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Latinos Shine in All Spheres of American Life

From politics to the arts, to science and sports, discover these influential Hispanics


spinner image Influential Latinos that include Zoë Saldaña, Sonia Sotomayor, José Andrés, Oscar De La Hoya, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Soledad O’Brien
Top row: Zoë Saldaña, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, José Andrés and Oscar De La Hoya. Bottom row: Lin-Manuel Miranda and Soledad O’Brien.
Top row: Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images; The Syndicate/Alamy Stock Photo; Francois Nel/Getty Images for Atlantis The Royal; Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for HBO. Bottom row: Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images; Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images; background: Getty Images

Latinos have left an indelible mark on the United States. Civic and cultural leaders have challenged stereotypes and paved the way for future generations. Discover the stories of these 10 exceptional individuals who have shaped the nation’s rich diversity.

spinner image Artist Judith Baca using a paintbrush working on mural
Presley Ann/Getty Images for LACMA; AP Photo/Richard Vogel; Getty Images

Judith Baca

Muralist

From 1974 to 1979, this Chicana artist oversaw the creation of The Great Wall of Los Angeles, a half mile of regional history through the 1950s painted on a concrete wall along the Tujunga Wash, a tributary of the Los Angeles River. The founder and artistic director of the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), Baca is the driving force behind the creation of more than 400 murals in Los Angeles. She is currently working on three new sections of The Great Wall to focus on the 1960s and 1970s, including scenes from the farmworkers’ and LGBTQ+ rights movements. But instead of being done on-site, the new sections of the mural are being created at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in a living exhibit that allows visitors to see Baca and her crew at work. The artists paint on a lightweight fabric called Polytab, which, when finished, will be applied to the Tujunga Wash wall. Baca is the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, the United States Artist Rockefeller Fellowship and more than 50 awards from various community groups. In 2017, The Great Wall of Los Angeles was added to the National Registry of Historic Places.

spinner image Actress Zoë Saldaña in the film Avatar
Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images; AJ Pics / Alamy Stock Photo; Getty Images

Zoë Saldaña

Actor

Named by Time magazine in 2023 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, this New Jersey native of Dominican and Puerto Rican ancestry has starred in four of the highest-grossing films of all time: Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Her long list of film and TV credits includes acting, writing, directing and producing stints, for which she has been recognized with dozens of award nominations and 21 wins, most recently the 2024 Cannes Film Festival Award for best actress for her leading role in the musical crime comedy Emilia Pérez. A proud multilingual Afro-Latina, Saldaña marches to the beat of her own drum, telling Allure in 2016: “There’s no one way to be Black. I’m Black the way I know how to be.”

spinner image Lin-Manuel Miranda holding a flag in the Broadway show Hamilton
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Lin-Manuel Miranda

Songwriter, Actor, Producer

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first musical, In the Heights, opened off-Broadway in 2007. After transferring to Broadway the following year, it went on to garner 13 Tony Award nominations and win four, including best musical. This debut heralded great things for the young songwriter and actor, whose second Broadway production, Hamilton (2015), won the Pulitzer Prize for drama as well as 11 of the 16 Tony Awards it was nominated for, among numerous other accolades. Born in New York City to Puerto Rican parents, Miranda has also earned Grammy and Emmy awards, plus two Oscar nominations, and has enjoyed a fruitful partnership with Disney, writing music for Moana (2016), Mary Poppins Returns (2018), two Star Wars films, Encanto (2021) and The Little Mermaid (2023). His success has allowed him to join his family in giving back to the community through fundraising and advocacy. “Music,” he says, “is not a job and it is not a vocation. It is a power.”

spinner image Chef Jose Andres holding a cookbook
Getty Images; Francois Nel/Getty Images for Atlantis The Royal; Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Prime Video

José Andrés

Chef, Humanitarian

In 1991, a 21-year-old chef left his native Spain to seek his fortune in the United States. Fast-forward 33 years. Today José Andrés is a highly successful businessman recognized for both his culinary vision and his humanitarian work around the globe. With restaurants in major U.S. cities including Washington, Las Vegas, Miami Beach, New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles, the celebrated chef also has published cookbooks, starred in TV shows and created the Global Food Institute at George Washington University to “fix our world’s broken food systems.” But perhaps his greatest impact has been as the founder of World Central Kitchen, launched in 2010 to provide aid and meals to disaster-stricken nations. His efforts have earned him the 2015 National Humanities Medal and two Nobel Peace Prize nominations. “In the moments that we face the biggest, most traumatic moments of our lives, it’s so easy to lose hope,” he told AARP. “So, we serve warm, comforting dishes — ones that don’t just bring calories, but also bring nourishment — and a reminder that the sun will rise again tomorrow.”

spinner image Fashion designer Silvia Tcherassi and a wide shot of a group of models walking a runway
Juan Naharro Gimenez/Getty Images; JUAN BARRETO/AFP via Getty Images; Getty Images

Silvia Tcherassi

Fashion Designer

With boutiques in the United States, Spain, the Dominican Republic and her native Colombia, Tcherassi has been a force in the world of international fashion since launching her brand in 1987. Ten years later, she opened her first U.S. boutique in Miami, the city she has called home ever since, and the place where she oversees her growing brand, which includes the luxury Tcherassi Hotels. She is a recipient of France’s Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, bestowed on leaders of the international arts community for their contribution and commitment to cultural service. Tcherassi’s work has been the subject of several books and museum exhibits. Hailed as the “mastermind of Latin flair” — a trend that has given visibility to other Latin American designers — she describes her style as a “blend of tradition and modernity” designed to serve women of all ages.

