Hispanic and Latino Americans

Sunday, 30 December 2012

The Best Chikano/hispanic and Latin Crime Movies

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Alabama
Alabama (ⁱ/ˌæləˈbæmə/) is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama is the 30th-most extensive and the 23rd-most populous of the 50 United States. Alabama ranks second in the area of its inland waterways.
From the American Civil War until World War II, Alabama, like many Southern states, suffered economic hardship, in part because of continued dependence on agriculture. Despite the growth of major industries and urban centers, white rural interests dominated the state legislature until the 1960s, while urban interests and African Americans were under-represented. Following World War II, Alabama experienced growth as the economy of the state transitioned from agriculture to diversified interests in heavy manufacturing, mineral extraction, education, and technology. In addition, the establishment or expansion of multiple military installations, primarily those of the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force, added to state jobs.

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Alaska
Alaska (ⁱ/əˈlæskə/) is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait. Alaska is the 4th least populous and the least densely populated of the 50 United States. Approximately half of Alaska's 722,718 residents live within the Anchorage metropolitan area.
Alaska was purchased from Russia on March 30, 1867, for $7.2 million ($120 million in today's^[when?] dollars) at approximately two cents per acre ($4.74/km²). The land went through several administrative changes before becoming an organized (or incorporated) territory on May 11, 1912, and the 49th state of the U.S. on January 3, 1959.
The name "Alaska" (Аляска) was already introduced in the Russian colonial period, when it was used only for the peninsula and is derived from the Aleut alaxsxaq, meaning "the mainland" or, more literally, "the object towards which the action of the sea is directed". It is also known as Alyeska, the "great land", an Aleut word derived from the same root.

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American Samoa
American Samoa (/əˈmɛrɨkən səˈmoʊ.ə/ ( listen); Samoan: Amerika Sāmoa, IPA: [aˈmɛɾika ˌsaːˈmoa]; also Amelika Sāmoa or Sāmoa Amelika) is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the Independent State of Samoa (formerly known as Western Samoa). The main (largest and most populous) island is Tutuila, with the Manuʻa Islands, Rose Atoll, and Swains Island also included in the territory.
American Samoa is part of the Samoan Islands chain, located west of the Cook Islands, north of Tonga, and some 300 miles (500 km) south of Tokelau. To the west are the islands of the Wallis and Futuna group.
The 2010 census showed a total population of 55,519 people. The total land area is 76.1 square miles (197.1 km²), slightly more than Washington, D.C. American Samoa is the southernmost territory of the United States.
Contact with Europeans began in the early 18th century. Jacob Roggeveen (1659–1729), a Dutchman, was the first known European to sight the Samoan islands in 1722. This visit was followed by the French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville (1729–1811), who named them the Navigator Islands in 1768. Contact was limited before the 1830s which is when English missionaries and traders began arriving.

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Argentina
Argentina ⁱ/ˌɑrdʒənˈtiːnə/, officially the Argentine Republic (Spanish: República Argentina [reˈpuβlika aɾxenˈtina]), is a country in South America, the continent's second largest by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth-largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations.
Argentina's continental area is between the Andes mountain range in the west and the Atlantic Ocean in the east. It borders Paraguay and Bolivia to the north, Brazil and Uruguay to the northeast, and Chile to the west and south. Argentine claims over Antarctica, as well as overlapping claims made by Chile and the United Kingdom, are suspended by the Antarctic Treaty of 1961. Argentina also claims the Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, which are administered by the United Kingdom as British Overseas Territories.
A recognised middle power, Argentina is Latin America's third-largest economy, with a "very high" rating on the Human development index. Within Latin America, Argentina has the fifth highest nominal GDP per capita and the highest in purchasing power terms. Analysts have argued that the country has a "foundation for future growth due to its market size, levels of foreign direct investment, and percentage of high-tech exports as share of total manufactured goods", and it is classed by investors as middle emerging economy. Argentina is a founding member of the United Nations, Mercosur, the Union of South American Nations, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the World Bank Group and the World Trade Organization, and is one of the G-15 and G-20 major economies.

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Arizona
Arizona (ⁱ/ɛrɪˈzoʊnə/; /ærɪˈzoʊnə/) (Navajo: Hoozdo Hahoodzo; O'odham: Alĭ ṣonak) is a state of the United States, located in the southwestern region of the country. Arizona is also part of the Western United States and of the Mountain West states. Arizona is the sixth most extensive and the 16th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. The second largest city is Tucson, followed in population by eight cities of the Phoenix metropolitan area: Mesa, Chandler, Glendale, Scottsdale, Gilbert, Tempe, Peoria, and Surprise.
Arizona is the 48th state and last of the contiguous states to be admitted to the Union, and it achieved statehood on February 14, 1912. Arizona is noted for its desert climate in its southern half, where there are very hot summers and quite mild winters. The northern half of Arizona also features forests of pine, Douglas fir, and spruce trees, a very large, high plateau (the Colorado Plateau) and some mountain ranges—such as the San Francisco Mountains—as well as large, deep canyons, where there is much more moderate weather for three seasons of the year, plus significant snowfalls. There are ski resorts in the areas of Flagstaff and Alpine.

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Arkansas
Arkansas (ⁱ/ˈɑrkənsɔː/ AR-kən-saw) is a state located in the Southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states (N: Missouri; E: Tennessee, Mississippi; S: Louisiana; SW: Texas; W: Oklahoma), and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River. Its diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the Ozarks and the Ouachita Mountains, which make up the U.S. Interior Highlands, to the eastern lowlands along the Mississippi River. Arkansas is the 29th most extensive and the 32nd most populous of the 50 United States. The capital and most populous city is Little Rock, located in the central portion of the state.
The name “Arkansas” derives from the same root as the name for the state of Kansas. The Kansa tribe of Native Americans are closely associated with the Sioux tribes of the Great Plains. The word “Arkansas” itself is a French pronunciation (“Arcansas”) of a Quapaw (a related “Kaw” tribe) word, akakaze, meaning “land of downriver people” or the Sioux word akakaze meaning “people of the south wind”. The pronunciation of Arkansas was made official by an act of the state legislature in 1881, after a dispute between two U.S. Senators from Arkansas. One wanted to pronounce the name /ɑrˈkænzəs/ ar-KAN-zəs and the other wanted /ˈɑrkənsɔː/ AR-kən-saw.

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Battle of Gettysburg
The Battle of Gettysburg (local ⁱ/ˈɡɛtɨsbɜrɡ/, with an /s/ sound), was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War, it is often described as the war's turning point.Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, ending Lee's invasion of the North.
After his success at Chancellorsville in Virginia in May 1863, Lee led his army through the Shenandoah Valley to begin his second invasion of the North—the Gettysburg Campaign. With his army in high spirits, Lee intended to shift the focus of the summer campaign from war-ravaged northern Virginia and hoped to influence Northern politicians to give up their prosecution of the war by penetrating as far as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, or even Philadelphia. Prodded by President Abraham Lincoln, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker moved his army in pursuit, but was relieved just three days before the battle and replaced by Meade.

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Battle of Saipan
The Battle of Saipan was a battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II, fought on the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands from 15 June – 9 July 1944. The Allied invasion fleet embarking the expeditionary forces left Pearl Harbor on 5 June 1944, the day before Operation Overlord in Europe was launched. The U.S. 2nd Marine Division, 4th Marine Division, and 27th Infantry Division, commanded by Lieutenant General Holland Smith, defeated the 43rd Division of the Imperial Japanese Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Yoshitsugu Saito.
In the campaigns of 1943 and the first half of 1944, the Allies had captured the Solomon Islands, the Gilbert Islands, the Marshall Islands and the Papuan peninsula of New Guinea. This left the Japanese holding the Philippines, the Caroline Islands, Palau Islands and Mariana Islands.
It had always been the intention of the American planners to bypass the Carolines and Palaus and to seize the Marianas and Taiwan. From these latter bases communications between the Japanese homeland and Japanese forces to the south and west could be cut. In addition, from the Marianas Japan would be well within the range of an air offensive relying on the new B-29 Superfortress long-range bomber with its operational radius of 1,500 mi (2,400 km).

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Battle of Wyse Fork
The Battle of Wyse Fork was a battle fought in the Carolinas Campaign of the American Civil War, resulting in a Union Army victory.
At the end of February 1865 the port city of Wilmington had fallen to Union troops under the command of Maj. Gen. John M. Schofield. Schofield was then to move his forces inland from the coast and join with Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's forces at Goldsboro, North Carolina, where three Union armies would move against a Confederate army being gathered under Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston. Schofield, with the units from Alfred Terry's Expeditionary Corps, moved north from Wilmington, while Maj. Gen. Jacob D. Cox took his XXIII Corps division and sailed up the coast and landed at New Bern, North Carolina.
At New Bern, the Union forces were increased to three divisions and formed into a Provisional Corps with Cox in command. Moving towards Goldsboro, the Union forces repaired the railroad which was to function as a supply route for Sherman's Army Group. Johnston's army was too far away to move against Schofield's divided forces, but General Braxton Bragg's forces, falling back from Wilmington, were within striking distance. Bragg moved against Cox near Kinston.

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Bolivia
Coordinates: 16°42′43″S 64°39′58″W / 16.712°S 64.666°W / -16.712; -64.666 Bolivia (ⁱ/bəˈlɪviə/, Spanish: [boliˈβja]) officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia (Spanish: Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia, Quechua: Bulivya Mamallaqta, Aymara: Wuliwya Suyu), is a landlocked country in central South America. It is bordered by Brazil to the north and east, Paraguay and Argentina to the south, Chile to the southwest, and Peru to the west.
Prior to European colonization, the Andean region of Bolivia was a part of the Inca Empire – the largest state in Pre-Columbian America. The Spanish Empire conquered the region in the 16th century. During most of the Spanish colonial period, this territory was called Upper Peru and was under the administration of the Viceroyalty of Peru, which included most of Spain's South American colonies. After declaring independence in 1809, 16 years of war followed before the establishment of the Republic, named for Simón Bolívar, on 6 August 1825. Bolivia has struggled through periods of political instability, dictatorships and economic woes.

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California
California (pronounced ⁱ/kælɨˈfɔrnjə/) is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third most extensive (after Alaska and Texas). It is home to the nation's second- and sixth-largest census statistical areas (Los Angeles Metropolitan Area and San Francisco Bay Area), and eight of the nation's fifty most populated cities (Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento, Long Beach and Oakland). The capital city is Sacramento.
California's diverse geography ranges from the Pacific Coast in the west, to the Sierra Nevada mountains in the east – from the Redwood–Douglas-fir forests of the northwest, to the Mojave Desert areas in the southeast. The center of the state is dominated by Central Valley, a major agricultural area. California contains both the highest and lowest points in the contiguous United States (Mount Whitney and Death Valley), and has the third-longest coastline of all states (after Alaska and Florida). Earthquakes are a common occurrence due to the state's location along the Pacific Ring of Fire: about 37,000 are recorded annually.

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Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (English /kəˈnɛəri ˈaɪləndz/; Spanish: Islas Canarias [ˈizlas kaˈnaɾjas, ˈihlah kaˈnaɾjas]), also known as the Canaries (Spanish: Canarias), is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union. The islands include (from largest to smallest): Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera, El Hierro, La Graciosa, Alegranza, Isla de Lobos, Montaña Clara, Roque del Este and Roque del Oeste. The Canary Islands are legally recognized as a nationality of Spain. Geographically it is a part of the African Continent.^{[citation needed]}
The archipelago's beaches, climate and important natural attractions, especially Teide National Park and Mount Teide (the third tallest volcano in the world measured from its base on the ocean floor), make it a major tourist destination, with over 12 million visitors per year, especially Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote. The islands have a subtropical climate, with long warm summers and moderately warm winters. Due to their location above the temperature inversion layer, these islands are ideal for astronomical observation. For this reason, two professional observatories, Teide Observatory on the island of Tenerife and Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma, have been built on the islands.

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Chile
Chile (ⁱ/ˈtʃɪliː/ or /ˈtʃɪleɪ/), officially the Republic of Chile (Spanish: República de Chile [reˈpuβlika ðe ˈtʃile] ( listen)), is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow strip of land between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far south. Along with Ecuador, it is one of two countries in South America that do not border Brazil. Chilean territory includes the Pacific islands of Juan Fernández, Salas y Gómez, Desventuradas and Easter Island. Chile also claims about 1,250,000 square kilometres (480,000 sq mi) of Antarctica, although all claims are suspended under the Antarctic Treaty.
Chile's distinctive shape—4,300 kilometres (2,700 mi) long and on average 175 kilometres (109 mi) wide—makes it the longest country in the world, north to south, with the fifth lengthiest coastline at over 78 thousand kilometers. The diverse climate of Chile ranges from the world's driest desert in the north—the Atacama—through a Mediterranean climate in the centre, humid subtropical in Easter Island, to an Oceanic climate, including alpine tundra and glaciers in the east and south. The northern desert contains great mineral wealth, principally copper. The relatively small central area dominates in terms of population and agricultural resources, and is the cultural and political center from which Chile expanded in the late 19th century when it incorporated its northern and southern regions. Southern Chile is rich in forests and grazing lands, and features a string of volcanoes and lakes. The southern coast is a labyrinth of fjords, inlets, canals, twisting peninsulas, and islands.

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Colombia
Colombia ( /kəˈlʌmbiə/ kə-LUM-biə, or /kəˈlɒmbiə/ kə-LOM-biə), officially the Republic of Colombia (Spanish: República de Colombia [reˈpuβlika ðe koˈlombja]), is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the northwest by Panama; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; and to the west by the Pacific Ocean. Colombia has maritime borders with Ecuador, Panama, Venezuela, Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Colombia is the 26th largest country by area and the fourth largest in South America after Brazil, Argentina and Peru. With over 46 million people, Colombia is the 27th largest country in the world by population and has the second largest population of any Spanish-speaking country in the world, after Mexico. Colombia is a middle power, with the fourth largest economy in Latin America, and the third largest in South America. Colombia is famous for the production of coffee, flowers, emeralds, coal, and oil. All of these products make up the primary sector of economy.

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Colorado
Colorado (ⁱ/kɒləˈrædoʊ/ or /kɒləˈrɒdoʊ/) is the US state that encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains. Colorado is part of the Western United States, the Southwestern United States, and the Mountain States. Colorado is the 8th most extensive and the 22nd most populous of the 50 United States. The United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of Colorado was 5,116,796 on July 1, 2011, an increase of +1.74% since the 2010 United States Census.
The state was named for the Colorado River, which early Spanish explorers named the Río Colorado for the red colored (Spanish: colorado) silt the river carried from the mountains. On August 1, 1876, U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signed a proclamation admitting Colorado as the 38th state. Colorado is nicknamed the "Centennial State" because it was admitted to the Union in 1876, the centennial year of the United States Declaration of Independence.

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Connecticut
Connecticut (ⁱ/kəˈnɛtɨkət/) is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south (with which it shares a water boundary in Long Island Sound).
Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately bisects the state. Its capital city is Hartford. Much of southern and western Connecticut (along with the majority of the state's population) is part of the New York metropolitan area; three of Connecticut's eight counties are statistically included in the New York City combined statistical area, the same area is widely referred to as the Tri-State area. Connecticut's center of population is in Cheshire, New Haven County, which is also located within the Tri-State area.
Connecticut is the 3rd least extensive, the 29th most populous, and 4th most densely populated of the 50 United States. Called the Constitution State, Nutmeg State, and "The Land of Steady Habits", Connecticut was influential in the development of the federal government of the United States.

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Connecticut College
Coordinates: 41°22′42.36″N 72°06′16.81″W / 41.3784333°N 72.1046694°W / 41.3784333; -72.1046694
Connecticut College (Conn College or Conn) is a private liberal arts college located in New London, Connecticut.
The college was founded in 1911, as Connecticut College for Women, in response to Wesleyan University closing its doors to women (the college changed its name to Connecticut College in 1969 when it began admitting men). The campus is located on the Thames River, overlooking the Long Island Sound on the highest point in New London. It is a member of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC), and is considered to be among the group of colleges called the "Little Ivies." Forbes ranked Connecticut College 62 in its America's Best Colleges list in 2011 and U.S. News and World Report ranked the school 37th among the top liberal arts colleges in 2011.
Known for its interdisciplinary academic centers, Connecticut College is in the midst of a major fundraising and building campaign. Over the past several years the college has renovated many of its older dormitories, completed numerous classroom renovations, and constructed a new fitness center. The college is in the final planning stages of a new life science and computer science center, an international commons, and is continuing to renovate the remainder of its older dormitories and classroom spaces.

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Costa Rica
Costa Rica is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and the Caribbean Sea to the east.
Costa Rica, which means "Rich Coast", constitutionally abolished its army permanently in 1949. It is the only Latin American country included in the list of the world's 22 older democracies. Costa Rica has consistently been among the top Latin American countries in the Human Development Index (HDI), ranked 69th in the world in 2011. Also was cited by the UNDP in 2010 as one of the countries that have attained much higher human development than other countries at the same income levels, and in 2011 was highlighted by UNDP for being a good performer on environmental sustainability, and better record on human development and inequality than the median of their region. It was also the only country to meet all five criteria established to measure environmental sustainability. The country is ranked fifth in the world, and first among the Americas, in terms of the 2012 Environmental Performance Index.

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Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, (ⁱ/ˈkjuːbə/; Spanish: República de Cuba, pronounced: [reˈpuβlika ðe ˈkuβa] ( listen)) is an island country in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. To the north of Cuba lies the United States (140 km or 90 mi away) and the Bahamas, Mexico is to the west, the Cayman Islands and Jamaica are to the south, and Haiti and the Dominican Republic are to the southeast.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus landed on and claimed the island now occupied by Cuba, for the Kingdom of Spain. Cuba remained a territory of Spain until the Spanish–American War ended in 1898, and gained formal independence from the U.S. in 1902. A fragile democracy, increasingly dominated by radical politics eventually evolved, solidified by the Cuban Constitution of 1940, but was definitely quashed in 1952 by former president Fulgencio Batista, and an authoritarian regime was set up, intensifying and catalyzing already rampant corruption, political repression and crippling economic regulations.Batista was ousted in January 1959 by the July 26 movement, and a new administration under Fidel Castro established, which had by 1965 evolved into a single-party state under the revived Communist Party of Cuba, which holds power to date.

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Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis, – known as the October Crisis in Cuba and the Caribbean Crisis (Russian: Kарибский кризис) in the USSR – was a thirteen-day confrontation between the Soviet Union and Cuba on one side and the United States on the other; the crisis occurred in October 1962, during the Cold War. In August 1962, after some unsuccessful operations by the US to overthrow the Cuban regime (Bay of Pigs, Operation Mongoose), the Cuban and Soviet governments secretly began to build bases in Cuba for a number of medium-range and intermediate-range ballistic nuclear missiles (MRBMs and IRBMs) with the ability to strike most of the continental United States. This action followed the 1958 deployment of Thor IRBMs in the UK (Project Emily) and Jupiter IRBMs to Italy and Turkey in 1961 – more than 100 US-built missiles having the capability to strike Moscow with nuclear warheads. On October 14, 1962, a United States Air Force U-2 plane on a photoreconnaissance mission captured photographic proof of Soviet missile bases under construction in Cuba.

