Most Influential Hispanic/Latinx
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist.
Jorge Pérez
Jorge M. Pérez is an Argentine American billionaire real estate developer, art collector, and philanthropist.
Jorge Ramos
Jorge Gilberto Ramos Ávalos is a Mexican-American journalist and author.
José Gómez
José Horacio Gómez Velasco is a Mexican-born American prelate of the Catholic Church. He became the fifth archbishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in California in 2011.
Jovita Idar
Jovita Idar Vivero was an American journalist, teacher, political activist, and civil rights worker who championed the cause of Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants.
Julia de Burgos
Julia de Burgos García was a Puerto Rican poet. As an advocate of Puerto Rican independence, she served as Secretary General of the Daughters of Freedom, the women’s branch of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. She was also a civil rights activist for women and African/Afro-Caribbean writers.
Gary Soto
Gary Anthony Soto is an American poet, novelist, and memoirist.
George Lopez
George Edward Lopez is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He is most known for starring in his self-produced ABC sitcom. His stand-up comedy examines race and ethnic relations, including Mexican American culture.
Lauren Hernandez
Lauren Zoe Hernandez is an American artistic gymnast. During her debut year as a senior gymnast, she competed as a member of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team dubbed the “Final Five” at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Maria Ronstadt is an American retired singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, and an ALMA Award.
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Lin-Manuel Miranda is an American songwriter, actor, singer, filmmaker, rapper, and playwright. He is known for creating the Broadway musicals Hamilton and In the Heights, and the soundtracks for the animated films Moana, Encanto, and Vivo.
Lionel Sosa
Lionel Sosa is a Mexican-American advertising and marketing executive.
Mari Carmen Ramírez
Mari Carmen Ramírez-Garcia is an American art historian, art curator, and the Wortham Curator of Latin American art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Maria Elena Salinas
María Elena Salinas, is an American broadcast journalist, news anchor, and author.
Mario Molina
Molina was the first to realize that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) could destroy ozone. In the two decades following his discovery, he and his mentor became voices alerting the world to the danger of CFCs and ozone depletion.
Mel Martinez
Melquíades Rafael Ruiz Martínez is a Cuban-American lobbyist and former politician who served as a United States Senator from Florida from 2005 to 2009 and as general chairman of the Republican Party from November 2006 until October 19, 2007.
Narciso Rodriguez
A famous women-fashion designer.
Octaviano Larrazolo
Larrazolo was a Republican politician who served as the fourth governor of New Mexico and a United States senator. He was the first Mexican-American and first Latino United States senator.
Pablo Alvarado
Pablo co-founded the Institute of Popular Education of Southern California in 1991, Los Jornaleros del Norte day laborer band in 1996 and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network in 2001
Robert Rodriguez
Robert Anthony Rodriguez is an American filmmaker, composer, and visual effects supervisor. He shoots, edits, produces, and scores many of his films in Mexico.
Roberto Clemente Walker
Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker was a Puerto Rican professional baseball right fielder who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Ruben Salazar
Salazar began his journalism career at the El Paso Herald-Post, launching a career of many “firsts” for the mainstream press; first Latino reporter at the Post; first Latino foreign correspondent, and the first Latino columnist
Salma Hayek
Salma Hayek Pinault is a Mexican and American actress and film producer.
Sara Martinez Tucker
Former Chief Executive Officer of the National Math and Science Initiative from February 2013 to March 2015. From 2009 to February 2013, independent consultant. Former Under Secretary of Education in the U.S. Department of Education (2006-2008). Chief executive officer and president of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund from 1997 to 2006.
Selena
Selena Quintanilla Pérez, known mononymously as Selena, was an American Tejano singer. Called the “Queen of Tejano music”, her contributions to music and fashion made her one of the most celebrated Mexican-American entertainers of the late 20th century.
Sonia Sotomayor
Sonia Sotomayor broke boundaries by becoming the first Latina, and the third woman, to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States, the highest court in the country.
Sylvia Mendez
Sylvia Mendez is an American civil rights activist of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage. Mendez was at the center of the court case Mendez v. Westminster, in which a federal court ruled in the mid-1940s that the school segregation of Hispanic children was unconstitutional.