Champions of Hispanic Heritage

By: Evelyn Ealey

As Hispanic Heritage Month comes to a close, I thought we could take time to recognize a few influential figures of Hispanic and Latinx History. These heroes and heroines shaped not only their communities, but the world around them, breaking barriers for the generations to come. Cesar Chavez, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Sonia Sotomayor are just a few important Hispanic and Latinx leaders that you should know, and whose determination for change continues to make the world a better place for the Hispanic and Latinx community.

Cesar Chavez was born to a Mexican American family in Yuma, Arizona in 1927. He grew up on a farm with his family, which fostered a strong sense of community in Chavez from a young age. During the Great Depression, Chavez’s family moved to California to become migrant farmers where he saw and experienced the hardships of farm workers. Chavez was inspired to fight for farm workers' civil rights, and set up the Community Service Organization for Latinos in California. He later teamed up with Dolores Huerta and founded the National Farm Workers Association to further the fight for farm workers’ rights. Chavez was successful in his endeavors and went on to win the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1993.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the current Representative of New York, and a proud advocate for Hispanic Americans in modern politics. She is of Puerto Rican descent and has strong, progressive opinions to share as a young 33-year old representative. During the 2016 Democratic presidential primary, she worked alongside Bernie Sanders traveling to the Standing Rock Reservation to see and protest the Dakota Access Pipeline. She later became the youngest person elected into the House of Representatives in 2018, and has since gone on to co-sponsor the Green New Deal to combat climate change and has made a name for herself as a popular figure in progressive politics.

Another influential Puerto Rican Bronx native is Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Sotomayor graduated high school as valedictorian, earning her a full ride scholarship to Princeton University. During her time at Princeton, she advocated for Princeton hiring more Latin American faculty. She graduated from Yale Law School in 1979, and received her acceptance to the New York Bar in 1988. She served as an assistant district attorney in New York for four years before being nominated to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by President George H. W. Bush in 1991. In 2009 President Obama nominated Sotomayor for the Supreme Court, and she made history as the first Hispanic female to serve in the U.S. Supreme Court.

All of these champions of Hispanic heritage are remarkable role models of how drive and persistence can help to improve the world around you. Don’t be afraid to push for a better world because you just might be the change that the society needs.