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Delaware
Delaware (ⁱ/ˈdɛləwɛər/ DEL-ə-wair) is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, to the northeast by New Jersey, and to the north by Pennsylvania. The state takes its name from Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, an English nobleman and Virginia's first colonial governor, after whom what is now called Cape Henlopen was originally named.
Delaware is located in the northeastern portion of the Delmarva Peninsula and is the second least extensive, the sixth least populous, but the sixth most densely populated of the 50 United States. Delaware is divided into three counties. From north to south, these three counties are New Castle, Kent, and Sussex. While the southern two counties have historically been predominantly agricultural, New Castle County has been more industrialized.
The history of the state's economic and industrial development is closely tied to the impact of the Du Pont family, founders and scions of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, one of the world’s largest chemical companies.

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Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic (ⁱ/dəˌmɪnɨkən rɨˈpʌblɪk/; Spanish: República Dominicana [reˈpuβlika ðominiˈkana]) is a nation on the island of Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries. Both by area and population, the Dominican Republic is the second largest Caribbean nation (after Cuba), with 48,442 square kilometres (18,704 sq mi) and an estimated 10 million people.
Taínos inhabited what is now the Dominican Republic since the 7th century. Christopher Columbus landed on it in 1492, and it became the site of the first permanent European settlement in the Americas, namely Santo Domingo, the country's capital and Spain's first capital in the New World. Santo Domingo can boast of many firsts in the Americas, including the first cathedral, and castle, both in the Ciudad Colonial area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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Ecuador
Ecuador (ⁱ/ˈɛkwədɔr/ E-kwə-dawr), officially the Republic of Ecuador (Spanish: República del Ecuador [reˈpuβlika ðel ekwaˈðor], which literally translates to the "Republic of the Equator") is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, (along with Chile), that do not have a border with Brazil. The country also includes the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific, about 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) west of the mainland.
The main spoken language in Ecuador is Spanish. Ecuador straddles the equator, from which it takes its name, and has an area of 275,830 km² (106,500 sq mi). Its capital city is Quito, which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in the 1970s for having the best preserved and least altered historic center in Latin America. The country's largest city is Guayaquil. The historic center of Cuenca, the third largest city in the country, was also declared a World Heritage Site in 1999, for being an outstanding example of a planned inland Spanish style colonial city in the Americas. Ecuador is also home—despite its size—to a great variety of species, many of them endemic, like those of the Galápagos islands. This species diversity makes Ecuador one of the 17 megadiverse countries in the world. The new constitution of 2008 is the first in the world to recognize legally enforceable Rights of Nature, or ecosystem rights.

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El Salvador
El Salvador ⁱ/ɛl ˈsælvədɔr/ (Spanish: República de El Salvador, literally 'Republic of The Savior') is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country as well as Central America. El Salvador borders the Pacific Ocean on the west, and the countries of Guatemala to the north and Honduras to the east. Its easternmost region lies on the coast of the Gulf of Fonseca, opposite Nicaragua. As of 2009, El Salvador had a population of approximately 5,744,113 people, composed predominantly of Mestizos.
The colón was the official currency of El Salvador from 1892 to 2001, when it adopted the U.S. Dollar.
In 2010 El Salvador ranked in the top 10 among Latin American countries in terms of the Human Development Index and in the top 3 in Central America (behind Costa Rica and Panama), due in part to ongoing rapid industrialization. In addition, tropical forests and overall forest cover has expanded by nearly 20 percent from the year 1992 to 2010. Making it one of the few countries experiencing reforestation.

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Florida
Florida (ⁱ/ˈflɒrɪdə/) is a state in the southeastern United States, bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. Florida is the 22nd most extensive, the 4th most populous, and the 8th most densely populated of the 50 United States. The state capital is Tallahassee, its largest city is Jacksonville, and the South Florida metropolitan area is the largest metropolitan area in the southeastern U.S.
Much of Florida is situated on a peninsula between the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Straits of Florida. Its geography is marked by a coastline, by the omnipresence of water and the threat of hurricanes. Florida has the longest coastline in the contiguous United States, encompassing approximately 1,350 miles (2,170 km), and is the only state to border both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Much of the state is at or near sea level and its terrain is characterized by sedimentary soils. The climate varies from subtropical in the north to tropical in the south. Its symbolic animals like the American alligator, Florida panther and the manatee, can be found in the Everglades, one of the most famous national parks in the world.

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Fordham University
Fordham University is a private, nonprofit, coeducational research university in the United States, with three campuses in and around New York City. It was founded by the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York in 1841 as St. John's College, placed in the care of the Society of Jesus shortly thereafter, and has since become an independent institution under a lay Board of Trustees, which describes the University as "in the Jesuit tradition."
Fordham is composed of four undergraduate colleges and six graduate schools. Enrollment at Fordham includes approximately 8,000 undergraduate and 7,000 graduate students spread over three campuses in New York State: Rose Hill in the Bronx, Lincoln Center in Manhattan, and Westchester in West Harrison. In addition, the University operates a foreign center in London Fordham awards bachelor's (BA, BFA, and BS), master's, and doctoral degrees. It also offers a five-year BA/BS engineering program in cooperation with Columbia University and Case Western Reserve University and a BFA program in dance in partnership with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

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Guam
Guam (ⁱ/ˈɡwɑːm/; Chamorro: Guåhån) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of sixteen Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United Nations. The island's capital is Hagåtña (formerly Agaña). Guam is the largest and southernmost of the Mariana Islands.
The Chamorros, Guam's indigenous people, first populated the island approximately 4,000 years ago. The island has a long history of European colonialism. Discovered by Ferdinand Magellan during a Spanish expedition on March 6, 1521, the first colony was established in 1668 by Spain with the arrival of settlers including Padre San Vitores, a Catholic missionary. For more than two centuries Guam was an important stopover for the Spanish Manila Galleons that crossed the Pacific annually. The island was controlled by Spain until 1898, when it was surrendered to the United States during the Spanish-American War and later formally ceded as part of the Treaty of Paris.

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Guatemala
Guatemala (ⁱ/ˌɡwɑːtəˈmɑːlə/ GWAH-tə-MAH-lə), officially the Republic of Guatemala (Spanish: República de Guatemala [reˈpuβlika ðe ɣwateˈmala]), is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast. Its area is 108,890 km² (42,043 mi²) with an estimated population of 13,276,517.
A representative democracy, its capital is Guatemala de la Asunción, also known as Guatemala City. Guatemala's abundance of biologically significant and unique ecosystems contributes to Mesoamerica's designation as a biodiversity hotspot. The former Mayan civilization was a Mesoamerican civilization, which continued throughout the Post-Classic period until the arrival of the Spanish. The Mayas live in Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, the southern part of Mexico and northern parts of El Salvador.
Guatemala became independent from Spain in 1821, joining the Mexican Empire. After it became an independent country in its own right, it was ruled by a series of dictators, assisted by the United Fruit Company. The late 20th century saw Guatemala embroiled in a 36-year-long civil war. Following the war, Guatemala has witnessed both economic growth and successful democratic elections. In the most recent election, held in 2011, Otto Pérez Molina of the Patriotic Party, won the presidency.

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Hawaii
Coordinates: 21°18′41″N 157°47′47″W / 21.31139°N 157.79639°W / 21.31139; -157.79639
Hawaii (ⁱ/həˈwaɪ.iː/ or /həˈwaɪʔiː/; Hawaiian: Hawaiʻi Hawaiian pronunciation: [hɐˈvɐiʔi]) is the most recent of the 50 U.S. states (August 21, 1959), and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean.
Hawaii’s diverse natural scenery, warm tropical climate, abundance of public beaches and oceanic surrounding, and active volcanoes make it a popular destination for tourists, surfers, biologists, and volcanologists alike. Due to its mid-Pacific location, Hawaii has many North American and Asian influences along with its own vibrant native culture. Hawaii has over a million permanent residents along with many visitors and U.S. military personnel. Its capital is Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu.
The state encompasses nearly the entire volcanic Hawaiian Island chain, which comprises hundreds of islands spread over 1,500 miles (2,400 km). At the southeastern end of the archipelago, the eight "main islands" are (from the northwest to southeast) Niʻihau, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Maui, and the island of Hawaiʻi. The last is by far the largest and is often called "The Big Island" to avoid confusion with the state as a whole. The archipelago is physiographically and ethnologically part of the Polynesian subregion of Oceania.

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Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was at times referred to as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize. The country is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, and to the north by the Gulf of Honduras, a large inlet of the Caribbean Sea.
Honduras was home to several important indigenous cultures, most notably the Maya. Much of the country was conquered by Spain who introduced its predominant language and many of its customs in the sixteenth century. It became independent in 1821 and has been a republic since the end of Spanish rule.
Its size is just over 112,492 km² with an estimated population of almost eight million. Its capital is Tegucigalpa. Its northern portions are part of the Western Caribbean Zone.
It is notable for its production of minerals, tropical fruit, and recently for exportation of clothing for the international market.

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Idaho
Idaho (ⁱ/ˈaɪdəhoʊ/) is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. Idaho is the 14th most expansive, the 39th most populous, and the 7th least densely populated of the 50 United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state.
Idaho is a mountainous state with an area larger than that of all of New England. It is landlocked, surrounded by the states of Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Montana and the Canadian province of British Columbia. However, the network of dams and locks on the Columbia River and Snake River make the city of Lewiston the farthest inland seaport on the Pacific coast of the contiguous United States.
Idaho's nickname is the Gem State, because nearly every known type of gemstone has been found there. In addition, Idaho is one of only two places in the world where star garnets can be found (the other is the Himalaya Mountains, in India)^{[citation needed]}, and is the only place six-pointed star garnets have been found^{[citation needed]}. Additionally Idaho is sometimes called the Potato State owing to its popular crop. The state motto is Esto Perpetua (Latin for "Let it be forever").

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Illinois
Illinois (ⁱ/ˌɪlɨˈnɔɪ/ IL-i-NOY) is the 25th most extensive and the 5th most populous of the 50 United States, and is often noted as a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal, timber, and petroleum in the south, Illinois has a broad economic base. Illinois is a major transportation hub. The Port of Chicago connects the state to other global ports from the Great Lakes, via the Saint Lawrence Seaway, to the Atlantic Ocean; as well as the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River, via the Illinois River. For decades, O'Hare International Airport has ranked as one of the world's busiest airports. Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and politics.
Although the state's largest population centers today are in northern Illinois, originally the state's population grew from south to north, with settlers arriving from Kentucky in the 1810s. In 1818, Illinois achieved statehood. Chicago was founded in the 1830s on the banks of the Chicago River, one of the few natural harbors on southern Lake Michigan. Railroads and John Deere's invention of the self-scouring steel plow turned Illinois' rich prairie into some of the world's most productive and valuable farmlands, attracting immigrant farmers from Germany and Sweden. By 1900, the growth of industrial jobs in the northern cities and coal mining in the central and southern areas attracted immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. Illinois was an important manufacturing center during both world wars. The Great Migration established a large community of African Americans in Chicago that created the city's famous jazz and blues cultures.

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Indiana
Indiana (ⁱ/ɪndiˈænə/) is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the midwestern and Great Lakes regions of North America. Indiana is the 38th largest by area and the 15th most populous of the 50 United States. Indiana is the least extensive state in the continental US west of the Appalachian Mountains. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis, the second largest of any state capital and largest state capital east of the Mississippi River.
Before it became a territory, varying cultures of indigenous peoples and historic Native Americans inhabited Indiana for thousands of years. Angel Mounds State Historic Site, one of the best preserved ancient earthwork mound sites in the United States, can be found in Southwestern Indiana near Evansville. Residents of Indiana are known as Hoosiers. The etymology of the word is disputed, but the leading theory as advanced by the Indiana Historical Bureau and the Indiana Historical Society has "Hoosier" originating from the upland South region of the U.S. as a derogatory slang term for a rough countryman, a country bumpkin.

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Iowa
Iowa (ⁱ/ˈaɪ.əwə/) is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New France. After the Louisiana Purchase, settlers laid the foundation for an agriculture-based economy in the heart of the Corn Belt. Iowa is often known as the "Food Capital of the World".
In the latter half of the 20th century, Iowa's agricultural economy transitioned to a diversified economy of advanced manufacturing, processing, financial services, biotechnology, and green energy production. Iowa is the 26th most extensive and the 30th most populous of the 50 United States. Its capital and largest city is Des Moines. Iowa has been listed as one of the safest states to live in.
Iowa is bordered by the Mississippi River on the east; the Missouri River and the Big Sioux River on the west; the northern boundary is a line along 43 degrees, 30 minutes north latitude. The southern border is the Des Moines River and a not-quite-straight line along approximately 40 degrees 35 minutes north, as decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in Missouri v. Iowa after a standoff between Missouri and Iowa known as the Honey War.

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Iraq
Iraq (/ɪˈræk/ or ⁱ/ɪˈrɑːk/; Arabic: العراق‎ al-‘Irāq); officially the Republic of Iraq (Arabic: جمهورية العراق (help·info) Jumhūriyyat al-‘Irāq), is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.
Iraq borders Syria to the northwest, Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, Jordan to the southwest and Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the south. Iraq has a narrow section of coastline measuring 58 km (36 mi) on the northern Persian Gulf. The capital city, Baghdad is in the center-east of the country.
Two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run through the center of Iraq, flowing from northwest to southeast. These provide Iraq with agriculturally capable land and contrast with the steppe and desert landscape that covers most of Western Asia.
Historically, Iraq was the center of the Abbasid Arabic Islamic Empire. Iraq has been known to the west by the Greek toponym 'Mesopotamia' (Land between the rivers) and has been home to continuous successive civilizations since the 6th millennium BC. The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers is often referred to as the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of writing, law and the wheel. At different periods in its history, Iraq was the center of the indigenous Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Abbasid empires. It was also part of the Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires, and under British control as a League of Nations mandate.

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Kansas
Kansas (ⁱ/ˈkænzəs/) is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name (natively kką:ze) is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south wind," although this was probably not the term's original meaning. Residents of Kansas are called "Kansans."
For thousands of years what is now Kansas was home to numerous and diverse Native American tribes. Tribes in the Eastern part of the state generally lived in villages along the river valleys. Tribes in the Western part of the state were semi-nomadic and hunted large herds of bison. Kansas was first settled by European Americans in the 1830s, but the pace of settlement accelerated in the 1850s, in the midst of political wars over the slavery issue. When officially opened to settlement by the U.S. government in 1854, abolitionist Free-Staters from New England and pro-slavery settlers from neighboring Missouri rushed to the territory to determine if Kansas would become a free state or a slave state. Thus, the area was a hotbed of violence and chaos in its early days as these forces collided, and was known as Bleeding Kansas. The abolitionists eventually prevailed and on January 29, 1861, Kansas entered the Union as a free state. After the Civil War, the population of Kansas grew rapidly, when waves of immigrants turned the prairie into farmland. Today, Kansas is one of the most productive agricultural states, producing high yields of wheat, sorghum and sunflowers. Kansas is the 15th most extensive and the 33rd most populous of the 50 United States.

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Kentucky
Kentucky (ⁱ/kɨnˈtʌki/), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state located in the Upper South of the United States. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth (the others being Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts). Originally a part of Virginia, in 1792 Kentucky became the 15th state to join the Union. Kentucky is the 37th most extensive and the 26th most populous of the 50 United States.
Kentucky is known as the "Bluegrass State", a nickname based on the fact that bluegrass is present in many of the pastures throughout the state, because of the fertile soil. It made possible the breeding of high-quality livestock, especially thoroughbred racing horses. It is a land with diverse environments and abundant resources, including the world's longest cave system, Mammoth Cave National Park; the greatest length of navigable waterways and streams in the contiguous United States; and the two largest man-made lakes east of the Mississippi River. It is also home to the highest per capita number of deer and turkey in the United States, the largest free-ranging elk herd east of Montana, and the nation's most productive coalfield. Kentucky is also known for horse racing, bourbon distilleries, bluegrass music, automobile manufacturing, tobacco and college basketball.

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Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States of America, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in four buildings in Washington, D.C., as well as the Packard Campus in Culpeper, Virginia, it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and number of books. The head of the Library is the Librarian of Congress, currently James H. Billington.
The Library of Congress was instituted for Congress in 1800, and was housed in the United States Capitol for most of the 19th century. After much of the original collection had been destroyed during the War of 1812, Thomas Jefferson sold 6,487 books, his entire personal collection, to the library in 1815. After a period of decline during the mid-19th century the Library of Congress began to grow rapidly in both size and importance after the American Civil War, culminating in the construction of a separate library building and the transference of all copyright deposit holdings to the Library. During the rapid expansion of the 20th century the Library of Congress assumed a preeminent public role, becoming a "library of last resort" and expanding its mission for the benefit of scholars and the American people.

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Louisiana
Louisiana (ⁱ/luːˌiːziˈænə/ or ⁱ/ˌluːziˈænə/; French: État de Louisiane, [lwizjan] ( listen); Louisiana Creole: Léta de la Lwizyàn) is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Louisiana is the 31st most extensive and the 25th most populous of the 50 United States. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties. The largest parish by population is East Baton Rouge Parish, and the largest by land area is Cameron Parish.
Much of the state was formed from sediment washed down the Mississippi River, leaving enormous deltas and vast areas of coastal marsh and swamp. These contain a rich southern biota; typical examples include birds such as ibis and egrets. There are also many species of tree frogs, and fish such as sturgeon and paddlefish. In more elevated areas, fire is a natural process in the landscape, and has produced extensive areas of longleaf pine forest and wet savannas. These support an exceptionally large number of plant species including many species of orchids and carnivorus plants.

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Maine
Maine (ⁱ/ˈmeɪn/) is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost portion of New England. It is known for its scenery—its jagged, mostly rocky coastline, its low, rolling mountains, its heavily forested interior and picturesque waterways—as well as for its seafood cuisine, especially lobsters and clams.
For thousands of years, indigenous peoples were the only inhabitants of the territory that is now Maine. At the time of European encounter, several Algonquian-speaking peoples inhabited the area. The first European settlement in Maine was by the French in 1604 on Saint Croix Island, by Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons. The first English settlement in Maine, the short-lived Popham Colony, was established by the Plymouth Company in 1607. A number of English settlements were established along the coast of Maine in the 1620s, although the rugged climate, deprivations, and conflict with the local peoples caused many to fail over the years. As Maine entered the 18th century, only a half dozen European settlements survived. Patriot and British forces contended for Maine's territory during the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Maine was part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts until 1820, when it voted to secede from Massachusetts. On March 15, 1820, it was admitted to the Union as the 23rd state under the Missouri Compromise. Maine is the 39th most extensive and the 41st most populous of the 50 United States.