spinner image Journalist Soledad O’Brien sitting in a director's chair while holding a pen and notepad
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Soledad O’Brien

Journalist, Media Executive

Journalist, broadcast producer, speaker, philanthropist and author, the founder of SO’B Productions is, at heart, a storyteller. The New York–born, Harvard-educated daughter of an Irish-Australian father and an Afro-Cuban mother, O’Brien often taps into her background as a multiracial American woman to bring her unique perspective to film and television projects such as the 2009 series and book Latino in America, the 2022 documentary The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks — winner of a Peabody Award — and the 2023 podcast series with Rob Reiner, Who Killed JFK?. A hard-nosed reporter who has testified before Congress on disinformation and extremism in the media, she has been recognized with top honors including an Emmy Award, the Gracie Award and the Alfred I. Dupont Award.

spinner image Astronaut Ellen Ochoa in space
Business Wire/AP Newsroom; Courtesy National Archives, photo no. STS056-04-008 - STS-056

Ellen Ochoa

Astronaut

The first Latina to become an astronaut, Ochoa is a veteran of four space flights and from 2013 to 2018 served as the director of NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. Born in Los Angeles, Ochoa is also a classical flutist and has three patents to her name. As befits a lifelong learner, Ochoa has had seven schools across the nation named after her and is a passionate advocate for women and minorities to enter science and technology fields. To that end, since retiring from NASA she has authored a series of five bilingual children’s books, Dr. Ochoa’s Stellar World, one for each of the letters of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math), with the final installment coming out this fall. “Education is what allows you to stand out,” she says. “We need the best and brightest from all backgrounds to work together” to break through the challenges of space exploration and beyond. Ochoa’s many awards include NASA’s Distinguished Service Medal and Exceptional Service Medal, and she has been inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame. In May 2024, President Joe Biden honored her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

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spinner image Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor smiling while she sits in a chair
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Sonia Sotomayor

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice

Born in the Bronx to Puerto Rican parents, Sotomayor made history in 2009 as the first Hispanic and only the third woman to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. When asked during her confirmation hearings to define her judicial philosophy, she simply replied, “Fidelity to the law.” Known as fearless and persuasive, Sotomayor decided on a law career at age 10 after watching the TV series Perry Mason, eventually getting her Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School in 1979. Before her nomination to the Supreme Court — an event she called “electrifying” — she excelled both as a prosecutor and in private practice before becoming a U.S. District Court judge. An avid Yankees fan, she became known as the judge who saved Major League Baseball after her 1995 ruling ending a bitter dispute between MLB owners and players. As a Supreme Court justice, Sotomayor has supported affirmative action programs, the Affordable Care Act and the Obergefell v. Hodges decision that legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states. In her 2013 memoir, My Beloved World, she writes of the power of believing in oneself, and of America’s infinite possibilities.

spinner image Gustavo Dudamel conducting an orchestra during a performance
Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty Images; Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images; Getty Images

Gustavo Dudamel

Orchestra Conductor

With characteristic passion, this multiple Grammy winner serves as director of both his native Venezuela’s Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which he’s led since 2009. In 2026, Dudamel will assume the position of music and artistic director of the New York Philharmonic, the first Latino to head the orchestra since its founding in 1842. Fascinated by Beethoven’s deafness, in 2022 he staged a production of the composer’s only opera, Fidelio, featuring signing actors from the Deaf West Theatre company and the Venezuelan deaf White Hands Choir. He reprised the production in 2024 with performances in Los Angeles, London, Paris and Barcelona, which inspired him to team with his wife, Spanish actress María Valverde, to produce Song of the Hands, a documentary showing the Venezuelan deaf choir preparing to perform Fidelio. With his wife, he also cochairs the Dudamel Foundation, which aims to expand access to music and the arts for young people. His legacy in L.A. includes the creation in 2007 of YOLA, Youth Orchestra Los Angeles, which provides 1,500 young people with free instruments and intensive music instruction and was inspired by his own experience in Venezuela’s immersive musical training program, El Sistema.

spinner image Oscar De La Hoya boxing against an opponent in a boxing match
Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival; Focus on Sport/Getty Images; Getty Images

Oscar De La Hoya

Boxing Champ

Known as the “golden boy” since his 1992 Olympic gold win, he has followed in the tradition of his father and grandfather, both Mexican boxers, earning 10 World Champion titles in six weight divisions and becoming one of the top earners in boxing history. After retiring from active boxing in 2009, he remains a powerful presence in the sport through his company, Golden Boy Promotions. Elected to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2014, De La Hoya is also an active philanthropist through the Oscar De La Hoya Foundation, which he established in 1995 to serve underprivileged families in East Los Angeles, his native city. The foundation funds the Cecilia Gonzalez De La Hoya Cancer Center, created in memory of his mother, who died from breast cancer, as well as a labor and delivery center, a neonatal intensive care unit, a charter high school and a youth boxing program. Despite his phenomenal success, De La Hoya has struggled with inner turmoil, anger and drug and alcohol addiction throughout his life, a struggle he narrates in the 2023 HBO documentary The Golden Boy. But he remains grounded and grateful: “Boxing changed my life and gave my kids a better life,” he told AARP. “It also instilled in me the values that I teach my kids: the hard work, discipline and dedication required to become a world champion.”

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