Latino Firsts

Salute the Latino legends, pioneers, and trailblazers! Celebrate the Hispanic milestones, accomplishments, and victories!

An inspiring exploration of groundbreaking individuals and pioneering events, Latino Firsts: Trailblazers and Milestones in United States History honors the an indelible mark Hispanics have made on American history and society. Featured are brigadier general Richard E. Cavazos, Nobel laureate Gabriela Mistral, actress America Ferrera, playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda, civil rights activist Dolores Huerta, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Francisco Ayala, artist Jen-Michel Basquiat, weightlifter Sarah Elizabeth Robles, and more than a thousand other notable people and accomplishments, such as …

Astronaut Frank Rubio (1975-) set he American record for the longest spaceflight of 371 days aboard the International Space Station
Oscar Muñoz CEO of United Airlines; Roberto Goizueta, CEO of Coca-Cola
Spanish-born philosopher George Santayana (1863-1952) was the first Latino philosopher and writer to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard
Fashion designers Oscar de la Renta and Carolina Herrera
Film director/producer Eva Longoria was named USA Today’s Women of the Year in 2024
Spanish explorers were the first Europeans to set up settlements in Alaska and Canada’s Pacific Coast, at least twelve of them
Cattle and ranching first introduced to Hawaii by Hispanic cowboys from the Southwest
The first admiral of the US Navy, David Farragut, was the son of a Spaniard and a US Revolutionary War hero
Spanish immigrant Rafael Guastavino, architect and designer, whose landmark designs include Grand Central Station, Carnegie Hall, the old Penn Station, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Many US laws are based on Hispanic-Mexican law, including family law (community property, common-law marriage, homestead law, adoption law) and water and land rights laws
The recent changing of names for military bases from Confederate soldiers has resulted in the naming of Fort Hidalgo
Before slavery was abolished in the United States, Latinos in Florida and Texas operated extensive “underground railroads” assisting escaped slaves to reach freedom in Hispanic Florida, Texas and Mexico
Hernandez v. Texas, a 1964 Supreme Court case brought by Mexican American attorneys that desegregated juries, was a precedent for Brown v. Board of Education
Astronaut Ellen Ochoa later served as the Director of NASA’s John Space Center
Latinos from the Caribbean and Mexico introduced the cotton, cattle and sugar industries to the United States
Virologist/bacteriologist Sarah Stewart, the first woman, and Latina, to earn a medical degree from Georgetown University Medical School, whose research showed that viruses can cause various types of cancer
Carlos Juan Finlay, a Cuban doctor educated in Philadelphia, who discovered that yellow fever was spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito
baseball players such as Roberto Clemente, considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time and Alex Rodriguez, the highest paid ballplayer at the time
multiple Oscar winners, including Anthony Quinn and Rita Moreno
And thousands of other milestones and firsts!

Milestones, victories and success are not always noticed when they happen. Sometimes an achievement is only recognized years later. Revel and rejoice in the renowned and lesser-known, barrier-breaking trailblazers in all fields—arts, entertainment, business, civil rights, education, government, invention, journalism, religion, science, sports, music, and more. Latino Firsts illuminates the rich and important history of Hispanic Americans!