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Marshall Islands
The Marshall Islands, officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands (Marshallese: Aolepān Aorōkin M̧ajeļ), is an island country located in the northern Pacific Ocean. Geographically, the country is part of the larger island group of Micronesia, with the population of around 68,000 people spread out over 34 low-lying coral atolls, comprising 1,156 individual islands and islets. The islands share maritime boundaries with the Federated States of Micronesia to the west, Wake Island to the north,Kiribati to the south-east, and Nauru to the south. The most populous atoll is Majuro, which also acts as the capital.
Micronesian colonists gradually settled the Marshall Islands during the 2nd millennium BC, with inter-island navigation made possible using traditional stick charts. Islands in the archipelago were first explored by Europeans in the 1520s, with Spanish explorer Alonso de Salazar sighting an atoll in August 1526. Other expeditions by Spanish and English ships followed, with the islands' current name stemming from British explorer John Marshall. Recognised as part of the Spanish East Indies in 1874, the islands were sold to Germany in 1884, and became of German New Guinea in 1885. The Empire of Japan occupied the Marshall Islands in World War I, which were later joined with other former German territories in 1919 by the League of Nations to form the South Pacific Mandate. In World War II, the islands were conquered by the United States in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign. Along with other Pacific Islands, the Marshall Islands were then consolidated into the United-States-governed Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Self-government was achieved in 1979, and full sovereignty in 1986, under a Compact of Free Association with the United States.

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Maryland
Maryland (ⁱ/ˈmɛrɨlənd/) is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east. Maryland was the seventh state to ratify the United States Constitution, and three nicknames for it (the Old Line State, the Free State, and the Chesapeake Bay State) are occasionally used. Maryland is the 9th smallest state by area, but the 19th most populous and the 5th most densely populated of the 50 United States. The state's most populated city is Baltimore. Its capital is Annapolis. It was named after Queen Henrietta Maria.
Maryland has an area of 12,406.68 square miles (32,133.2 km²) and is comparable in overall area with the European country of Belgium (11,787 square miles (30,530 km²)). It is the 42nd largest/9th smallest state, and is closest in size to Hawaii (10,930.98 square miles (28,311.1 km²)), the next smallest state. The next largest state, Maryland's neighbor West Virginia, is almost twice the size of Maryland (24,229.76 square miles (62,754.8 km²)).

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Massachusetts
Massachusetts (ⁱ/ˌmæsəˈtʃuːsɨts/), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Massachusetts is the 7th least extensive, but the 14th most populous and the 3rd most densely populated of the 50 United States. The state features two separate metropolitan areas – the eastern Boston metropolitan area and the western Springfield metropolitan area. Approximately two thirds of the state's population lives in Greater Boston, most of which is either urban or suburban. Western Massachusetts features one urban area – the Knowledge Corridor along the Connecticut River – and a mix of college towns and rural areas. Massachusetts is the most populous of the six New England states and has the US's sixth highest GDP per capita.

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Mexico
Mexico (ⁱ/ˈmɛksɨkoʊ/; Spanish: México, IPA: [ˈmexiko] ( listen)), officially the United Mexican States (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos (help·info)), is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States of America; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometres (over 760,000 sq mi), Mexico is the fifth largest country in the Americas by total area and the thirteenth largest independent nation in the world. With an estimated population of over 113 million, it is the eleventh most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country. Mexico is a federation comprising thirty-one states and a Federal District, the capital city.
In Pre-Columbian Mexico many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contact with Europeans. In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory from its base in México-Tenochtitlan, which was administered as the Viceroyalty of New Spain. This territory would eventually become Mexico as the colony's independence was recognized in 1821. The post-independence period was characterized by economic instability, the Mexican-American War and territorial cession to the United States, a civil war, two empires and a domestic dictatorship. The latter led to the Mexican Revolution in 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the country's current political system. Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time that an opposition party won the presidency from the Institutional Revolutionary Party.

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Miami
Miami ( /maɪˈæmi/ or /maɪˈæmə/) is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625. The 42nd largest city proper in the United States, with a population of 408,568, it is the principal, central, and most populous city of the South Florida metropolitan area, and the most populous metropolis in the Southeastern United States. According to the US Census Bureau, Miami's metro area is the seventh most populous and fifth-largest urban area in the United States, with a population of around 5.5 million.
Miami is a major center and a leader in finance, commerce, culture, media, entertainment, the arts, and international trade. In 2010, Miami was classified as a Alpha- World City in the World Cities Study Group’s inventory. In 2010, Miami ranked seventh in the United States in terms of finance, commerce, culture, entertainment, fashion, education, and other sectors. It ranked thirty-third among global cities. In 2008, Forbes magazine ranked Miami "America's Cleanest City", for its year-round good air quality, vast green spaces, clean drinking water, clean streets and city-wide recycling programs. According to a 2009 UBS study of 73 world cities, Miami was ranked as the richest city in the United States, and the world's fifth-richest city in terms of purchasing power. Miami is nicknamed the "Capital of Latin America", is the 2nd largest U.S. city (after El Paso) with a Spanish-speaking majority, and the largest city with a Cuban-American plurality.

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Michigan
Michigan (ⁱ/ˈmɪʃɨɡən/) is a state located in the Great Lakes region of the Midwestern United States. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake". Michigan is the 8th most populous of the 50 United States, with the 11th most extensive total area. Its capital is Lansing, and the largest city is Detroit. Michigan was admitted into the Union on January 26, 1837 as the 26th state.
Michigan has the longest freshwater coastline of any political subdivision in the world, being bounded by four of the five Great Lakes, plus Lake Saint Clair. Michigan is one of the leading U.S. states for recreational boating. The state has 64,980 inland lakes and ponds. A person in the state is never more than six miles (9.7 km) from a natural water source or more than 85 miles (137 km) from a Great Lakes shoreline. It is the largest state by total area east of the Mississippi River.
Michigan is the only state to consist of two peninsulas. The Lower Peninsula, to which the name Michigan was originally applied, is often noted to be shaped like a mitten. The Upper Peninsula (often referred to as "the U.P.") is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac, a five-mile (8 km) channel that joins Lake Huron to Lake Michigan. The two peninsulas are connected by the Mackinac Bridge. The Upper Peninsula is economically important due to its status as a tourist destination. There is also a variety of natural resources to be found there, including a sizable amount of iron ore.

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Minnesota
Minnesota (ⁱ/mɪnɨˈsoʊtə/) is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state on May 11, 1858. Known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes", the state's name comes from a Dakota word for "sky-tinted water". Those waters, together with forests, parks, and wilderness areas, offer residents and tourists a variety of outdoor recreational opportunities.
Minnesota is the 12th most extensive and the 21st most populous of the U.S. states. Nearly 60% of its residents live in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area (known as the "Twin Cities"), the center of transportation, business, industry and education and home to an internationally known arts community. The remainder of the state consists of western prairies now given over to intensive agriculture; deciduous forests in the southeast, now cleared, farmed and settled; and the less populated North Woods, used for mining, forestry, and recreation.

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Mississippi
Mississippi (ⁱ/ˌmɪsɨˈsɪpi/) is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi ("Great River"). Mississippi is the 32nd most extensive and the 31st most populous of the 50 United States. The state is heavily forested outside of the Mississippi Delta area, which was cleared for cotton cultivation in the 19th century. Today, its catfish aquaculture farms produce the majority of farm-raised catfish consumed in the United States. The state symbol is the magnolia grandiflora tree.
Mississippi is bordered on the north by Tennessee, on the east by Alabama, on the south by Louisiana and a narrow coast on the Gulf of Mexico and on the west, across the Mississippi River, by Louisiana and Arkansas.
In addition to its namesake, major rivers in Mississippi include the Big Black River, the Pearl River, the Yazoo River, the Pascagoula River, and the Tombigbee River. Major lakes include Ross Barnett Reservoir, Arkabutla Lake, Sardis Lake and Grenada Lake. The largest lake in Mississippi is Grenada Lake.

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Missouri
Missouri (ⁱ/mɨˈzʊəri/) (nickname The Show Me State) is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. Missouri is the 21st most extensive and the 18th most populous of the 50 United States. Missouri comprises 114 counties and the independent city of St. Louis. The four largest urban areas are St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, and Columbia. Missouri's capital is Jefferson City. The land that is now Missouri was acquired from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase and became known as the Missouri Territory. Part of the Territory was admitted into the union as the 24th state on August 10, 1821.
Missouri generally mirrors the demographic, economic and political makeup of America and has long been considered a political bellwether state. With the exceptions of the Presidential elections of 1956 and 2008, Missouri's results have accurately predicted the next President of the United States in every election since 1904. It has both Midwestern and Southern cultural influences, reflecting its history as a border state. It is also a transition between the Eastern and Western United States, as St. Louis is often called the "western-most Eastern city" and Kansas City the "eastern-most Western city". Missouri's geography is highly varied. The northern part of the state lies in dissected till plains while the southern part lies in the Ozark Mountains (a dissected plateau), with the Missouri River dividing the two. The state lies at the intersection of the three greatest rivers of North America, with the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers near St. Louis, and the confluence of the Ohio River with the Mississippi north of the Bootheel. The starting points of the Pony Express Trail and Oregon Trail were both in Missouri. The mean center of United States population as of the 2010 Census is at the town of Plato in Texas County, Missouri.

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Montana
Montana (ⁱ/mɒnˈtænə/) is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges that are part of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name, derived from the Spanish word montaña (mountain). Montana has several nicknames, none official, including: "Big Sky Country" and "The Treasure State", and slogans that include "Land of the Shining Mountains" and more recently, "The Last Best Place". Montana is the 4th-most extensive, but the 7th-least populous and the 3rd-least densely populated of the 50 United States. The economy is primarily based on services, with ranching, wheat farming, oil and coal mining in the east, and lumber, tourism, and hard rock mining in the west. Millions of tourists annually visit Glacier National Park, the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, and three of the five entrances to Yellowstone National Park.

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NASA
Coordinates: 38°52′59″N 77°0′59″W / 38.88306°N 77.01639°W / 38.88306; -77.01639
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research. Since February 2006, NASA's mission statement has been to "pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research." On September 14, 2011, NASA announced that it had selected the design of a new Space Launch System that it said would take the agency's astronauts farther into space than ever before and provide the cornerstone for future human space exploration efforts by the U.S.
NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The agency became operational on October 1, 1958. U.S. space exploration efforts have since been led by NASA, including the Apollo moon-landing missions, the Skylab space station, and later the Space Shuttle. Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and Commercial Crew vehicles. The agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program (LSP) which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches.

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Nebraska
Nebraska (ⁱ/nəˈbræskə/) is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. Its state capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River.
The state is crossed by many historic trails, but it was the California Gold Rush that first brought large numbers here, and it became a state in 1867. Certain landmarks still compete for the notional distinction 'Where the West Begins'.
There are wide variations between winter and summer temperatures, and violent thunderstorms and tornadoes are common. The state is characterized by treeless prairie, ideal for cattle-grazing, and it is a major producer of beef, as well as pork, maize and soybeans. Nebraska is overwhelmingly rural, as the 8th least-densely populated state of the United States.
Ethnically, the largest group are German-Americans, and the state has the biggest Czech-American population per head. During the Great Migration, many African Americans came to Omaha, and they continue to campaign for improved conditions. More recently, Native American activism has increased, with a drive for self-determination in a climate of co-operation with state officials on regional issues. It is traditionally a Republican-voting state.

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Nevada
Nevada (ⁱ/nəˈvædə/ or /nəˈvɒdə/) is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. Nevada is the 7th most extensive, the 35th most populous, and the 9th least densely populated of the 50 United States. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in one single county, Clark County, which contains the Las Vegas–Paradise metropolitan area, where the state's three largest incorporated cities are located. Nevada's capital is Carson City.
Nevada is largely desert and semiarid, with much of it located within the Great Basin. Areas south of the Great Basin are located within the Mojave Desert, while Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada mountains lie on the western edge. Approximately 86% of the state's land is owned by the US government under various jurisdictions, both civilian and military.
The name Nevada is derived from the nearby Sierra Nevada mountains, which means "snow-capped mountain range" in Spanish. The land comprising the modern state was inhabited by Native Americans of the Paiute, Shoshone, and Washoe tribes prior to European contact. It was subsequently claimed by Spain as a part of Alta California until the Mexican War of Independence brought it under Mexican control. The United States gained the territory in 1848 following its victory in the Mexican-American War and the area was eventually incorporated as part of Utah Territory in 1850. The discovery of silver at the Comstock Lode in 1859 led to a population boom that was an impetus to the creation of Nevada Territory out of western Utah Territory in 1861. Nevada became the 36th state on October 31, 1864.

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New Hampshire
New Hampshire (ⁱ/njuːˈhæmpʃər/) is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north. New Hampshire is the 5th least extensive and the 9th least populous of the 50 United States.
It became the first post-colonial sovereign nation in the Americas when it broke off from Great Britain in January 1776, and six months later was one of the original thirteen states that founded the United States of America. In June 1788, it became the ninth state to ratify the United States Constitution, bringing that document into effect. New Hampshire was the first U.S. state to have its own state constitution.
It is known internationally for the New Hampshire primary, the first primary in the U.S. presidential election cycle. Concord is the state capital, while Manchester is the largest city in the state. It has no general sales tax, nor is personal income (other than interest and dividends) taxed at either the state or local level.

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New Jersey
New Jersey (ⁱ/nuː ˈdʒɜrzi/) is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the U.S. state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania, and on the southwest by Delaware. New Jersey is the 4th least extensive, but the 11th most populous and the most densely populated of the 50 United States. New Jersey lies mostly within the sprawling metropolitan areas of New York City and Philadelphia. It is also the third wealthiest by 2009–2010 median household income.
The area was inhabited by Native Americans for more than 2,800 years, with historical tribes such as the Lenape along the coast. In the early 17th century, the Dutch and the Swedes made the first European settlements. The British later seized control of the region, naming it the Province of New Jersey. It was granted as a colony to Sir George Carteret and John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton. At this time, it was named after the largest of the British Channel Islands, Jersey, Carteret's birthplace. New Jersey was the site of several decisive battles during the American Revolutionary War.

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New Mexico
New Mexico (ⁱ/nuː ˈmɛksɨkoʊ/) is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. New Mexico is the 5th most extensive, the 36th most populous, and the 6th least densely populated of the 50 United States.
Inhabited by Native American populations for many centuries, New Mexico has also been part of the Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S. territory. Among U.S. states, New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanics, including descendants of Spanish colonists and recent immigrants from Latin America. It also has the second-highest percentage of Native Americans, after Alaska, and the fourth-highest total number of Native Americans after California, Oklahoma, and Arizona. The tribes in the state consist of mostly Navajo and Pueblo peoples. As a result, the demographics and culture of the state are unique for their strong Hispanic and Native American influences. The flag of New Mexico is represented by the red and gold colors, which represent Spain, as well as the Zia symbol, an ancient Native American symbol for the sun.

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New York
New York (/njuː ˈjɔrk/; locally IPA: [nɪu ˈjɔək] or [nuː ˈjɔɹk] ( listen)) is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. New York is the 27th most extensive, the 3rd most populous, and the 7th most densely populated of the 50 United States. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east. The state has a maritime border with Rhode Island east of Long Island, as well as an international border with the Canadian provinces of Ontario to the west and north, and Quebec to the north. The state of New York is often referred to as New York State to distinguish it from New York City.
New York City, with a population of over 8.1 million, is the most populous city in the United States. Alone, it makes up over 40 percent of the population of New York state. It is known for its status as a center for finance and culture and for its status as the largest gateway for immigration to the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, New York City is also a destination of choice for many foreign visitors. Both the state and city were named for the 17th century Duke of York, James Stuart, future James II and VII of England and Scotland.

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Nicaragua
Nicaragua (ⁱ/ˌnɪkəˈrɑːɡwə/ nik-ə-RAH-gwə), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (Spanish: República de Nicaragua [reˈpuβlika ðe nikaˈɾaɣwa] ( listen)), is the largest country in the Central American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean lies to the west, and the Caribbean Sea to the east. The country's physical geography divides it into three major zones: Pacific lowlands; wet, cooler central highlands; and the Caribbean lowlands. On the Pacific side of the country are the two largest fresh water lakes in Central America—Lake Managua and Lake Nicaragua. Surrounding these lakes and extending to their northwest along the rift valley of the Gulf of Fonseca are fertile lowland plains, with soil highly enriched by ash from nearby volcanoes of the central highlands. Nicaragua's abundance of biologically significant and unique ecosystems contribute to Mesoamerica's designation as a biodiversity hotspot.

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Normandy Landings
The Normandy landings, codenamed Operation Neptune, were the landing operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy, in Operation Overlord, during World War II. The landings commenced on Tuesday, June 6, 1944 (D-Day), beginning at 6:30 AM British Double Summer Time (GMT+2). In planning, D-Day was the term used for the day of actual landing, which was dependent on final approval.
The landings were conducted in two phases: an airborne assault landing of 24,000 British, American, Canadian and Free French airborne troops shortly after midnight, and an amphibious landing of Allied infantry and armoured divisions on the coast of France starting at 6:30 AM. There were also decoy operations under the codenames Operation Glimmer and Operation Taxable to distract the German forces from the real landing areas.
Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces was General Dwight Eisenhower while overall command of ground forces (21st Army Group) was given to General Bernard Montgomery. The operation, planned by a team under Lieutenant-General Frederick Morgan, was the largest amphibious invasion in world history and was executed by land, sea, and air elements under direct British command with over 160,000 troops landing on June 6, 1944. 195,700 Allied naval and merchant navy personnel in over 5,000 ships were involved. The invasion required the transport of soldiers and material from the United Kingdom by troop-laden aircraft and ships, the assault landings, air support, naval interdiction of the English Channel and naval fire-support. The landings took place along a 50-mile (80 km) stretch of the Normandy coast divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword.

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North Carolina
North Carolina (ⁱ/ˌnɔrθ kærəˈlaɪnə/) is a state in the Southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina is the 28th most extensive and the 10th most populous of the 50 United States.
North Carolina is comprised of 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte. In the past five decades, North Carolina's economy has undergone a transition from heavy reliance upon tobacco and furniture making to a more diversified economy with engineering, biotechnology, and finance sectors.
North Carolina has a wide range of elevations, from sea level on the coast to 6,684 feet (2,037 m) at Mount Mitchell, the highest point in the Eastern US. The climate of the coastal plains is strongly influenced by the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the state falls in the humid subtropical climate zone. More than 300 miles (500 km) from the coast, the western, mountainous part of the state has a subtropical highland climate.

