Mel Martinez: 25 Most Influential Hispanics In America

Raised in Arvin and one of my former classmates, Gurrola comes from a family of Mexican immigrants and understands the disparities my community faces. In an effort to increase access to higher education, Gurrola contributed to the passage of a county proposition allocating funds to establish a community college campus in Arvin. Additionally, he has collaborated with community organizations by increasing access to clean drinking water and has demonstrated support towards immigrant rights when announcing the city would not use its resources to enforce deportation orders.

Throughout this first chapter of Latino Americans the key points in my opinion were the following. Starting with the origin story of the Americas, the book mentions there might not be a definitive starting point because there “500 nations in North America before a European ship ever dropped anchor off the Eastern Seaboard” (Suarez 3). The book from this point on chronologically starts narrating, first about 55 years before Protestant refugees from Mayflower ever stepped on American soil, a Spanish sailor Pedro Menendez de Aviles forced French protestants from their Florida coast settlement to then stablish St. Augustine. From this point the book continues to tell the stories of Juan de Oñate, from witnessing the founding of Santa Fe, the oldest capital of North America, to exploring more than half a dozen of American states, he is one of the most fundamental conquistadors who is the least

the first Hispanic player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame (1973) and the second

"They horsed around more, cut up with hillbilly songs and musical instruments. ... I never had the courage to try my harmonica outside my hotel room, but I could make my share of noise with that slide whistle and coat hanger. I always thought it helped to laugh it up before a game, not to become too tense."

In 2008, African-American presidential nominee Barack Obama garnered 67% of the Latino vote. In his bid for re-election, President Barack Obama acquired 71% of the Latino vote (Pew Research Center). With these statistics in mind, one can conclude that there has been a consistent growing pattern of continued co-operation between blacks and Latinos at the national level. This is in complete contrast however, to the mindset of some observers who believed that Latinos would not come out in the numbers they did because of racial bias and because of the fact that Obama received much less support amongst Latinos in the democratic primaries when faced against Hilary Clinton (Hero & Preuhs, p.3). Many people mistakenly thought this to be so because

Hartford is the home to the highest percentage (27%) of Puerto Ricans in the country (Cruz, 5). Nonetheless, Puerto Ricans still face myriad challenges with respect to the integration and acceptance of their culture in Hartford. Although the PR community is only two generations old, Puerto Ricans have managed to both organize and mobilize in this relatively short time (Cruz, 2). Puerto Ricans have focused closely on their ethnic identity because they viewed their incorporation into the political sphere occurring only by means of asserting their difference (Cruz, 10). They have made their mark on politics in Hartford through demographic growth, development of leadership in the community, and their

Baseball has always been America’s national pastime. In the early and all the way into the mid 50’s, baseball was America and America was baseball. The only thing lacking in the great game was the absence of African American players and the presence of an all white sport. America still wasn’t friendly or accepted the African American race and many still held great prejudice towards them. All this would change when the general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Branch Rickey decided he was going to sign a Negro player. Jackie Robinson was that player and Jackie Robinson changed the game, America, and history. By looking specifically at his childhood adversity, college life and the hardships he encountered by becoming the first black player

Thousands upon thousands of men have been scouted, drafted, played, and even managed in Major League Baseball. Yet, a name, synonymous with numerous records, is mostly associated with controversy. Enter Peter Edward “Pete” Rose Sr. Pete Rose grew up in a middle class family, struggled as a student, and then eventually excelled as a baseball player/manager. Even though Pete Rose lived for the sport and broke so many records during his professional career, it was his off-the-field behavior which led to his being banished from baseball and probably the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Overall, the chapter, which focuses on “Hispanicity”, impacted me because I began to formulate ideas which opposed those that had been hammered into my mind all my life. For so long I had heard that minorities were victims to oppression by whites and for that reason minorities should strive to do more than what is expected from them. In reading Rodriguez’s claim, questions that had never been explored in my development arose in my mind such as “Are Hispanics really the victims?”, “Do Hispanics truly strive to their fullest to accomplish things that have never been done?”, and lastly, “Are Hispanics committing acts of hypocrisy?”. If a Hispanic

Dr. Jason Richwine discusses the Latino’s absorption and integration into the American culture. He compares the Latino nation with other countries’ immigrants that has rose out of poverty, while the Hispanics have not been rising up out of the lower class after several generations have passed. Richwine mentions that American prejudice might be influencing the Hispanic immigrants not striving. For example, he states, that “popular explanations from the

When one thinks about Hispanics, all too often the image of a field full of migrant workers picking fruit or vegetables in the hot sun comes to mind. This has become the stereotypical picture of a people whose determination and character are as strong or stronger than that of the Polish, Jewish, Greek, or Italian who arrived in the United States in the early 1900's. Then, the center of the new beginning for each immigrant family was an education. An education was the "ladder by which the children of immigrants climbed out of poverty into the mainstream." (Calderon & Slavin, 2001, p. iv) That ideal has not changed, as the Hispanic population has grown in the United States to large numbers very quickly and with little fanfare. Now, the

This research examines the disjuncture between Hispanic strength in population and Hispanic participation in politics. I examine the nature of this disjuncture: its severity, its causes, and its consequences. Hispanics currently comprise 11.2% of the U.S. population, but the Hispanic vote in the 1998 elections comprised only 4.7% of all ballots cast. The situation is even bleaker when considering Hispanic representation in Congress. Currently, less than four percent of U.S. House members are Latino. Add to that clear disjuncture the fact that two of the Hispanic Congressmen do not even possess the ability to vote and that there is not a single Hispanic Senator, and we see that

A diverse minority group of Latino and Spanish-speaking peoples has played an important part of what it means to be American and what it means to be a citizen in the United States today. Moving into the future, in order to analyze the trajectory that this group is in, we must first understand the group’s history in the United States and in territories that would become the United States. In addition, we must look at the origins of the most recent wave of Latino immigration in order to understand their current effect on American society and the intersection between both minority and majority groups. Finally, we get to the apex of this investigation: what lies in the future for Latino Americans in the United States? Although Latino

New York City's fastest growing immigrant group are Dominicans, a Spanish speaking people, flocking from the Dominican Republic to the United States, New York City in specific. In 1980 the Dominican population in NYC was 125,380, in 1990 it was 332,713, and today in 1999 it is an estimated 500,000 people. The only problem with this is through the years of their migration to America, their per capita income has declined precipitously. It seems as though when the Dominican population in America increases, their income as a whole decreases. Nearly half of the Dominicans in NYC live below the poverty level. In 1990 29% of Dominicans where on welfare. Of foreign people immigrating to the U.S., only people from the former Soviet Union had a higher percentage of people living on public assistance. From 1989 to 1996 their per capita income declined 23% to $6,094 a year, in inflation adjusted dollars, while their poverty rate rose from 37% to 46%, that is almost double for the city as a whole. Unemployment also rose from 17.2% in 1990 to 18.8% in 1996 (Lopez, p. 3). The source of these severe economic problems

During the mid-1950’s, Major League Baseball was in the midst of an influential movement. Jackie Robinson had broken baseball’s “color barrier” in 1947, which helped usher in the participation of other minorities, especially the Latinos. Just as the blacks were faced with adversity, the Latino players experienced the same. The teams integrated slowly and sportswriters often scorned the players having difficulty developing English as a second language (Regalado 678). Roberto Clemente joined this complicated era of baseball and his reputation was backed with a stellar baseball career, which set the foundation for the involvement of many other Latino players. With Clemente’s cultivated background, one can see how he became to be one of