U.S. Latinos have made important contributions to American society, and this biographical dictionary is devoted to celebrating those contributions. All 127 men and women profiled in this work have immigrated to or been born in the United States and have made major contributions to American life and culture. Cuban Americans, Puerto Ricans, Mexican Americans, and others of Spanish, South American, Central American and Caribbean heritage--more than one-third of them women--represent 35 fields of endeavor and all 50 states. From historical figures to the newest sports champion, figure-skater Rudy Galindo, this work provides profiles of both prominent and important but less-familiar people who have made significant contributions in their fields. Many of those profiled can be found in no other biographical source. A selection of photos complements the text.

All biographies have been written by experts in their ethnic fields. Those profiled range widely from distinguished scientists to sports stars, from actors to activists, from businesswomen to political personalities, from literary luminaries to labor organizers. All are potential role models for young men and women, and many have overcome extreme odds to succeed. These colorfully written, substantive biographies detail their subjects' goals, struggles, and commitments to success and to their ethnic communities. Among the 127 people profiled are: Nobel Prize-winning scientist Luis Alvarez; Treasurer of the United States Romana Acosta Banuelos; actor/composer/activist Ruben Blades; classical dancer Fernando Bujones; baseball player Jose Canseco; U.S. Secretary of Education Lauro Cavazos Jr.; writer Sandra Cisneros; fashion designer Oscar de la Renta; U.S. Congressman Lincoln DIaz-Balart; teacher Jaime Escalante; composer/singer Gloria Estefan; tennis players Gigi Fernandez and Mary Joe Fernandez; playwright Mara Fornes; U.S. Men's 1996 Figure Skating Champion Rudy Galindo; physician/political activist Hector GarcIa; Coca-Cola CEO Roberto Goizueta; labor leader Dolores Huerta; U.S. Ambassador MarIa-Luci Jaramillo; artist Marisol; civil-rights activist Vilma Socorro MartInez; businessman/politician Jorge Mas Canosa; federal judge Harold Medina; graphic artist Nicholasa Mohr; U.S. Surgeon General Antonia Novello; astronaut Ellen Ochoa; Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Severo Ochoa; TV personality Geraldo Rivera; U.S. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen; educational psychologist George I. Sanchez; newspaper editor Roberto Suarez; women's rights activist/businesswoman MarIa Elena Torano-PantIn; New York State Supreme Court Judge Edwin Torres; mystic Teresa Urrea; film producer/director Luis Valdez. For ease of use, the heading of each profile identifies ethnic group, field of endeavor, birthdate and, where appropriate, death date. Each profile concludes with a suggested reading list of books and periodical articles about the subject. An ethnic index, field of endeavor index, and a general index make research easy. This much needed reference work is essential for school and public libraries."

Ethnic Community Builders: Mexican-Americans in Search of Justice and Power is an oral history of Mexican-American activism in San JosZ, California, over the last half century. The authors present interviews of 14 people of various stripes-teachers, politicians, radio personalities-who have been influential in the development of a major urban center with a significant ethnic population. These activists tell the stories of their lives and work with engaging openness and honesty, allowing readers to witness their successes and failures. This vivid ethnography of a Mexican-American community serves as a model for activism wherever ethnic groups seek change and justice.

Ethnic Community Builders: Mexican-Americans in Search of Justice and Power is an oral history of Mexican-American activism in San Jose, California, over the last half century. The authors present interviews of 14 people of various stripes teachers, politicians, radio personalities who have been influential in the development of a major urban center with a significant ethnic population. These activists tell the stories of their lives and work with engaging openness and honesty, allowing readers to witness their successes and failures. This vivid ethnography of a Mexican-American community serves as a model for activism wherever ethnic groups seek change and justice.

"Griswold del Castillo and Garcia have written a biography of Chavez, but it is also a history of the Mexican American labor movement and the Mexican American struggle for civil rights.... T]his is a fine book."--- Choice " D]eserves to be read not only by persons studying the Mexican American experience but also by those interested in labor studies, U.S.-Mexican relations, and U.S. civilization in the 1960s and 1970s, including politics and society."--- Western Historical Quarterly "Intended for scholars and general readers alike, the fascinating life story reads like a novel.... T]his sorely needed biography updates all the others."--- Multicultural Review When farm worker and labor organizer Cesar Chavez burst upon America's national scene in 1965, U.S. readers and viewers were witnessing the emergence of a new Mexican American, or Chicano, movement. This biography of Chavez by Richard Griswold del Castillo and Richard A. Garcia is the first to approach Chavez's life-his courageous acts, his turning points, his many perceived personas-in the context of Chicano and American history. It reveals a shy, quiet man who was launched by events into a maelstrom of campesino strikes, religious fervor, and nonviolent battles for justice. Among his friends and supporters he counted Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, and millions across America who rallied to his cause. In Griswold del Castillo and Garcia's biography, Chavez's life mirrors major events in Mexican American history: Mexican immigration during the 1920s; forced repatriation in the 1930s; segregation in public schools; Mexican American contributions during World War II; the Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles; formation of Mexican American organizations to advance civil and political rights; the Chicano movement of the 1960s and early 1970s; the emergence of a conservative political backlash in the 1980s; and, finally, the "new immigration" in the 1990s. Cesar Chavez was touched by all these events, and his story is both private and part of a collective experience. Ultimately the authors see Chavez's significance as moral. In an age notable for its confusion about-if not lack of moral values, Cesar Chavez stands as proof that America still has people of rare courage and conviction who devote their lives to a righteous cause, to self sacrifice and nonviolent struggle against overwhelming odds. Chavez consistently respected all ethnic and religious groups, rejected materialism, and, above all, fought for justice. Griswold del Castillo and Garcia's biography tells the inspiring story of a man who lived a simple life and preached a simple guiding dictum: Si Se Puede-Yes, it can be done. Richard Griswold del Castillo was born and raised in Santa Ana California; his father was born in Minneapolis Minnesota and his mother was born in Mexico City, Mexico. He graduated from Santa Ana High school in 1960, went on study at UC Berkeley and the University of Dijon, France before receiving his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from UCLA . In 1992 he was a Fulbright Scholar in Mexico City, he was a visiting professor at UC Berkeley in 1994, and he became Professor Emeritus at San Diego State University in 2005. Richard A. Garcia, Professor of Ethnic Studies at California State University-Hayward, is the author of The Rise of the Mexican American Middle Class: San Antonio, 1929-1941.

San Antonio, Texas, lies geographically and culturally at the crossroads of Mexico, Texas, and the larger United States. During the Great Depression it lay also at the crossroads of these cultures' myths, memories, and identities. Between 1929 and 1941, in this city's West Side barrio, a generation of Mexican immigrants developed into a new middle class and forged an identity that has shaped Southwestern experience since then: the identity of the Mexican American.
Richard Garcia presents an innovative study of the tension between change and continuity in thought, culture, and community that characterized this transformation. His analysis focuses on both the conservative Mexican-exile ricos, who promoted a perspective of "Lo Mexicano" and a return to la patria, and the rising Mexican American middle class, who sought a life of Americanism that stressed social integration, education, political rights and power, and economic betterment for both individuals and the ethnic community. Members of this middle class wanted to be Americans politically while remaining Mexicans culturally.
Garcia's argument is the first to link the ethnic identity of the Mexican American generation to the rise of the middle class within the immigrant community. He also takes into account the Mexican community's structural relationship to the city, the process of class differentiation within the barrio, and the role of family, church, education, and politics. Through the microcosm of San Antonio, this pioneering study explores the process of changing consciousness that was occurring throughout the United States during this important period.