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North Dakota
North Dakota (ⁱ/ˌnɔrθ dəˈkoʊtə/) is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States, along the Canadian border. The state is bordered by Manitoba and Saskatchewan to the north, Minnesota to the east, South Dakota to the south and Montana to the west. North Dakota is the 19th most extensive, but the 3rd least populous and the 4th least densely populated of the 50 United States. North Dakota was created from the northern portion of the Dakota Territory and admitted to the Union on November 2, 1889, simultaneously with South Dakota.
The state capital is Bismarck and the largest city is Fargo. The primary public universities are located in Grand Forks and Fargo. The U.S. Air Force operates air bases at Minot AFB and Grand Forks AFB.
For more than a decade, the state has had a strong economy, with unemployment lower than the national average, job and population growth, and low housing vacancies. Much of the growth has been based on development of the Bakken oil shale fields in the western part of the state, but it has also had growth in the technology and service sectors. Flooding in June 2011 has caused extensive damage to Minot and threatened Bismarck, the capital city.

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North Korea
Coordinates: 40°00′N 127°00′E / 40°N 127°E / 40; 127 The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK; Chosŏn'gŭl: 조선민주주의인민공화국), commonly referred to as "North Korea" ( listen), is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea. The Amnok, or Yalu, and the Tumen rivers form the border between North Korea and China. A section of the Tumen River in the far northeast is the border with Russia.
The peninsula was governed by the Korean Empire until it was annexed by Japan after the Russo-Japanese War in 1910. It was divided into Soviet- and American-occupied zones in 1945, after the end of World War II. North Korea refused to participate in a United Nations–supervised election held in the south in 1948, which led to the creation of separate Korean governments for the two occupation zones. North and South Korea each claimed sovereignty over the whole Korean Peninsula, which led to the Korean War of 1950. The Armistice Agreement of 1953 ended the fighting; but the two countries are officially still at war against each other, for a peace treaty was never signed. Both states were accepted into the United Nations in 1991.

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Ohio
Ohio (ⁱ/oʊˈhaɪ.oʊ/) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Ohio is the 34th most extensive, the 7th most populous, and the 10th most densely populated of the 50 United States. The state's capital and largest city is Columbus.
The name "Ohio" originated from Iroquois word ohi-yo’, meaning "great river". The state, originally partitioned from the Northwest Territory, was admitted to the Union as the 17th state (and the first under the Northwest Ordinance) on March 1, 1803. Although there are conflicting narratives regarding the origin of the nickname, Ohio is historically known as the "Buckeye State" (relating to the Ohio buckeye tree) and Ohioans are also known as "Buckeyes".
The government of Ohio is composed of the executive branch, led by the Governor; the legislative branch, which comprises the Ohio General Assembly; and the judicial branch, which is led by the Supreme Court. Currently, Ohio occupies 18 seats in the United States House of Representatives. Ohio is known for its status as both a swing state and a bellwether in national elections.

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Oklahoma
Oklahoma (ⁱ/ˌoʊkləˈhoʊmə/) (Pawnee: Uukuhuúwa , Cayuga: Gahnawiyoˀgeh ) is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. Oklahoma is the 20th most extensive and the 28th most populous of the 50 United States. The state's name is derived from the Choctaw words okla and humma, meaning "red people", and it is known informally by its nickname, The Sooner State. Formed by the combination of Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory on November 16, 1907, Oklahoma was the 46th state to enter the union. Its residents are known as Oklahomans or, informally "Okies", and its capital and largest city is Oklahoma City.
A major producer of natural gas, oil, and agriculture, Oklahoma relies on an economic base of aviation, energy, telecommunications, and biotechnology. It has one of the fastest growing economies in the nation, ranking among the top states in per capita income growth and gross domestic product growth. Oklahoma City and Tulsa serve as Oklahoma's primary economic anchors, with nearly 60 percent of Oklahomans living in their metropolitan statistical areas.

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Oregon
Oregon (ⁱ/ˈɔrɨɡən/ ORR-ə-gən) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern boundaries, respectively. The area was inhabited by many indigenous tribes before the arrival of traders, explorers, and settlers who formed an autonomous government in Oregon Country in 1843. The Oregon Territory was created in 1848, and Oregon became the 33rd state on February 14, 1859.
Oregon is the 9th most extensive and the 27th most populous of the 50 United States. Salem is the state's capital and third-most-populous city; Portland is the most populous. Portland is the 29th-largest U.S. city, with a population of 583,776 (2010 US Census) and a metro population of 2,241,841 (2009 estimate), the 23rd-largest U.S. metro area. The valley of the Willamette River in western Oregon is the state's most densely populated area and is home to eight of the ten most populous cities.

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Palau
Palau (ⁱ/pəˈlaʊ/, sometimes spelled Belau or Pelew), officially the Republic of Palau (Palauan: Beluu ęr a Belau), is an island country located in the western Pacific Ocean. Geographically part of the larger island group of Micronesia, with the country's population of around 21,000 people spread out over 250 islands forming the western chain of the Caroline Islands. The islands share maritime boundaries with Indonesia, the Philippines, and the Federated States of Micronesia. The most populous island in the group is Koror, with the capital city, Ngerulmud, located on nearby Babeldaob.
The country were originally settled around 3000 years ago by migrants from the Philippines, with a Negrito population sustained until around 900 years ago. The islands were first visited by Europeans in the 18th century, and were made part of the Spanish East Indies in 1885. Following Spain's defeat in the Spanish–American War in 1898, the islands were sold to Imperial Germany in 1899 under the terms of the German–Spanish Treaty, where they were administered as part of German New Guinea. The Imperial Japanese Navy conquered Palau during World War I, and the islands were later made a part of the Japanese-ruled South Pacific Mandate by the League of Nations. During World War II, skirmishes, including the major Battle of Peleliu, were fought between American and Japanese troops as part of the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign. Along with other Pacific Islands, Palau was made a part of the United States-governed Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands in 1947. Having voted against joining the newly-independent Federated States of Micronesia in 1979, the islands gained full sovereignty in 1994 under a Compact of Free Association with the United States.

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Panama
Panama (ⁱ/ˈpænəmɑː/ PAN-ə-mah; Spanish: Panamá), officially the Republic of Panama (Spanish: República de Panamá [reˈpuβlika ðe panaˈma]), is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The capital is Panama City. Explored and settled by the Spanish in the 16th century, Panama broke with Spain in 1821 and joined a union of Nueva Granada, Ecuador, and Venezuela, named the Republic of Gran Colombia.When Gran Colombia the dissolved in 1831, Panama and Nueva Granada remained joined. Nueva Granada later became the Republic of Colombia.
With the backing of the United States, Panama seceded from Colombia in 1903, allowing the Panama Canal to be built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1904 and 1914. In 1977, an agreement was signed for the complete transfer of the Canal from the United States to Panama by the end of the century.

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Paraguay
Paraguay (ⁱ/ˈpɛərəɡwaɪ/, PAIR-ə-gwy), officially the Republic of Paraguay (Spanish: República del Paraguay [reˈpuβlika ðel paɾaˈɣwai], Guaraní: Tetã Paraguái [teˈtã paɾaˈɣwaj]), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the country from north to south. Due to its central location in South America, it is sometimes referred to as Corazón de América, or the Heart of America.
The Guaraní have been living in Paraguay since before the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century, when Paraguay became part of the Spanish colonial empire. Following independence from Spain in 1811, Paraguay was ruled by a series of dictators who followed isolationist and protectionist policies. This development was truncated by the disastrous Paraguayan War (1864–1870) in which the country lost 60% to 70% of its population and large amounts of territory. During a large part of the 20th century, Paraguay was ruled by Alfredo Stroessner, who led one of South America's longest lived military dictatorships. In 1989 Stroessner was toppled and free elections were celebrated in 1993. In 1994 Paraguay joined Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay to found Mercosur.

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Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (ⁱ/ˌpɛnsɨlˈveɪnjə/), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a US state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, and the Great Lakes Region. The state borders Delaware to the southeast, Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, Ontario, Canada to the northwest, New York to the north, and New Jersey to the east.
Pennsylvania is the 33rd most extensive, the 6th most populous, and the 9th most densely populated of the 50 United States. The state's four most populous cities are Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, and Erie. The state capital is Harrisburg. Pennsylvania has 51 miles (82 km) of shoreline along Lake Erie and 57 miles (92 km) of shoreline along the Delaware Estuary.
Pennsylvania is 170 miles (274 km) north to south and 283 miles (455 km) east to west. Of a total 46,055 square miles (119,282 km²), 44,817 square miles (116,075 km²) are land, 490 square miles (1,269 km²) are inland waters, and 749 square miles (1,940 km²) are waters in Lake Erie. It is the 33rd largest state in the United States. Pennsylvania has 51 miles (82 km) of coastline along Lake Erie and 57 miles (92 km) of shoreline along the Delaware Estuary.

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Peru
Peru ⁱ/pəˈruː/ (Spanish: Perú; Quechua: Perú;Aymara: Piruw), officially the Republic of Peru (Spanish: República del Perú, pronounced: [reˈpuβlika ðel peˈɾu] ( listen)), is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.
Peruvian territory was home to ancient cultures, spanning from the Norte Chico civilization, one of the oldest in the world, to the Inca Empire, the largest state in Pre-Columbian America. The Spanish Empire conquered the region in the 16th century and established a Viceroyalty, which included most of its South American colonies. After achieving independence in 1821, Peru has undergone periods of political unrest and fiscal crisis as well as periods of stability and economic upswing.
Peru is a representative democratic republic divided into 25 regions. Its geography varies from the arid plains of the Pacific coast to the peaks of the Andes Mountains and the tropical forests of the Amazon Basin. It is a developing country with a high Human Development Index score and a poverty level around 31%. Its main economic activities include agriculture, fishing, mining, and manufacturing of products such as textiles.

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Portugal
Portugal ⁱ/ˈpɔrtʃʉɡəl/ (Portuguese: Portugal, IPA: [puɾtuˈɣaɫ]), officially the Portuguese Republic (Portuguese: República Portuguesa) is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula . Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira are part of Portugal. The country is named after its second largest city, Porto, whose Latin name was Portus Cale.
The land within the borders of the current Portuguese Republic has been continuously settled since prehistoric times: occupied by Celts like the Gallaeci and the Lusitanians, integrated into the Roman Republic and later settled by Germanic peoples such as the Suebi, Swabians, Vandals and the Visigoths. In the 8th century most of the Iberian Peninsula was conquered by Moorish invaders professing Islam, which were later expelled by the Knights Templar under the Order of Christ. During the Christian Reconquista, Portugal established itself as an independent kingdom from León in 1139, claiming to be the oldest European nation state.

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Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (/ˌpɔrtə ˈriːkoʊ/ or /ˌpwɛərtə ˈriːkoʊ/), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Spanish: Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, [esˈtaðo ˈlibɾe asoˈsjaðo ðe ˈpweɾto ˈriko]—literally, "Associated Free State of Puerto Rico"), is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.
Puerto Rico (Spanish for "rich port") comprises an archipelago that includes the main island of Puerto Rico and a number of smaller islands, the largest of which are Vieques, Culebra, and Mona. The main island of Puerto Rico is the smallest by land area of the Greater Antilles. However, it ranks third in population amongst that group of four islands, which also include Cuba, Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti), and Jamaica. Due to its location, Puerto Rico enjoys a tropical climate and also experiences the Atlantic hurricane season.
Originally populated for centuries by indigenous aboriginal peoples known as Taínos, the island was claimed by Christopher Columbus for Spain during his second voyage to the Americas on November 19, 1493. Under Spanish rule, the island was colonized and the indigenous population was forced into slavery and nearly wiped out due to, among other things, European infectious diseases. The remaining population was emancipated by King Charles I in 1520. Spain possessed Puerto Rico for over 400 years, despite attempts at capture of the island by the French, Dutch, and British. The Spanish Crown, in an attempt to keep Puerto Rico from gaining its independence, revived the Royal Decree of Graces of 1815. The decree was printed in three languages — Spanish, English and French — and it fostered the immigration of hundreds of non-Spanish European families.

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Rhode Island
Rhode Island (ⁱ/ˌroʊd ˈaɪlɨnd/ or /rɵˈdaɪlɨnd/), officially the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is a state in the New England region of the United States. Rhode Island is the smallest in area, the 8th least populous, but the 2nd most densely populated of the 50 United States. Rhode Island is bordered by Connecticut to the west and Massachusetts to the north and east, and it shares a water boundary with New York's Long Island to the southwest.
Rhode Island was the first of the 13 original colonies to declare independence from British rule, declaring itself independent on May 4, 1776, two months before any other state in the whole U.S. and the convention. The state was also the last to ratify the United States Constitution.
Rhode Island's official nickname is "The Ocean State", a reference to the state's geography, since Rhode Island has several large bays and inlets that amount to about 14% of its total area. Its land area is 1,045 square miles (2706 km²), but its total area is significantly larger.

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Roanoke Island
Coordinates: 35°53′N 75°39′W / 35.883°N 75.65°W / 35.883; -75.65
Roanoke Island is an island in Dare County near the coast of North Carolina, United States. It was named after the historical Roanoke Carolina Algonquian people who inhabited the area in the 16th century at the time of English exploration.
About eight miles (12 km) long and two miles (3 km) wide, Roanoke Island lies between the mainland and the barrier islands near Nags Head, with Albemarle Sound on its north, Roanoke Sound at the eastern end, Croatan Sound to the west, and Wanchese CDP at the southern end. The town of Manteo is located on the northern portion of the island, and is the county seat of Dare County. Fort Raleigh National Historic Site is on the north end of the island. There is a land area of 17.95 square miles (46.5 km²) and a population of 6,724 as of the 2000 census.
Located along U.S. Highway 64, a major highway from mainland North Carolina to the Outer Banks, Roanoke Island combines recreational and water features with historical sites and an outdoor theater to form one of the major tourist attractions of Dare County.

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Sicily
Sicily (Italian and Sicilian: Sicilia, [siˈtʃiːlja]; [sɪˈɕilja]) is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea; along with surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana (Sicilian Autonomous Region).
Sicily is located in the central Mediterranean. It extends from the tip of the Apennine peninsula from which it is separated only by the narrow Strait of Messina, towards the North African coast. Its most prominent landmark is Mount Etna, which is at 3,320 m (10,890 ft) the tallest active volcano in Europe and one of the most active in the world. The island has a typical Mediterranean climate.
The earliest archeological evidence of human dwelling on the island dates from 8000 BC. At around 750 BC, Sicily became a Greek colony and for the next 600 years it was the site of the Greek-Punic and Roman-Punic wars, which ended with the Roman destruction of Carthage. After the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD, Sicily often changed hands, and during the early Middle Ages it was ruled in turn by the Vandals, Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Arabs and Normans. Later on, the Kingdom of Sicily lasted between 1130 and 1816, subordinated to the crowns of Aragon, Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, and finally the Bourbons, as the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. It was united with the rest of Italy in 1860, but a subsequent economic collapse led to a wave of emigration, separatism, and the emergence of the Mafia, whose criminal activities pose problems to this day. After the birth of the Italian Republic in 1946, Sicily was given special status as an autonomous region.

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South Carolina
South Carolina (ⁱ/ˌsaʊθ kærəˈlaɪnə/) is a state in the Southeastern United States. It is bordered to the north by North Carolina; to the south and west by Georgia, located across the Savannah River; and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence from the British Crown during the American Revolution. The colony was originally named by King Charles II of England in honor of his father Charles I (Carolus being Latin for Charles). South Carolina was the 8th state to ratify the US Constitution and become a state which it did on May 23, 1788. South Carolina later became the first state to vote to secede from the Union which it did on December 20, 1860. It was readmitted to the United States on June 25, 1868.
South Carolina is the 40th most extensive and the 24th most populous of the 50 United States. South Carolina comprises 46 counties. The capital and largest city of the state is Columbia.

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South Dakota
South Dakota (ⁱ/ˌsaʊθ dəˈkoʊtə/) is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. South Dakota is the 17th most extensive, but the 5th least populous and the 5th least densely populated of the 50 United States. Once the southern portion of the Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. Pierre is the state capital and Sioux Falls, with a population of nearly 160,000, is South Dakota's largest city.
South Dakota is bordered by the states of North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana. The state is bisected by the Missouri River, dividing South Dakota into two geographically and socially distinct halves, known to residents as "East River" and "West River". Eastern South Dakota is home to most of the state's population, and fertile soil in this area is used to grow a variety of crops. West of the Missouri, ranching is the predominant agricultural activity, and the economy is more dependent on tourism and defense spending.

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Southern California
Southern California (SoCal) is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego. The United States - Mexico border makes up the southern border. Southern California is a major economic center for the state of California and the nation.
Southern California's population encompasses five metropolitan, or MSA, areas: Los Angeles County and Orange County together make up the Los Angeles metropolitan area; the Inland Empire consists of such cities as Riverside, Ontario, and San Bernardino; the San Diego metropolitan area; the Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura metro area; and the El Centro area. Out of these, three are heavy populated areas; the Los Angeles area with over 12 million inhabitants, the Riverside-San Bernardino area with over 4 million inhabitants, and the San Diego area with over 3 million inhabitants. For CSA metropolitan purposes, the five counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura are all combined to make up the Los Angeles metropolitan area; with San Diego as Southern California's other CSA metropolitan area. With over 22 million people, roughly 60% of California's population resides in Southern California.

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Soviet Union
The Soviet Union (Russian: Советский Союз, tr. Sovetsky Soyuz), officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR; Russian: Сою́з Сове́тских Социалисти́ческих Респу́блик, tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik; IPA: [sɐˈjus sɐˈvʲetskʲɪx sətsɨəlʲɪˈstʲitɕɪskʲɪx rʲɪsˈpublʲɪk] ( listen); abbreviated СССР, SSSR), was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991.
The Soviet Union was a single-party state ruled by the Communist Party from its foundation until 1990. A union of 15 subnational Soviet republics, the Soviet state was structured under a highly centralized government and economy.
The Russian Revolution of 1917 caused the downfall of the Russian Empire. Following the Russian Revolution, there was a struggle for power between the Bolshevik party, led by Vladimir Lenin, and the anti-communist White movement. In December 1922, the Bolsheviks won the civil war, and the Soviet Union was formed with the merger of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.

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Spain
Spain (ⁱ/ˈspeɪn/ SPAYN; Spanish: España, pronounced: [esˈpaɲa] ( listen)), officially the Kingdom of Spain (Spanish: Reino de España), is a sovereign state and a member of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Its mainland is bordered to the south and east by the Mediterranean Sea except for a small land boundary with the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar; to the north and north east by France, Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay; and to the northwest and west by the Atlantic Ocean and Portugal.
Spanish territory also includes the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the African coast, and two autonomous cities in North Africa, Ceuta and Melilla, that border Morocco. Furthermore, the town of Llívia is a Spanish exclave situated inside French territory. With an area of 504,030 square kilometres (194,610 sq mi), it is the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union after France, and the fourth largest country in Europe after Russia, Ukraine and France.

