberto Clemente Left a Legacy Off the Field
The first baseball player from Latin America to collect 3,000 hits, Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente won four batting crowns, 12 Gold Glove Awards and the 1966 National League Most Valuable Player Award during his iconic career. A 15-time All-Star, the Puerto Rico native led the ...read more
How Mexican Vaqueros Inspired the American Cowboy
Hundreds of years before there was the American cowboy, there was the vaquero, an expert horseman who could adeptly herd cattle and whose skills with a lasso were legendary. First trained by the Spaniards who arrived in 1519, on land later known as Mexico, the original vaqueros ...read more
When the Young Lords Put Garbage on Display to Demand Change
In 1969, a group of New York City youth known as the Young Lords demanded change in the way the largest city in the United States handled sanitation. The initiative, known as the Garbage Offensive, wasn’t the group’s original plan of action, but it proved highly effective in ...read more
A Timeline of US-Cuba Relations
The United States and Cuba share a long, complex history—first as allies and trade partners, and later as bitter ideological enemies. For four centuries after the arrival of Christopher Columbus, Spain ruled Cuba as its main colony in the Caribbean, but the U.S. long coveted the ...read more
When 20-Year-Old Rookie Fernando Valenzuela Captivated LA—and Major League Baseball
In 1981, Fernando Valenzuela woke up from a nap and began pitching, and winning, sparking the phenomenon known as “Fernandomania” and almost singlehandedly repairing a fractured relationship between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the city's Mexican American community. As an encore, ...read more
Why Isn't Puerto Rico a State?
Located about a thousand miles southeast of Florida, Puerto Rico is a Caribbean archipelago with a complex colonial history and political status. As a territory of the United States, Puerto Rico’s 3.2 million residents are U.S. citizens. However, while subject to U.S. federal ...read more
History Shorts: Dolores Huerta Organizes a Movement
While many know the name Cesar Chavez today, his most trusted lieutenant was just as vital to the Mexican farmworkers movement.
History Shorts: The First Hispanic Congressman Fights for His Seat
Representation matters, and Romauldo Pacheco proved that as the first Hispanic Congressman in American history.
History Shorts: When an Undocumented Immigrant Became a War Hero
Marcelino Serna came to the U.S. as a undocumented immigrant, and within just a few years, became one of the country's bravest heroes.
Cesar Chavez
Cesar Chavez was a Mexican American labor leader and civil rights activist who dedicated his life’s work to what he called la causa (the cause): the struggle of farm workers in the United States to improve their working and living conditions through organizing and negotiating ...read more
How Cesar Chavez Joined Larry Itliong to Demand Farm Workers' Rights
In the late 1960s, grapes grabbed national attention—and not in a good way. Newly organized farm workers, fronted by Mexican-American civil-rights activist Cesar Chavez, asked Americans to boycott the popular California fruit because of the paltry pay and poor work conditions ...read more
Day of the Dead: How Ancient Traditions Grew Into a Global Holiday
The Day of the Dead or Día de Muertos is an ever-evolving holiday that traces its earliest roots to the Aztec people in what is now central Mexico. The Aztecs used skulls to honor the dead a millennium before the Day of the Dead celebrations emerged. Skulls, like the ones once ...read more
When a Fallen Mexican American War Hero Was Denied a Wake, a Civil Rights Push Began
“The whites won't like it.” When a small-town Texas funeral home, using these words, refused to hold a wake for decorated World War II veteran Felix Longoria, the ensuing controversy sent the fight for Mexican American civil rights soaring onto the national stage—with some help ...read more
How St. Augustine Became the First European Settlement in America
Even before Jamestown or the Plymouth Colony, the oldest permanent European settlement in what is now the United States was founded in September 1565 by a Spanish soldier named Pedro Menéndez de Avilés in St. Augustine, Florida. Menéndez picked the colony’s name because he ...read more
The Mariel Boatlift: How Cold War Politics Drove Thousands of Cubans to Florida in 1980
The Mariel Boatlift of 1980 was a mass emigration of Cubans to the United States. The exodus was driven by a stagnant economy that had weakened under the grip of a U.S. trade embargo and by Cuban President Fidel Castro's exasperation with dissent. “Those who have no revolutionary ...read more
How the Chicano Movement Championed Mexican-American Identity
In the 1960s, a radicalized Mexican-American movement began pushing for a new identification. The Chicano Movement, aka El Movimiento, advocated social and political empowerment through a chicanismo or cultural nationalism. As the activist Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales declared in a ...read more
5 Latino-Led Labor Strikes That Championed Rights for American Workers
When it comes to the fight for workers’ rights in the United States, Latino Americans have been critical players since the early 1900s. Their organizing and agitating have led to improved working conditions and wages in industries across the U.S. “Latinos have been part of the ...read more