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Tennessee
Tennessee (ⁱ/tɛnɨˈsiː/) (Cherokee: ᏔᎾᏏ) is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. Tennessee is the 36th most extensive and the 17th most populous of the 50 United States. Tennessee is bordered by Kentucky and Virginia to the north, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to the south, and Arkansas and Missouri to the west. The Appalachian Mountains dominate the eastern part of the state, and the Mississippi River forms the state's western border. Tennessee's capital and second largest city is Nashville, which has a population of 626,144.Memphis is the state's largest city, with a population of 670,902.
The state of Tennessee is rooted in the Watauga Association, a 1772 frontier pact generally regarded as the first constitutional government west of the Appalachians. What is now Tennessee was initially part of North Carolina, and later part of the Southwest Territory. Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the 16th state on June 1, 1796. Tennessee was the last state to leave the Union and join the Confederacy at the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War in 1861, and the first state to be readmitted to the Union at the end of the war.

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Texas
Texas (ⁱ/ˈtɛksəs/) (Alibamu: Teksi ) is the second most populous and the second most extensive of the 50 United States, and the most extensive state of the 48 contiguous United States. The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in East Texas. Located in the South Central United States, Texas shares an international border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south, and borders the US states of New Mexico to the west, Oklahoma to the north, Arkansas to the northeast, and Louisiana to the east. Texas has an area of 268,820 square miles (696,200 km²), and a growing population of 25.7 million residents.
During the Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas: La Provincia de Texas. Antonio Margil de Jesús was known to be the first person to use the name in a letter to the Viceroy of Mexico in July 20, 1716. The name was not popularly used in daily speech but often appeared in legal documents until the end of the 1800s.

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United States
The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.

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Uruguay
Uruguay ⁱ/ˈjʊərəɡwaɪ/, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; (Spanish: República Oriental del Uruguay pronounced: [re̞ˈpuβ̞lika o̞ɾje̞n̪ˈt̪al̪ d̪e̞l uɾuˈɰwai̯]) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to 3.3 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area. An estimated 88% of the population are of European ancestry.
Except for the recent union of Timoteo Domínguez Island and Argentina's Martín García Island, Uruguay's only land border is with Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, to the north. To the west lies the Uruguay River and the estuary of the Río de la Plata to the southwest. To the southeast lies the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean. With an area of approximately 176,000 square kilometres (68,000 sq mi), Uruguay is the second-smallest nation in South America by area, after Suriname.
Colonia del Sacramento, one of the oldest European settlements in the country, was founded by the Portuguese in 1680. Montevideo was founded by the Spanish in the early 18th century as a military stronghold. Uruguay won its independence in 1811–28 following a three-way struggle between the claims of Spain, Argentina and Brazil. It is a constitutional democracy, with a president who is both the head of state and the head of government.

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Utah
Utah (/ˈjuːtɔː/ or ⁱ/ˈjuːtɑː/) (Arapaho: Wo'tééneihí' ) is a state in the Western United States. It became the 45th state admitted to the Union on January 4, 1896. Utah is the 13th-most extensive, the 34th-most populous, and the 10th-least-densely populated of the 50 United States. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,817,222 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the sixth most urbanized in the U.S. The name "Utah" is derived from the name of the Ute tribe and means "people of the mountains" in the Ute language. Utah is bordered by Arizona on the south, Colorado on the east, Wyoming on the northeast, Idaho on the north and Nevada on the west. It also touches a corner of New Mexico.
Utah is the most religiously homogeneous state in the Union. It is home to the Salt Lake Temple, and approximately 60% of Utahns are reported to be members of LDS Church which greatly influences Utah culture and daily life.

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Venezuela
Venezuela (ⁱ/ˌvɛnɨˈzweɪlə/ VEN-ə-ZWAY-lə), officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Spanish: República Bolivariana de Venezuela [repuˈβlika βoliβaˈɾjana ðe βeneˈswela]), is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south. Its northern coastline of roughly 2,800 kilometres (1,700 mi) includes numerous islands in the Caribbean Sea, and in the north east borders the northern Atlantic Ocean. Caribbean islands such as Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Curaçao, Bonaire, Aruba and the Leeward Antilles lie near the Venezuelan coast. Venezuela's territory covers around 916,445 square kilometres (353,841 sq mi) with an estimated population of 29,105,632. Venezuela is considered a state with extremely high biodiversity, with habitats ranging from the Andes mountains in the west to the Amazon Basin rainforest in the south, via extensive llanos plains and Caribbean coast in the center and the Orinoco River Delta in the east.

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Vermont
Vermont ⁱ/vɜrˈmɒnt/ is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Vermont is the 6th least extensive and the 2nd least populous of the 50 United States. It is the only New England state not bordering the Atlantic Ocean. Lake Champlain forms half of Vermont's western border, which it shares with the state of New York. The Green Mountains are within the state. Vermont is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the north.
Originally inhabited by two major Native American tribes (the Algonquian-speaking Abenaki and the Iroquois), much of the territory that is now Vermont was claimed by France during its early colonial period. France ceded the territory to the Kingdom of Great Britain after being defeated in 1763 in the Seven Years' War (also called the French and Indian War). For many years, the nearby colonies, especially New Hampshire and New York, disputed control of the area (then called the New Hampshire Grants). Settlers who held land titles granted by these colonies were opposed by the Green Mountain Boys militia, which eventually prevailed in creating an independent state, the Vermont Republic. Founded in 1777 during the Revolutionary War, the republic lasted for fourteen years. Vermont is one of seventeen U.S. states (along with Texas, Hawaii, the brief California Republic, and each of the original Thirteen Colonies) to have had a sovereign government in the past. In 1791, Vermont joined the United States as the 14th state, the first outside the original 13 Colonies. It abolished slavery while still independent, and upon joining the Union became the first state to have done so.

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Virginia
Virginia (ⁱ/vərˈdʒɪnjə/), officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state located in the South Atlantic region of the United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, which provide habitat for much of its flora and fauna. The capital of the Commonwealth is Richmond; Virginia Beach is the most populous city and Fairfax County the most populous political subdivision. The Commonwealth's population is over eight million.
The area's history begins with several indigenous groups, including the Powhatan. In 1607 the London Company established the Colony of Virginia as the first permanent New World English colony. Slave labor and the land acquired from displaced Native American tribes each played a significant role in the colony's early politics and plantation economy. Virginia was one of the 13 Colonies in the American Revolution and joined the Confederacy in the American Civil War, during which Richmond was made the Confederate capital and Virginia's northwestern counties separated to form the state of West Virginia. Although the Commonwealth was under conservative single-party rule for nearly a century following Reconstruction, both major national parties are competitive in modern Virginia.

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Wall Street
Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or signifying New York-based financial interests. It is the home of the New York Stock Exchange, the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies. Several other major exchanges have or had headquarters in the Wall Street area, including NASDAQ, the New York Mercantile Exchange, the New York Board of Trade, and the former American Stock Exchange. Anchored by Wall Street, New York City is one of the world's principal financial centers.
There are varying accounts about how the Dutch-named "de Waal Straat" got its name. A generally accepted version is that the name of the street name was derived from an earthen wall on the northern boundary of the New Amsterdam settlement, perhaps to protect against English colonial encroachment or incursions by native Americans. A conflicting explanation is that Wall Street was named after Walloons -- possibly a Dutch abbreviation for Walloon being Waal. Among the first settlers that embarked on the ship "Nieu Nederlandt" in 1624 were 30 Walloon families.

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West Virginia
West Virginia (ⁱ/ˌwɛst vərˈdʒɪnjə/) is a state in the Appalachian region of the Eastern United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east. West Virginia is the 41st most extensive and the 37th most populous of the 50 United States. The capital and largest city is Charleston.
West Virginia became a state following the Wheeling Conventions and broke away from Virginia during the American Civil War. The new state was admitted to the Union on June 20, 1863, and was a key Civil War border state. West Virginia was the only state to form by seceding from a Confederate state, and was one of two states formed during the American Civil War (the other one being Nevada, which separated from Utah Territory).
The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the South. The northern panhandle extends adjacent to Pennsylvania and Ohio, with the West Virginia cities of Wheeling and Weirton just across the border from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, while Bluefield is less than 70 miles (110 km) from North Carolina. Huntington in the southwest is close to the states of Ohio and Kentucky, while Martinsburg and Harpers Ferry in the Eastern Panhandle region are considered to be a part of the Washington metropolitan area, in between the states of Maryland and Virginia. The unique position of West Virginia means that it is often included in several geographical regions, including the Mid-Atlantic, the Upland South, and the Southeastern United States. Notably, it is the only state that is entirely within the area served by the Appalachian Regional Commission; the area is commonly defined as "Appalachia".

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Wisconsin
Wisconsin (ⁱ/wɨsˈkɒnsɨn/) is a US state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin is the 23rd most extensive and the 20th most populous of the 50 United States. Wisconsin's capital is Madison, and its largest city is Milwaukee. The state is divided into 72 counties.
The word Wisconsin originates from the name given to the Wisconsin River by one of the Algonquian speaking American Indian groups living in the region at the time of European contact. French explorer Jacques Marquette was the first European to reach the Wisconsin River and record its name, arriving in 1673 and calling the river Meskousing in his journal. This spelling was later corrupted to Ouisconsin by other French explorers, and over time this version became the French name for both the Wisconsin River and the surrounding lands. English speakers anglicized the spelling to its modern form when they began to arrive in greater numbers during the early 19th century. The current spelling was made official by the legislature of Wisconsin Territory in 1845.

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Wyoming
Wyoming (ⁱ/waɪˈoʊmɪŋ/) is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. Wyoming is the 10th most extensive, but the least populous and the 2nd least densely populated of the 50 States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High Plains. Cheyenne is the capital and the most populous city of Wyoming with a population of nearly 60,000 people within its city proper.
As specified in the designating legislation for the Territory of Wyoming, Wyoming's borders are lines of latitude, 41°N and 45°N, and longitude, 104°3'W and 111°3'W (27° W and 34° W of the Washington Meridian), making the shape of the state a latitude-longitude quadrangle. Wyoming is one of only three states (along with Colorado and Utah) to have borders along only straight latitudinal and longitudinal lines, rather than being defined by natural landmarks. Due to surveying inaccuracies during the 19th century, Wyoming's legal border deviates from the true latitude and longitude lines by up to half of a mile (.8 km) in some spots, especially in the mountainous region along the 45th parallel. Wyoming is bordered on the north by Montana, on the east by South Dakota and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado, on the southwest by Utah, and on the west by Idaho. It is the ninth largest state in the United States in total area, containing 97,818 square miles (253,350 km²) and is made up of 23 counties. From the north border to the south border it is 276 miles (444 km); and from the east to the west border is 365 miles (587 km) at its south end and 342 miles (550 km) at the north end.

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Yucatán Peninsula
The Yucatán Peninsula, in southeastern Mexico, separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico, with the northern coastline on the Yucatán Channel. The peninsula lies east of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a northwestern geographic partition separating the region of Central America from the rest of North America.
The peninsula comprises the Mexican states of Yucatán, Campeche, and Quintana Roo; the northern part of the nation of Belize; and Guatemala's northern El Petén Department.
The proper derivation of the word Yucatán is widely debated. Hernan Cortes, in the first of his letters to Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, claimed that the name Yucatán comes from a misunderstanding. In this telling, the first Spanish explorers asked what the area was called, and the response they received, "Yucatan," was a Yucatec Maya word meaning "I don't understand what you're saying." Others claim that the source of the name is the Nahuatl (Aztec) word Yokatlān, "place of richness."
The Yucatán Peninsula comprises a significant proportion of the ancient Maya Lowlands (although the Maya culture extended south of the Yucatán Peninsula, through present Guatemala and into Honduras and highland Chiapas). There are many Maya archaeological sites throughout the peninsula; some of the better-known are Chichen Itza, Tulum and Uxmal.Indigenous Maya and Mestizos of partial Maya descent make up a sizable portion of the region's population, and Mayan languages are widely spoken there.

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African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans or Afro-Americans, and formerly as American Negroes) are citizens or residents of the United States that have ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa.
African Americans make up the single largest racial minority in the United States. Most African Americans are of West and Central African descent and are descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States. However, some immigrants from African, Caribbean, Central American or South American nations, or their descendants, may be identified or self-identify with the term.
African-American history starts in the 16th century with African slaves who quickly rose up against the Spanish explorer Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón and progresses to the present day, with Barack Obama as the 44th and current President of the United States. Between those landmarks there have been events and issues, both resolved and ongoing, including slavery, racism, Reconstruction, development of the African-American community, participation in the great military conflicts of the United States, racial segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement.

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Agustín Ramos Calero
Sergeant First Class Agustín Ramos Calero (June 2, 1919–February 10, 1989) was awarded 22 decorations and medals from the U.S. Army for his actions during World War II, thus becoming the most decorated Hispanic soldier in the United States military during that war.
Calero was born and raised in the town of Isabela, Puerto Rico, which is located in the northern region of Puerto Rico. The economic situation in Puerto Rico during the 1930s was difficult as a result of the Great Depression. Due to the shortage of jobs in the island, many Puerto Ricans joined the United States Army which offered a guaranteed income.
In 1941, Calero joined the Army and was assigned to Puerto Rico's 65th Infantry Regiment at Camp Las Casas in Santurce. There he received his training as a rifleman. Upon the outbreak of World War II, Calero was reassigned to the Third U.S. Infantry Division and sent to Europe. In 1945, Calero's company was in the vicinity of Colmar, France and engaged in combat against a squad of German soldiers in what is known as the Battle of Colmar Pocket. Calero attacked the squad, killing ten of them and capturing 21 shortly before being wounded himself. Following these events, he was nicknamed "One-Man Army" by his comrades. For these actions he was awarded the Silver Star. Calero had been wounded a total of four times in Europe when the war ended. He was awarded a total of 22 decorations and medals for his actions, making him the Puerto Rican soldier with the most military decorations in all of the United States during that conflict.

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Al Lopez
Alfonso Ramon "Al" Lopez (August 20, 1908 – October 30, 2005) was an American catcher and manager in Major League Baseball, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977.
Lopez was the son of immigrants from Asturias, Spain who went to Cuba, then settled the Spanish-Cuban-Italian immigrant community of Ybor City, Tampa, Florida in the late 1880s. His Spanish-American heritage and "gentlemanly nature" earned him the nickname "El Señor".
He established a major league record for career games as a catcher, and later became the only manager to interrupt the New York Yankees' string of American League pennants from 1949 to 1964. With a .584 career winning percentage, he ranks 4th in major league history among managers of at least 2000 games, behind Joe McCarthy (.615), Frank Selee (.598) and John McGraw (.586). Over the course of 15 full seasons as manager, he never had a losing record.
Al Lopez was born in the immigrant neighborhood of Ybor City in Tampa, Florida. The cigar industry was most important in Tampa at the time, and Lopez's father, Modesto Lopez, worked in a cigar factory. Al visited his father's workplace as a child and "hated" the smell of tobacco that permeated the factory building. "I vowed never to work in one," he said later. Modesto died of throat cancer when Al was a young child.

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Alaska Natives
Alaska Natives are indigenous peoples of Alaska: Inupiaq, Yupik, Aleut, Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and a number of Northern Athabaskan cultures.
Ancestors of the Alaska Natives are known to have migrated into the area thousands of years ago, and established varying indigenous, complex cultures that have succeeded each other over time. That developed sophisticated ways to deal with the challenging climate and environment. Europeans and Americans began to trade with Alaska Natives in the nineteenth century. New settlements around trading posts were started by Russians, British and Americans.
In the 1800s and In 1971 Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which settled land and financial claims for lands and resources which they had lost to European Americans. It provided for the establishment of 13 Alaska Native Regional Corporations to administer those claims. Similar to the separately defined status of the Canadian Inuit and First Nations, which are recognized as distinct peoples, Alaska Natives are in some respects treated separately from Native Americans in the United States. An example of this separate treatment is that Alaska Natives are allowed the harvesting of whales and other marine mammals under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.

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Albert Pujols
José Alberto Pujols Alcántara (born January 16, 1980), better known as Albert Pujols (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈalβert puˈxols]), is a Dominican-American professional baseball first baseman for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of Major League Baseball. Pujols is considered one of the top players in Major League Baseball, and was the most feared hitter in baseball in 2008, according to a poll of all 30 MLB managers.
During his eleven seasons as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals, Pujols won the National League Rookie of the Year award in 2001, was selected as an All-Star nine times, and won the National League Most Valuable Player Award three times. He has also twice won the National League Hank Aaron Award, and has two World Series rings from the Cardinals' 2006 and 2011 titles.
At the end of the 2011 season, he led all active players in batting average (.328),slugging percentage (.617), and OPS (1.037), and ranked 37th in number of home runs in Major League Baseball history. He was selected by ESPN.com as the greatest player of the decade from 2000–09. He stands 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) tall, weighs 230 pounds (100 kg), and bats and throws right-handed.

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Alberto Del Rio
Alberto Rodríguez (born May 25, 1977) is a Mexican professional wrestler signed to WWE, performing under the ring name Alberto Del Rio and appearing on the SmackDown brand. He is a former two-time WWE Champion, while also being the 2011 Royal Rumble winner, outlasting 39 other participants to win the largest Royal Rumble match ever, and 2011 Mr. Money in the Bank (Raw). Before working for WWE, Rodriguez used the name Dos Caras, Jr. as both a mixed martial artist and luchador in mostly Mexico and Japan. He worked in both of Mexico's main wrestling promotions and achieved success in Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), where he is a former CMLL World Heavyweight Champion.
Son of noted luchador Dos Caras, nephew of Mil Máscaras and Sicodelico, and cousin to Sicodelico, Jr. and Hijo de Sicodelico, Rodríguez is part of one of the most well known Mexican wrestling families. The name Dos Caras translates to Two Faces, referring to the symbol of a double headed eagle on his mask.
Born in San Luis Potosí as the son of luchador Dos Caras. Rodríguez graduated from Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosí where he earned a degree in architecture. Growing up in a family of wrestlers Rodríguez decided to take up Greco-Roman wrestling, training under Leonel Kolesni and Juan Fernández. He earned a place on the Mexican national team in Greco-Roman wrestling and while competing on the national team obtained several accomplishments.^{[unreliable source?]} In 1997, he placed third at the World Junior Championships, in the Czech Republic.^{[unreliable source?]} He also won the Central American and Caribbean Games in his weight division three times and won a medal at the Pan American Games. Rodríguez was on track to compete at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, but due to a lack of funding and support, Mexico did not send a wrestling team that year.

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Alberto Gonzales
Alberto R. Gonzales (born August 4, 1955) was the 80th, and the first Hispanic United States Attorney General, appointed in February of 2005 by President George W. Bush, becoming the highest-ranking Hispanic in government to date. Prior to his elevation, he was the first Hispanic White House General Counsel, and earlier he had been Bush's General Counsel during his governorship of Texas. In Texas Gonzales had also served as Secretary of State of Texas and then as a Texas Supreme Court Justice. Gonzales's tenure as US Attorney General was marked by several conflicts with Congress. Following bipartisan calls for his removal, Gonzales resigned from the office without explanation. Democrats were particularly opposed to Gonzales for his role in the firing of several US District Attorneys which they believe had politicized his office.
Alberto Gonzales was born to a Catholic family in San Antonio, Texas, and raised in Humble, a town outside of Houston. Of Mexican descent, he was the second of eight children born to Pablo and Maria Gonzales. His father, who died in 1982, was a migrant worker and then a construction worker with a second grade education. His mother worked at home raising eight children and had a sixth grade education. Gonzales and his family of ten lived in a small, two-bedroom home built by his father and uncles with no telephone and no hot running water. According to Gonzales, he is unaware whether immigration documentation exists for three of his grandparents who were born in Mexico and who, like Gonzales and his family, were poor and uneducated and thus they may have entered and resided in the United States illegally from Mexico or they may have entered and resided legally.

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Alex Rodriguez
Alexander Emmanuel "Alex" Rodriguez (born July 27, 1975) is an American professional baseball third baseman with the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball. Known popularly by his nickname A-Rod, he previously played shortstop for the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers.
Rodriguez is considered one of the best all-around baseball players of all time. He is the youngest player ever to hit 500 home runs, breaking the record Jimmie Foxx set in 1939, and the youngest to hit 600, besting Babe Ruth's record by over a year. Rodriguez has fourteen 100-RBI seasons in his career, more than any other player in history. On September 24, 2010, Rodriguez hit two home runs, surpassing Sammy Sosa's mark of 609 HRs, and became the all-time leader in home runs by a player of Hispanic descent.
In December 2007, Rodriguez and the Yankees agreed to a 10-year, $275 million contract. This contract was the richest contract in baseball history (breaking his previous record of $252 million).
In February 2009, after previously denying use of performance-enhancing drugs, including during a 2007 interview with Katie Couric on 60 Minutes, Rodriguez admitted to using steroids, saying he used them from 2001 to 2003 when playing for the Texas Rangers due to what he called "an enormous amount of pressure" to perform.

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Ambrosio Guillen
Staff Sergeant Ambrosio Guillen (December 7, 1929 – July 25, 1953) was a United States Marine who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor—the United States' highest military honor—for his heroic actions and sacrifice of life during the Korean War, two days before the ceasefire. He was responsible for turning an overwhelming enemy attack into a disorderly retreat.
Ambrosio Guillen was born on December 7, 1929 in La Junta, Colorado. He came from a Mexican American family and grew up in El Paso, Texas. Guillen enlisted in the United States Marine Corps at the age of 18. He completed recruit training at San Diego, California, and was assigned to the 6th Marines. Later he was chosen for Sea School, and after graduation, served after on the USS Curtiss. Following his tour of sea duty, he was appointed a drill instructor at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego.
As a drill instructor, he trained two honor platoons and was given a Letter of Appreciation by his Commanding General. In that letter, MajGen John T. Walker observed that "your success in training these two platoons has demonstrated your outstanding ability as a leader."

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America Ferrera
America Georgina Ferrera (born April 18, 1984) is an American actress and producer. She is best known for her leading role as Betty Suarez on the ABC television series Ugly Betty (2006–2010). Her portrayal garnered critical acclaim, and she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series, and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series. She transitioned to a film career, starring in several films aimed at young audiences, including, Real Women Have Curves, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, its sequel Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, and The Dry Land, and had a small role in the skateboard biopic Lords of Dogtown (2005). In addition, she was the voice of Astrid the Viking in the Dreamworks animated picture How to Train Your Dragon.
Ferrera, the youngest of six children, was born in Los Angeles, California. Her parents, América Griselda Ayes and Carlos Gregorio Ferrera, were originally from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and immigrated to the United States in the mid-1970s. Her mother worked as the director of the housecleaning staff for Hilton Hotels, and stressed the importance of higher education. When she was 7, her parents divorced and her father returned to Honduras. Ferrera's father died in 2010.

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Andy García
Andrés Arturo García Menéndez (born April 12, 1956), professionally known as Andy García, is a Cuban American actor. He became known in the late 1980s and 1990s, having appeared in several successful Hollywood films, including The Godfather: Part III, The Untouchables, Internal Affairs and When a Man Loves a Woman. More recently, he has starred in Ocean's Eleven and its sequels, Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen, and The Lost City.
García was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Vincent Mancini in The Godfather Part III.
García was born Andrés Arturo García Menéndez in Havana, Cuba. His mother, Amelie Menéndez, was an English teacher, and his father, René García Núñez, was an avocado farmer and attorney in Cuba, and later owned a fragrance business in the United States. García has an older brother, René. When García was five years old, the family moved to Miami, Florida, after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion. Over a period of several years, they built up a million-dollar perfume company. García was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended Miami Beach Senior High School, where he played on the basketball team. During his last year in high school, he became ill with mononucleosis, which convinced him to pursue a career in acting. He began his acting career taking a drama class with Jay W. Jensen in his senior year at Miami Beach Senior High School. He graduated from Florida International University in Miami..

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Angela Salinas
Major General Angela Salinas is the director of Manpower Management Division, Manpower and Reserve Affairs, Headquarters Marine Corps. On August 4, 2006, when she assumed command of Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, she became the first woman to command the Recruit Depot. On August 2, 2006, Salinas became the first Hispanic female to become a United States Marine Corps general officer, and the sixth female in the Marine Corps to reach the rank of brigadier general.
MajGen Angela Salinas began her military career at Parris Island after enlisting into the United States Marine Corps on May 1974. She was subsequently assigned as a legal services clerk (MOS 4421) at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, the Marine Air Reserve Training Detachment in Alameda, and the inspector-instructor staff for 4th Reconnaissance Battalion in San Antonio.
In 1977, Salinas was selected for the Enlisted Commissioning Program and commissioned as a second lieutenant after graduation from Dominican College of San Rafael with a B.A. in history. She was subsequently assigned to the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing at MCAS Cherry Point and served as a legal services officer. In 1980, she was assigned to Woman Recruit Training Command at Parris Island, where she served as a series commander, executive officer, and battalion operations officer.

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Anita Page
Anita Evelyn Pomares (August 4, 1910 – September 6, 2008), better known as Anita Page, was a Salvadoran-American film actress who reached stardom in the last years of the silent film era. She became a highly popular young star, reportedly at one point receiving the most fan mail of anyone on the MGM lot. When Page died in 2008 at age 98, she was the last surviving "famous" film star of the silent era except for child actresses such as Baby Peggy and Baby Marie. A few silent leading ladies who did not achieve wide fame survive her. She was referred to as "a blond, blue-eyed Latin" and "the girl with the most beautiful face in Hollywood" in the 1920s.
Page was born in Flushing, Queens to Helen and John Pomares. She had one brother, Marino, who later worked for her as a gym instructor while her mother worked as her secretary and her father as her chauffeur. Of Salvadoran and Spanish ancestry, Page's grandfather was a consul from El Salvador.
Page entered films with the help of friend, actress Betty Bronson. Page's picture was spotted by a man who handled Bronson's fan mail who was also interested in representing actors. With the encouragement of her mother, Page telephoned the man who arranged a meeting for her with a casting director at Paramount Studios. After screentesting for Paramount, Page also tested for MGM. After being offered a contract for both studios, Page decided on MGM. Page's first film for MGM was the 1928 comedy-drama Telling the World, opposite William Haines. Her performances in her second MGM film, Our Dancing Daughters (1928) opposite Joan Crawford (with whom she appeared in three films), and The Broadway Melody (1929) opposite Bessie Love were her greatest successes of the period, and her popularity allowed her to make a smooth transition into talking pictures.

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Anthony Muñoz
Michael Anthony Muñoz (born August 19, 1958), is a Pro Football Hall of Fame offensive tackle who played most of his career for the National Football League's Cincinnati Bengals. After missing much of the 1992 season battling knee and shoulder injuries, Muñoz attempted to play a 14th season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but he was released before the season started and decided to retire shortly after.
Anthony Muñoz went to Chaffey High School. Muñoz played college football at the University of Southern California. He also played baseball there, pitching for USC’s national championship team in 1978.
Muñoz was the third overall pick in the 1980 National Football League draft by the Cincinnati Bengals. His selection was viewed as a major risk by many pundits since knee problems limited the 6 ft. 6 in., 280-pound Muñoz to just a combined eight games in his junior and senior seasons, though he did return for USC's 17-16 Rose Bowl win over Ohio State on New Year's Day 1980. However, Muñoz became a starter in his rookie season and remained a fixture at left tackle for the Bengals for 13 seasons and is considered one of, if not the greatest offensive linemen in NFL history. Despite his history of injuries, Muñoz missed just three games during his first 12 seasons. His rigorous workout routine included working out in the weight room he had installed in his home and running three to four miles every day. In addition to his talents as a blocker, Anthony Muñoz was also a capable receiver, notching 7 receptions for 18 yards and scoring 4 touchdowns on tackle-eligible plays, including one in 1984 from left-handed rookie quarterback Boomer Esiason against their upstate rival, the Cleveland Browns in Cleveland.

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Anthony Quinn
Antonio Rodolfo Quinn-Oaxaca (April 21, 1915 – June 3, 2001), more commonly known as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican and American actor, as well as a painter and writer. He starred in numerous critically acclaimed and commercially successful films, including Zorba the Greek, Lawrence of Arabia, The Guns of Navarone, The Message, Guns for San Sebastian, Lion of the Desert and Federico Fellini's La Strada. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor twice; for Viva Zapata! in 1952 and Lust for Life in 1956.
Quinn was born Antonio Reyes in Chihuahua, Chihuahua, Mexico, during the Mexican Revolution. His mother, Manuela "Nellie" Oaxaca, was of Aztec Indian ancestry. His father, Francisco Quinn, was also born in Mexico, to an Irish immigrant father from County Cork and a Mexican mother. Frank Quinn rode with Pancho Villa, then later moved to Los Angeles and became an assistant cameraman at a movie studio. In Quinn's autobiography The Original Sin: A Self-Portrait by Anthony Quinn he denied being the son of an "Irish adventurer" and attributed that tale to Hollywood publicists.

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Antonia Novello
Antonia Coello Novello, M.D., (born August 23, 1944) is a Puerto Rican physician and public health administrator. She was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as fourteenth Surgeon General of the United States from 1990 to 1993. Novello is the first woman and first Hispanic to serve as Surgeon General.
Novello served as Commissioner of Health for the State of New York from 1999 to 2006. Novello was charged in a 20 count indictment on May 12, 2009, in New York with theft of government services, defrauding the government and filing a false instrument. On June 26, 2009, in a plea deal with prosecutors, she pleaded guilty to one charge of filing a false document involving a worker’s duties.
In 1979, Novello joined the Public Health Service and received a commission in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC). Her first assignment was as a project officer at the National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism and Digestive Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). From 1976, she also held a clinical appointment in pediatrics at Georgetown University Hospital. During her years at NIH, Novello worked on an MPH degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, receiving the degree in 1982.^{[citation needed]}

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Antonio Banderas
José Antonio Domínguez Banderas (born 10 August 1960), better known as Antonio Banderas, is a Spanish film actor, film director, film producer and singer. He began his acting career at age 19 with a series of films by director Pedro Almodóvar and then appeared in high-profile Hollywood films, especially in the 1990s, including Assassins, Evita, Interview with the Vampire, Philadelphia, Desperado, The Mask of Zorro, Spy Kids, the Shrek sequels and Puss in Boots.
Banderas was born in Málaga, Andalucía, Spain, in 1960, to Ana Banderas, a school teacher, and José Domínguez, a police officer in the Guardia Civil. He has a younger brother, Javier. Although the family name is Domínguez, he took his mother's surname as his stage name. As a child, he wanted to become a professional football player until a broken foot sidelined his dreams at the age of fifteen. He went on to enroll in some drama classes, eventually joining a theater troupe that toured all over Spain. His work in the theater, and his performances on the streets, eventually landed him a spot with the National Theatre of Spain.

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Arab American
An Arab American (Arabic: عرب أمريكا‎) is a United States citizen or resident of Arab ethnic, cultural and linguistic heritage or identity, who identifies themselves as Arab. Arab Americans trace ancestry to any of the various waves of immigrants of the countries comprising the Arab World. Americans descended from immigrants of the Arab world via other countries are also included.
Countries of origin for Arab Americans include Lebanon, Syria, Palestine (mostly pre-1948 Palestine Christians as well as what since corresponds to the Gaza Strip and West Bank, plus Arab citizens of Israel), Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait in West Asia and Libya, Sudan, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Mauritania and Morocco (plus also Sahrawis from the disputed Western Sahara) in North Africa.
According to the 2008 ACS, there are 1,573,530 Arab Americans, accounting for 0.5% of the American population. The largest subgroup is by far the Lebanese Americans, with 501,907, nearly a third of the Arab American population. Over 1/4 of all Arab Americans claimed two ancestries, having not only Arab ancestry but also non-Arab. Some groups from the Arab World are non Arabs; Assyrians were listed in the US census under Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac. Arab Americans, and Arabs in general, comprise a highly diverse amalgam of groups with differing ancestral origins, religious backgrounds and historic identities. Instead, the ties that bind are a shared heritage by virtue of common linguistic, cultural, and political traditions.

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Argentine American
Argentine Americans are citizens and residents of the United States whose origins are in the South American nation of Argentina.
The profile of the Argentine American population is generally similar to the overall U.S. population's. Among the key differences, however, is educational attainment. Argentine Americans exhibit a rate of 39.5% of holders of bachelor's, graduate, or professional degrees, contrasted with the 27.5% of the overall U.S. population. The difference is more marked among women: 40.2% for Argentine American females, and 26.7% for all U.S. females.
Another major difference is the fact that 69.1% of Argentine Americans are immigrants, which contrasts sharply with the 12.6% of the overall U.S. population.
Argentine Americans had a median household income of $55,044. Again, this is higher than the national figure, which was $50,740.
Some idea of their ancestral origins is supplied by the demographics of Argentina, which portray a nation that is as much of Italian as Spanish ancestry, but with significant German, British, French, Amerindian, Slavic, and Semitic components.

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Arte Moreno
Arturo "Arte" Moreno (born August 1946) is an American businessman of Mexican descent. On May 15, 2003, he made history by becoming the first Hispanic to own a major sports team in the United States when he purchased the Anaheim Angels baseball team from the Walt Disney Company.
Moreno is a native of Tucson, Arizona, and the oldest of 11 children. Moreno graduated from high school in 1965 and was drafted into the United States Army in 1966, fighting in the Vietnam War. After returning to civilian life in 1968, he enrolled in the University of Arizona.
In 1973, Moreno graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in marketing. That same year, he was hired to work at the Eller Outdoor advertising company.
Moreno would travel across the country for the next seven years, Eller Outdoor relocating him several times. However, in 1984, he moved back to Arizona, settling in Phoenix, where he was hired by billboard company Outdoor Systems.
It was while with Outdoor Systems that Moreno was first able to make his mark as a businessman. He rose to become the company's president and chief executive officer, and under his leadership, the company's total profits grew from $500,000 USD to $90 million in less than 10 years.

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Asian people
Asian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.
Native ethnic groups of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan self-identify themselves as Asian. They are also recognized as Asian by Russians and Chinese.^{[citation needed]}
This self-identification is based phenotypically, and on cultural differences from Russians, as these countries used to be parts of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, and therefore have significant Russian populations. Another reason for such self-identification is patriotic: "the native people of the Center of Asia - are undoubtedly Asians".^{[citation needed]}
In parts of anglophone Africa, especially East Africa and South Africa, and in parts of the Anglophone Caribbean, the term "Asian" is more commonly associated with people of South Asian origin, particularly Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans.
Notably, the Australian Census includes Central Asia, a region that is often considered to be part of the Greater Middle East. The Australian Census includes four regions of Asia in its official definition. Defined by the 2006–2011 Australian Census, three broad groups have the word Asian included in their name: Central and Southern Asian, South-East Asian and North-East Asian. Russians are classified as Southern and Eastern Europeans while Middle Easterners are classified as North African and Middle Easterners.

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Australian American
An Australian American is a citizen of the United States who identifies with an Australian national background. This can include people of European, Asian, African or Pacific Islander backgrounds.
The history of the Australian American population almost follows the story of both British Americans and Irish Americans, as Australia was a British political territory at the time when they first emigrated and most of the settlers were Irish. The first wave of emigration from Australia to the United States came in the 1850s California Gold Rush when mostly Irish migrants who had escaped the Great Irish Famine had previously worked on the Australian goldfields. In San Francisco, the "Sydney Ducks" as they were known, were in violent conflict with nativist locals. Transpacific immigration then dried up while the American Civil War waged. It picked up during the period of Reconstruction, but faltered again when Australia was hit by a depression in the late 1890s. Immigration to the United States peaked in the years following World War II, due to America's increased economic activity, and the exodus of 15,000 Australian war brides who married U.S. servicemen. From 1971 to 1990, more than 86,400 Australians and New Zealanders immigrated to the United States.

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Baldomero Lopez
Baldomero Lopez (August 23, 1925 – September 15, 1950) was a first lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War. He posthumously received the Medal of Honor for smothering a hand grenade with his own body during the Inchon Landing on September 15, 1950.
Lopez was born on August 23, 1925, in Tampa, Florida, and grew up in the neighborhood of Ybor City. His father, also named Baldomero Lopez, had immigrated to the United States from the Asturias region of Spain as a young man. The younger Lopez attended Hillsborough High School, where he was an accomplished basketball player and a regimental commander in the school's Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program. He enlisted in the United States Navy on July 8, 1943, shortly after graduating from high school, and served until June 11 of the next year.
He was selected to attend the U.S. Naval Academy in the midst of World War II, and because of the ongoing war he and his classmates were placed in an accelerated three-year program. Upon graduating on June 6, 1947, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps. He attended The Basic School at Quantico, Virginia, after which he became a platoon commander in the Platoon Leaders Class Training Regiment.

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Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II (ⁱ/bəˈrɑːk huːˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/; born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. In January 2005, Obama was sworn in as a U.S. Senator in the state of Illinois. He would hold this office until November 2008, when he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004.
Following an unsuccessful bid against the Democratic incumbent for a seat in the United States House of Representatives in 2000, Obama ran for the United States Senate in 2004. Several events brought him to national attention during the campaign, including his victory in the March 2004 Illinois Democratic primary for the Senate election and his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. He won election to the U.S. Senate in Illinois in November 2004. His presidential campaign began in February 2007, and after a close campaign in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries against Hillary Rodham Clinton, he won his party's nomination. In the 2008 presidential election, he defeated Republican nominee John McCain, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months later, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In April 2011, he announced that he would be running for re-election in 2012.

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Belizean American
Belizeans are people originating in the Central American nation of Belize whether they live there or in the Belizean diaspora.
About 1 out of every 3 Belizeans now live overseas and outside of Belize; the majority have migrated to Anglophone countries, especially the United States, where there are some 175,000 Belizeans, and the United Kingdom, with around 3,000 Belizeans. Smaller numbers now live in Canada.
Kriols and other ethnic groups are emigrating mostly to the United States, but also to the United Kingdom and other developed nations for better opportunities. Based on the latest U.S. Census, the number of Belizeans in the United States is approximately 175,000 (including 70,000 legal residents and naturalised citizens), consisting mainly of Kriols and Garinagu.
Demographics of Belize

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Benicio del Toro
Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez (born February 19, 1967) is a Puerto Rican actor and film producer. He won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a BAFTA Award for his role as Javier Rodríguez in Traffic (2000). He is also known for his roles as Fred Fenster in The Usual Suspects (1995), Dr. Gonzo in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998), Franky Four Fingers in Snatch (2000), Jackie Boy in Sin City (2005), and Che Guevara in Che (2008). He is the third Puerto Rican to win an Academy Award.
Benicio del Toro was born in San German, on the southwest side of the island of Puerto Rico, and grew up in Santurce, a district of San Juan. He is the son of Gustavo Adolfo del Toro Bermúdez and Fausta Genoveva Sánchez Rivera, who were both lawyers, and deeply respected and beloved in Puerto Rico for their commitment to their community. Gustavo Del Toro was affectionately called the "lawyer of the poor". Many of Del Toro's relatives are involved in the island's legal system. He has an older brother, Gustavo, who was a pediatric oncologist at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. He is of Spanish descent through a Catalan paternal great-grandfather and a Basque maternal great-grandmother, he has Italian and Amerindian ancestry as well. The surname del Toro (Touro) is of Sephardic origin. Benicio del Toro is related to Puerto Rican basketball player Carlos Arroyo, his father Gustavo is a cousin of Arroyo's mother, Gloria Bermudez. Del Toro is also related to Spanish Euro-pop singer Rebeca Pous Del Toro, whose grandfather is Puerto Rican, and Puerto Rican singer Eliseo del Toro.

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Benjamin Bratt
Benjamin Bratt (born December 16, 1963) is an American actor. He is most famous for his role as Rey Curtis on the TV series Law & Order; and his appearances in the movies Miss Congeniality, Demolition Man, Blood in Blood Out, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Traffic, and Piñero.
Bratt was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Eldy (née Banda), a nurse, and Peter Bratt, Sr., a sheet metal worker. Bratt's mother is a Peruvian Indigenous activist of the Quechua ethnic group; born in Peru, she moved to the U.S. at age nine. His father was an American of German and English descent. They married December 30, 1960, in San Francisco, but divorced in September 1967. Bratt's paternal grandfather, George Cleveland Bratt (March 5, 1893 – March 29, 1984), was a Broadway actor who married his grandmother Wiltrude Hildner on August 6, 1920, in Detroit, Michigan.
As a child, Bratt went with his mother and siblings to participate in the 1969 Native American occupation of Alcatraz. Today Bratt is an active supporter of such Native American causes as the American Indian College Fund and We Shall Remain, a mini-series and multi-media project, narrated by Bratt, that establishes Native history as an essential part of American history from PBS' acclaimed series American Experience.

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Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III; August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation. Clinton has been described as a New Democrat. Many of his policies have been attributed to a centrist Third Way philosophy of governance.
Born and raised in Arkansas, Clinton became both a student leader and a skilled musician. He is an alumnus of Georgetown University where he was Phi Beta Kappa and earned a Rhodes Scholarship to attend the University of Oxford. He is married to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has served as the United States Secretary of State since 2009 and was a Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009. Both Clintons received law degrees from Yale Law School, where they met and began dating. As Governor of Arkansas, Clinton overhauled the state's education system, and served as Chair of the National Governors Association.

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Bill Richardson
William Blaine "Bill" Richardson III (born November 15, 1947) is an American politician, who served as the 30th Governor of New Mexico from 2003 to 2011. Before being elected governor, Richardson served in the Clinton administration as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Energy Secretary. Richardson has also served as a U.S. Congressman, chairman of the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. On December 3, 2008, then-President-elect Barack Obama designated Richardson for appointment to the cabinet-level position of Commerce Secretary. On January 4, 2009, Richardson announced his decision to withdraw his nomination because of an investigation into possibly improper business dealings in New Mexico. In August 2009, federal prosecutors dropped the pending investigation against the governor, and there was speculation in the media regarding Richardson's career, as his second and final term as New Mexico governor concluded.

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Black people
The term black people is used in some socially-based systems of racial classification for humans of a dark-skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups represented in a particular social context. Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class and socio-economic status also play a role, so that relatively dark-skinned people can be classified as white if they fulfill other social criteria of "whiteness" and relatively light-skinned people can be classified as black if they fulfill the social criteria for "blackness" in a particular setting.
As a biological phenotype being "black" is often associated with the very dark skin colors of some people who are classified as "black". But, particularly in the United States, the racial or ethnic classification also refers to people with all possible kinds of skin pigmentation from the darkest through to the very lightest skin colors, including albinos, if they are believed by others to have African ancestry, or to exhibit cultural traits associated with being "African-American". As a result, in the United States the term "black people" is not an indicator of skin color but of socially based racial classification.

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Bob Martinez
Robert "Bob" Martinez (born December 25, 1934) was the 40th Governor of Florida from 1987 to 1991. Prior to that, he was the mayor of Tampa from 1979 to 1986.
The grandson of Spanish immigrants, Martinez was born in Tampa, Florida. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Tampa and went on to earn a master's in labor and industrial relations from the University of Illinois. In the late 1960s, Martinez returned to Tampa to teach.
Martinez became involved in the Hillsborough County Classroom Teachers Association, the local teachers' union, and was named the executive director of the HCTA in 1966. In 1968, the Hillsborough CTA supported the Florida Education Association's call for a state-wide teacher strike in support of more education funding and collective bargaining rights for teachers. Though the labor action was seemingly unsuccessful in the short term, it eventually set the stage for better salaries and better relations between teachers and the state.
Martinez ran successfully for the office of mayor of Tampa in 1979. While Mayor, the city built one of America's first refuse to energy plants, a performing arts center, convention center, reconstructed the zoo, restored the 1915 City Hall building and annexed thousands of acres of undeveloped land that became New Tampa.

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Bob Menendez
Robert "Bob" Menendez (born January 1, 1954) is the junior United States Senator from New Jersey and a member of the Democratic Party. In January 2006, he was appointed to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Jon Corzine, who resigned upon being elected Governor of New Jersey. Menendez was elected to his own full six-year term in the 2006 U.S. Senate election.
Prior to his appointment to the U.S. Senate, Menendez was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing New Jersey's 13th congressional district. He previously served as Mayor of Union City (1986–1992) and as a member of the New Jersey General Assembly and the New Jersey Senate.
Following the 2008 elections, Menendez was appointed to head the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Bob Menendez was born on New Year's Day in New York City to Cuban immigrants who left their homeland a few months earlier, in 1953, seeking economic and political freedom from the repressive government headed by Fulgencio Batista. His father, Mario Menendez, was a carpenter, and his mother, Evangelina, a seamstress. The family subsequently moved to neighboring New Jersey where, growing up in Union City, he graduated from Union Hill High School.

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Bobby Chacon
Bobby Chacon (born November 28, 1951) is an American former, two-time, world boxing champion.
Chacon was born in Sylmar, California.
Chacon turned professional in 1972 and won his first 19 fights, including a win against former champion Jesus Castillo. Fourteen months into his professional career, Chacon faced world champion Rubén Olivares but lost the bout when Olivares scored a ninth-round knock out.
After suffering his first defeat against Olivares, Chacon won his next four bouts, then faced off against cross-town rival and future champion Danny Lopez.Chacon outboxed Lopez and stopped him in the ninth round.
On July 9, 1974, Chacon won the vacant WBC Featherweight title by defeating former WBA Junior Lightweight champion Alfredo Marcano in nine rounds at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. During his first period as a world champion, Chacon got to meet, and like, what many refer to as the sweet life. He became an alcoholic, and he loved partying. His clashes with the law became matters of public knowledge, and his life went on a wild downward spiral.

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Bolivian American
Bolivian American is a compound term that applies to American citizens of Bolivian origin. Racially, Bolivian Americans are identified as Indigenous, European (mostly Spanish, German, or Croatian), Afro Bolivian, or a combination of any or all three races in varying degrees of admixture. Furthermore, there are Bolivian Americans of Japanese descent, albeit, in small numbers.
Bolivian immigration into the United States occurred in two significant phases. The first phase occurred during and subsequent to the 1952 National Revolution (between 1952 and the latter 1960s). Most of these immigrants consisted of middle- to upper-middle income occupational professionals or political dissidents, and identify with Bolivia's White or Criollo (mixed White) society.
The second notable phase of Bolivian immigration (between 1980 and 1988) was a result of Bolivia's fiscal policies in the 1970s which gave way to the hyperinflation throughout most of the 1980s. Most of these immigrants consisted of lower-income Mestizo and Indigenous Bolivians obtaining work posts as service and manual laborers.

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Brazilian American
Brazilian Americans are Americans of Brazilian origin. There were an estimated 351,914 Brazilian Americans as of 2008, according to the United States Census Bureau. Another source gives an estimate of some 800,000 Brazilians living in the U.S. in 2000, while still another estimates that as of 2008^[update] some 1,100,000 Brazilians live in the United States, 300,000 of them in Florida.
The official United States Census category of Hispanic or Latino is limited explicitly to people of "Spanish culture or origin", and therefore does not include Brazilian Americans.

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Brazilian people
Brazilians (brasileiros in Portuguese) are all people born in Brazil. A Brazilian can be also a person born abroad to a Brazilian parent or a foreigner living in Brazil who applied for Brazilian citizenship.
According to the Constitution of Brazil, a Brazilian citizen is:
According to the Constitution, all people who hold Brazilian citizenship are equal, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender or religion.
A foreigner can apply for Brazilian citizenship after living for 4 (four) uninterrupted years in Brazil and being able to speak Portuguese. A native person from an official Portuguese language country (Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, Guinea Bissau and East Timor) can request the Brazilian nationality after only 1 uninterrupted year living in Brazil. A foreign born person who holds Brazilian citizenship has exactly the same rights and duties of the Brazilian citizen by birth, but cannot occupy some special public positions such as the Presidency of the Republic, Vice-presidency of the Republic, Minister (Secretary) of Defense, Presidency (Speaker) of the Senate, Presidency (Speaker) of the House of Representatives, Officer of the Armed Forces and Diplomat.

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Brett Ratner
Brett Ratner (born March 28, 1969) is an American film director, film producer, and music video director. He is known for directing the Rush Hour film series, The Family Man, Red Dragon, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Tower Heist. He was also a producer on the Fox drama series, Prison Break.
Ratner was born in Miami Beach, Florida. His mother, Marcia (Presman), was the daughter of Eastern European Jews who lived in Cuba before moving to Florida in the 1960s. His father was Ronald Ratner, the son of a wealthy Miami businessman. Ratner's parents married when he was in his senior year of high school, and his father died in 2006. Ratner told Aventura Business Monthly in a May, 2011, cover story interview that he "really didn't know" his biological father, and that he considers Alvin Malnik, who opened the famous Forge restaurant in Miami Beach, to be his dad, "the one who raised" him.
Ratner attended high school in Israel and graduated in 1986 from Miami Beach Senior High School. He is a 1990 graduate of New York University. In 2010, he cited the 1980 boxing film Raging Bull as his inspiration to enter the world of film.

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Brian Sandoval
Brian Edward Sandoval (born August 5, 1963) is the 29th and current Governor of the U.S. state of Nevada and a member of the Republican Party. Sandoval is a former judge of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada. In June 2010, Sandoval defeated his GOP challengers (including incumbent governor Jim Gibbons) to win the Republican nomination for the 2010 Gubernatorial election.
Prior to his service as a federal judge, he served as the Nevada Attorney General, the youngest chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission and a state legislator. Sandoval was also the first Hispanic candidate elected to statewide office in Nevada.
Sandoval was born in Redding, California, and is a long-time resident of Reno. His family is of Hispanic ancestry with Mexican roots. Sandoval graduated from Bishop Manogue High School in Reno in 1981, and attended the University of Nevada, where he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, and earned a Bachelor's Degree in English and economics in 1986. He then went on to earn a law degree from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law in 1989.

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Cain Velasquez
Cain Velasquez Ramirez (born July 28, 1982) is a Mexican American mixed martial artist fighting in the Ultimate Fighting Championship where he is a former UFC Heavyweight Champion. He is a two-time All-American collegiate wrestler from Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, and a Junior College National Champ at Iowa Central Community College. He is a two-time 5A state champion in Arizona, compiling a record of 110–10 for Kofa High School in Yuma, Arizona. Cain Velasquez is ranked #2 in the heavyweight division.
Velasquez, a Mexican American, was born on July 28, 1982 in Salinas, California to Efrain and Isabel Velasquez. Velasquez's father, Efrain, came from Mexico to the United States illegally. Efrain met his wife Isabel, married her, and gained US citizenship. Velasquez has two siblings, Efrain, Jr., and Adela. He was raised in Yuma, Arizona. He graduated from Kofa High School, where he compiled a record of 110–10 in four years of wrestling, including winning the 5A Arizona Wrestling Championship twice. Velasquez also played football for three years. As a senior, he served as Captain of both his wrestling and football teams.

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Californio
Californio (historic and regional Spanish for "Californian") is a term used to identify a Spanish-speaking, mostly Roman Catholic people, or of Latin American descent, regardless of race, born in California before 1848. The much larger population of indigenous peoples of California were not Californios because they did not speak Spanish and/or were not Catholic. Neither were the significant numbers of non-Spanish speaking California-born children of resident foreigners (primarily U.S. and British).
The military, religious and civil components of pre-1848 California society were embodied in the thinly populated presidios, missions, pueblos and ranchos. Until they were secularized in the 1830s, the twenty-one Spanish Missions of California, with their thousands of more or less captive native converts, controlled the most (about 1,000,000 acres (4,000 km²) per Mission) and best land, had large numbers of workers, grew the most crops and had the most sheep, cattle and horses. After secularization, most of the Mission lands were divided up into new ranchos and granted to Mexican citizens (including many Californios) resident in California.

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Cameron Diaz
Cameron Michelle Diaz (born August 30, 1972) is an American actress and former model. She became famous during the 1990s with roles in the movies The Mask, My Best Friend's Wedding, and There's Something About Mary. Other high-profile credits include the two Charlie's Angels films, voicing the character Princess Fiona in the Shrek series, and Bad Teacher. Diaz received Golden Globe award nominations for her performances in the movies There's Something About Mary, Being John Malkovich, Vanilla Sky, and Gangs of New York.
Diaz, the younger of two daughters, was born in San Diego, California. Her mother, Billie (née Early), is an import-export agent, and her father, Emilio Diaz (1949–2008), worked for the California oil company UNOCAL for more than 20 years as a field gauger. Diaz has an older sister, Chimene. Her father's family came from Cuba, before settling in Tampa's Ybor City, and eventually California, where Emilio was born. Her mother is of German and Cherokee descent. Diaz was raised in Long Beach, California and attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School.

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Canadian American
A Canadian American is someone who was born or someone who grew up in Canada then moved to the United States. The term is particularly apt when applied or self-applied to people with strong ties to Canada, such as those who have lived a significant portion of their lives in, or were educated in, Canada, and then relocated to the United States. To others, especially for those living in New England or the Mid-Western States, a Canadian American is one whose ancestors came from Canada.
The term Canadian refers to some as nationality, and to others as ethnicity. English-speaking Canadian immigrants easily integrate and assimilate into American culture and society as a result of the cultural similarities and in the vocabulary and accent in spoken English. French-speaking Canadians, because of language, culture, and religion, tend to take longer to assimilate. However, by the 3rd generation, the assimilation is complete, and the Canadian identity is more or less folklore. This took place, even though half of the population of the Quebec province immigrated to the US between 1840 and 1930. Many New England cities formed Little Canadas, but much of this has gradually disappeared. A revival of the Canadian identity has taken place in the mid-western states, where Canadian Americans are older than 7–8 generations. These states had been part of Canada up until 1783. A return to their roots seems to be taking place, with a greater interest in all things that are Canadian.

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Carlos Arroyo
Carlos Alberto Arroyo Bermúdez (born July 30, 1979 in Fajardo) is a Puerto Rican professional basketball point guard who plays for Beşiktaş Milangaz in Turkey. Arroyo is the fifth player from Puerto Rico to play in the NBA. In the 2008–09 season, he played for Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Israeli Basketball Super League, winning the league's championship and being named the final's Most Valuable Player.
Arroyo has played in the NBA, NCAA, and the National Superior Basketball League of Puerto Rico (BSN) with the Fajardo Cariduros and Cangrejeros de Santurce. Arroyo has also played internationally in Spain. Arroyo was a member of the Puerto Rican National Basketball Team that defeated the United States at the 2004 Olympic Basketball Tournament. He also represented Puerto Rico at the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Japan.
Arroyo began his career in the National Superior Basketball League of Puerto Rico, where he debuted with the Fajardo Cariduros and subsequently played for the Cangrejeros de Santurce, where he was a teammate of then starting center of the Puerto Rico National Basketball Team, José Ortiz. During his participation with the team the Crabbers won four consecutive national titles in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2003, winning five league championships in six years.

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Carlos Bocanegra
Carlos Manuel Bocanegra (born May 25, 1979) is an American soccer player who plays as the vice captain Scottish Premier League club Rangers and is the captain of the United States national team.
After playing college soccer at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Bocanegra signed a Project-40 contract with Major League Soccer (MLS) and was drafted by the Chicago Fire with the fourth overall pick in the 2000 MLS SuperDraft. He spent most of the year with the Fire, playing two games on loan with Project 40. He proceeded to win the MLS Rookie of the Year Award for a team that made it to the MLS Championship match and won the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. He became one of the top defenders in MLS, becoming the first player to win the MLS Defender of the Year Award twice, in 2002 and 2003. Bocanegra scored five goals and had eight assists in his four years in MLS.
Bocanegra was signed by Fulham in January 2004, quickly becoming a fans favourite, garnering the nickname the Jackal. With Fulham, Bocanegra played primarily as a center back, but also as a left back and briefly as a holding midfielder. During the 2006–07 Premier League season, he was Fulham's second leading scorer with five goals, behind fellow American Brian McBride. On September 1, 2007, Bocanegra captained Fulham for the first time in a Premier League match, a come from behind 3–3 draw with Tottenham Hotspur. On September 15, 2007, he made his 100th appearance in the Premier League, all for Fulham, against Wigan Athletic. He was released by Fulham on May 23, 2008.

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Carlos Gutierrez
Carlos Miguel Gutierrez (originally Gutiérrez) (born November 4, 1953) is an American former CEO and former U.S. Cabinet Member who is currently a Vice Chairman of Citigroup's Institutional Clients Group. He has previously served as the 35th U.S. Secretary of Commerce from 2005 to 2009. Gutierrez is a former Chairman of the Board and CEO of the Kellogg Company.
Gutierrez was born in Havana, Cuba, the son of a pineapple plantation owner. Gutierrez is of Spanish and French descent. As a successful businessman, his father was deemed an enemy of the state by Fidel Castro's regime. Faced with the expropriation of their property following the Cuban Revolution, Gutierrez's family fled for the United States in 1960 when he was six years old. Like many other Cuban American exiles, they settled in Miami. When it became apparent they would not be going home, Gutierrez's father accepted a position with the H. J. Heinz Company in Mexico and later started his own business. Gutierrez learned his first words of English from the bellhop at the hotel where they initially stayed and, some years later, he and his family acquired United States citizenship.

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Carlos Lozada
Private First Class Carlos James Lozada (September 6, 1946 – November 20, 1967), was a member of the United States Army who was one of five Puerto Ricans who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for their actions in combat.
Lozada was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico. His family moved to New York City in the early 1950s. They settled in the Bronx section of the city, where Lozada received both his primary and secondary education. He graduated from high school in 1966 and soon married. Lozada then joined the Army, intending to use his G.I. benefits to attend college after his term of service.
The United States at that time was involved in the Vietnam War and on June 11, 1967, Lozada was sent to Vietnam and assigned to Co. A, 2nd Battalion, 503 Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade.
On November 20, 1967, at Dak To in the Republic of Vietnam, PFC Lozada spotted a North Vietnamese Army company rapidly approaching his outpost. He alerted his comrades and opened fire with a machine gun, killing at least twenty of the enemy soldiers and disrupting their initial attack. He realized that if he abandoned his position there would be nothing to hold back the surging North Vietnamese soldiers and that his entire company withdrawal would be jeopardized - as a result he told his comrades to move to the back and that he would supply cover for them. He continued to deliver a heavy and accurate volume of suppressive fire against the enemy until he was mortally wounded and had to be carried during the withdrawal.

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Carlos Mencia
Carlos Mencia (born October 22, 1967), born Ned Arnel Mencia, is a Honduran-born American comedian, writer, and actor. His style of comedy is often political and involves issues of race, culture, criminal justice, and social class. He was formerly the host of his own show on Comedy Central, Mind of Mencia.
Mencía was born in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, the seventeenth of eighteen children. His mother, Magdelena Mencía, was Mexican, and his father, Roberto Holness, was a Honduran whose distant ancestors included immigrants from Germany, England, and the Cayman Islands. At the time of his birth, Mencía's mother engaged in a domestic dispute with his father, and declined to give her son his biological father's last name. The name appearing on his birth certificate is "Ned Arnel Mencía", although Mencia has said that out of respect for his biological father he went by the Holness name anyway, and was known as "Ned Holness" until he was eighteen years old.
Mencia was raised Roman Catholic in East Los Angeles, California by his aunt Consuelo and uncle Pablo Mencia. By his own admission, staying out of trouble was difficult while growing up, but with the help of his family he excelled in school and stayed out of gangs. He majored in electrical engineering at California State University, Los Angeles, but left early to pursue a career in comedy after a successful performance at an open mic night at The Laugh Factory. He has an older brother named Joseph Mencia who often appeared on Mind of Mencia.

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Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana (born July 20, 1947) is a Mexican and American rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, Latin music and jazz fusion. The band's sound featured his melodic, blues-based guitar lines set against Latin and African rhythms featuring percussion instruments such as timbales and congas not generally heard in rock music. Santana continued to work in these forms over the following decades. He experienced a resurgence of popularity and critical acclaim in the late 1990s. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine listed Santana at number 15 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He has won 10 Grammy Awards and 3 Latin Grammy Awards.
Santana was born in Autlán de Navarro, Jalisco, Mexico. Carlos learned to play the violin at age five and the guitar at age eight. His younger brother, Jorge Santana, would also become a professional guitarist. Young Carlos was heavily influenced by Ritchie Valens at a time when there were very few Latinos in American rock and pop music. The family moved from Autlán de Navarro to Tijuana In La Colonia Libertad, the city on Mexico's border with California, and then San Francisco. Carlos stayed in Tijuana but joined his family in San Francisco later and graduated from James Lick Middle School and Mission High School there. He graduated from Mission High in 1965. Carlos was accepted into the California State University, Northridge and Humboldt State University, but turned down both of the offers. Javier Bátiz, a famous guitarist from Tijuana, was said to have been Carlos's guitar teacher who taught him to play a different style of guitar soloing. After learning Javier Batiz's techniques, Santana would make them his own as well.

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Carmelo Anthony
Carmelo Kiyan Anthony (born May 29, 1984), nicknamed "Melo", is an American professional basketball player who currently plays for the New York Knicks in the National Basketball Association (NBA). After a successful high school career at Towson Catholic High School and Oak Hill Academy, Anthony attended Syracuse University for college where he led the Orangemen to their first National Championship in 2003. He earned the tournament's Most Outstanding Player award and was named the Most Valuable Player of NCAA East Regional. After one season at Syracuse University, Anthony left college to enter the 2003 NBA Draft, where he was selected as the third pick by the Nuggets. He was traded to the Knicks several days prior to the 2011 trade deadline.
Since entering the NBA, Anthony has emerged as one of the most well-known and popular players in the league. He was named to the All-Rookie team, to the All-Star team five times and to the All-NBA team five times. Anthony led the Nuggets to two division titles and to the playoffs every year from 2004 to 2010. In 2009, he helped the Nuggets advance to the Conference Finals for the first time since 1985. As a member of the USA National Team, Anthony won a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics and a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics.

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Casta
Casta (Spanish: [ˈkasta], Portuguese: [ˈkaʃtɐ, ˈkastɐ]) is a Spanish and Portuguese term used in 17th and 18th centuries mainly in Spanish America to describe as a whole the mixed-race people which appeared in the post-Conquest period. A parallel system of categorization based on the degree of acculturation to Hispanic culture, which distinguished between gente de razón (Hispanics) and gente sin razón (non-acculturated natives), concurrently existed and worked together with the idea of casta.
The system of castas, or genizaros was inspired by the assumption that the character and quality of people varied according to their birth, color, race and origin of ethnic types. The system of castas was more than socio-racial classification. It impacted every aspect of life, including economics and taxation. Both the Spanish colonial state and the Church expected more tax and tribute payments from those of lower socio-racial categories.
Casta is an Iberian word (existing in Spanish, Portuguese and other Iberian languages since the Middle Ages), meaning "lineage", "breed" or "race." It is derived from the older Latin word castus, "chaste," implying that the lineage has been kept pure. Casta gave rise to the English word caste during the Early Modern Period.

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Catalan American
Catalan Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who acknowledge ethnic Catalan ancestry and self-identify with it. The group is formed by Catalan-born naturalized citizens or residents, their descendants and, to a lesser extent, citizens or residents of Catalan descent who still acknowledge Catalan ancestry.
The Catalan or Catalonian ancestry is identified with the code 204 in the 2000 U.S. Census, with the name Catalonian, which is in the group 200-299 HISPANIC CATEGORIES (INCLUDING SPAIN). A total of 1,738 individuals who received the long-form Census questionnaire (which is given to 1 in 6 households) self-identified as Catalan Americans. In the same survey 1,660 people aged 5 or older indicated being able to speak the Catalan language, also with the name Catalonian. Because the long-form is a 1-in-6 sample of the population, that figure puts the estimate of Catalan speakers in the U.S. for the year 2000 at around 10,000 people. However 8.067 people born in the autonomous community of Catalonia live nowadays in the USA.

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Cesar Romero
Cesar Julio Romero, Jr. (February 15, 1907 – January 1, 1994) was an American film and television actor who was active in film, radio, and television for almost sixty years. His wide range of screen roles included Latin lovers, historical figures in costume dramas, characters in light domestic comedies, and as The Joker in television's Batman series.
Romero was born in New York to a Spanish father who was an importer-exporter of sugar refining machinery and a Cuban mother who was a concert singer. That lifestyle, however, changed dramatically when his parents lost their sugar import business and suffered losses in the Stock Market Crash of 1929. Fortunately, Romero's Hollywood earnings allowed him to support his large family, all of whom followed him to the West Coast, years later. Romero lived on and off with various family members, especially his sister, for the rest of his life.
In October 1942, he voluntarily enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard and served in the Pacific Theater. He reported aboard the Coast Guard-manned assault transport USS Cavalier in November, 1943. According to a press release from the period he saw action during the invasions of Tinian and Saipan. The same article mentioned that he preferred to be a regular part of the crew and was eventually promoted to the rank of Chief Boatswain's Mate.

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Chamorro people
The Chamorro people, or Chamoru people, are the indigenous peoples of the Mariana Islands, which include the United States territory of Guam and the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Micronesia. Today, significant Chamoru populations also exist in several U.S. states including Hawaii, California, Washington, Texas and Nevada. According to the 2000 Census, approximately 65,000 people of Chamoru ancestry live on Guam and another 19,000 live in the Northern Marianas. Another 93,000 live outside the Marianas in Hawaii and the West/Pacific coast of the United States. The Chamoru are primarily of Austronesian stock.
Most Chamorros are Roman Catholic and few in the Marianas still maintain some customs and beliefs from the time before the first European conquests; some residents of the Marianas will still ask permission from ancestral spirits before entering parts of jungles. Traditional healers called suruhanas are still greatly respected for their knowledge of herbal treatments and spirits. Before Spanish colonization, Chamoru life centered on one's clan. Chamorro culture is strongly influenced by Spanish, Filipino, Japanese, and American customs; in addition, Chamorro food is also influenced by the various groups mentioned previously. Today, large extended families remain central to life in the Marianas.

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Charlie Sheen
Carlos Irwin Estevez (born September 3, 1965), better known by his stage name Charlie Sheen, is an American film and television actor. He is the youngest son of actor Martin Sheen.
His character roles in films have included Chris Taylor in the 1986 Vietnam War drama Platoon, Jake Kesey in the 1986 film The Wraith, and Bud Fox in the 1987 film Wall Street. His career has also included more comedic films such as Major League, the Hot Shots! films, and Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4. On television, Sheen is known for his roles on two sitcoms: as Charlie Crawford on Spin City and as Charlie Harper on Two and a Half Men. In 2010, Sheen was the highest paid actor on television, earning US$1.8 million per episode of Two and a Half Men.
Sheen's personal life has also made headlines, including reports about alcohol and drug abuse and marital problems as well as allegations of domestic violence. He was fired from his role on Two and a Half Men by CBS and Warner Bros. on March 7, 2011. Sheen subsequently announced a nationwide tour.

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Charlie Villanueva
Charlie Alexander Villanueva (born August 24, 1984 in Queens, New York City) is an American basketball player who currently plays for the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association.
The son of Dominican immigrants, Villanueva was raised in Elmhurst, Queens, New York. He was drafted at the age of 20, seventh overall pick, in the 2005 NBA Draft by the Toronto Raptors. He also holds Dominican citizenship and therefore he has represented the Dominican Republic national basketball team in international competition.
During his freshman year, Villanueva attended Newtown High School in Queens, New York, where he was a teammate of future NBA player Smush Parker. He spent his next three years at Blair Academy in Blairstown, New Jersey, where he played with another future NBA player, Luol Deng. Villanueva received All-American honors as a senior and was named New Jersey Co-Player of the Year. He entered the 2003 NBA Draft, but withdrew his eligibility so he could play basketball at the University of Connecticut. In his senior year, he was 5th place in the high school slam dunk contest, ahead of Ndudi Ebi, Travis Outlaw, and Brittany Hunter, and behind Shannon Brown, Von Wafer, J.R. Giddens, and the winner, LeBron James.

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Cheech Marin
Richard Anthony "Cheech" Marin (born July 13, 1946) is an American comedian, actor and writer who gained recognition as part of the comedy act Cheech & Chong during the 1970s and early 1980s, and as Don Johnson's partner, Insp. Joe Dominguez on Nash Bridges. He has also voiced characters in several Disney films, including Oliver and Company, The Lion King, Cars, its sequel and Beverly Hills Chihuahua.
Marin's trademark is his character's thickly Mexican-accented voice. This is part of a comic persona, rather than a natural accent (Marin was born and raised in the U.S.).
Marin, a Mexican American, was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Elsa (née Meza), a secretary, and Oscar Marin, a policeman in the LAPD. Marin was born with a cleft lip, which has long since been repaired. Although he speaks Spanish and uses it in some of his movies, he is not particularly fluent.
Marin's nickname "Cheech" is short for "chicharron", a fried pork skin that is a popular snack in Mexican cuisine and a favorite of marijuana smokers afflicted with "the munchies", and the nickname's alliteration with Chong's surname made "Cheech and Chong" an obvious choice for the name of the duo. The name of this character gave rise to the popular term "cheeched", meaning "under the influence of marijuana, usually at a relatively high dose".

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Chicano
The terms Chicano/Chicana (also spelled Xicano/Xicana) are used as reference to U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. However, those terms have a wide range of meanings in various parts of the world. The term began to be widely used during the Chicano Movement, mainly among Mexican Americans, especially in the movement's peak in the late 1960s and early 1970s. For Mexicans, "Chicano" meant "poorest of the poor" but during the Civil Rights movement, they used the word to unite themselves.
The origin of the word "chicano" is disputed. Some critics claim it is a shorterned form of "Mexicano" ("Mexican" in Spanish). The word "Mexico" as spoken in its original Nahuatl, and by the Spaniards at the time of the conquest, was pronounced originally with a "sh" sound ("Mesh-ee-co"), as opposed to current pronunciation, and was transcribed with an "x" as was the usage in Spanish at the time. The difference between the pronunciation and spelling of "chicano" and "mexicano" stems from the fact that the modern-day Spanish language experienced a change in pronunciation regarding a majority of words containing the "x" (for example: México, Ximenez, Xavier, Xarabe). The "sh" sound was dropped^{[clarification needed]} and in most, but not all, cases accompanied by a change of spelling ("x" to "j"). The word "Chicano" in the US was evidently not affected by this change.

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Chilean American
Chilean Americans are United States citizens or residents of Chilean origin. They numbered 126,810 in 2010.
In 2000, close to 14,000 lived in the states of Florida and California, while around 16,330 lived in the states of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and other New England states combined.
Most Chilean immigration to the U.S. has occurred largely within the last 25 years. For the most part, Chileans left as either political asylees and refugees during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, or for economic reasons. Also, there have been others that have emigrated to seek higher education and career development opportunities.
There are two major reasons why many Chileans have come to the United States during the last 25 years. The first group, small in number, emigrated because of the political repression of the Pinochet regime. Many of these immigrants are of middle or upper class origin. A significant proportion of them arrived with advanced educations and well-developed skills. They had contacts with other Chilean exiles and a sense of identity from their shared commitment to a democratic Chile. After a period of adjustment, many of them were able to pursue skilled jobs or professions. Unfortunately, others, who lacked skills or whose professional certifications were not recognized in the United States, were forced to take low-level jobs in which they were unable to use their skills. Some had been politically active students or union leaders in Chile who did not enter the United States with easily transferable skills.

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Chinese American
Chinese Americans (Chinese: trad. 華裔美國人, simp. 华裔美国人, pin. Huáyì Měiguórén; t 美籍華人, s 美籍华人, p Měijí Huárén) are Americans of Chinese – particularly Han Chinese – descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans are immigrants along with their descendants from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, as well as Malaysia, Singapore, and other countries in Southeast Asia and South America that include large populations of Chinese diaspora. Overall demographic research tends to include immigrants from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan as well as overseas Chinese who have immigrated from South East Asia into the broadly defined Chinese American category as both the governments of the Republic of China and the United States refer Taiwanese Americans as a separate subgroup of Chinese Americans.
The Chinese American community is the largest overseas Chinese community in North America, closely followed by the Chinese communities in Canada and Mexico. It is also the fourth largest in the Chinese diaspora, behind the Chinese communities in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The Chinese American community is the largest ethnic group of Asian Americans, comprising 25.9% of the Asian American population as of 2010. They constitute 1.2% of the United States, including those with partial Chinese ancestry. According to the 2010 census, the Chinese American population numbered approximately 3.8 million.

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Cholo
Cholo (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈtʃolo]) is an ethnic slur created by Hispanic criollos in the 16th century, and it has been applied to individuals of mixed or pure American Indian ancestry, or other racially mixed origin. The precise usage of "cholo" has varied widely in different times and places. In modern American usage, it most often applies to a low-income Mexican-American sub-culture and manner of dress.
The term's use is first recorded in a Peruvian book published in 1609 and 1616, the Comentarios Reales de los Incas by Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. He writes (in Spanish) "The child of a Black male and an Indian female, or of an Indian male and Black female, they call mulato and mulata. The children of these they call cholo. Cholo is a word from the Windward Islands; it means dog, not of the purebred variety, but of very disreputable origin; and the Spaniards use it for insult and vituperation".
In Colonial Mexico, the terms cholo and coyote co-existed, indicating mixed Mestizo and Amerindian ancestry. Under the casta system of colonial Latin America, cholo originally applied to the children resulting from the union of a Mestizo and an Amerindian; that is, someone of three quarters Amerindian and one quarter Spanish ancestry. Other terms (mestizo, castizo, etc.) were used to denote other ratios of smaller or greater Spanish-to-Amerindian ancestry.

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Christina Aguilera
Christina María Aguilera (born December 18, 1980) is an American recording artist and actress. Aguilera first appeared on national television in 1990 as a contestant on the Star Search program, and went on to star in Disney Channel's television series The Mickey Mouse Club from 1993 to 1994. Aguilera signed to RCA Records after recording "Reflection", the theme song for the animated film Mulan (1998).
In 1999, Aguilera came to prominence following her debut album Christina Aguilera, which was a commercial success spawning three number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100—"Genie in a Bottle", "What a Girl Wants", and "Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)." Her sophomore and her debut Latin-pop album, Mi Reflejo (2000), a Christmas third studio album, My Kind of Christmas (2000), and several collaborations followed which garnered Aguilera worldwide success, though she was displeased with her lack of input in her music and image. After parting from her management, Aguilera took creative control over her fourth studio album, Stripped (2002). The album's second single, "Beautiful", was a commercial success and helped the album's commercial performance amidst controversy over Aguilera's image. Aguilera followed up Stripped with the soul, jazz and blues inspired, Back to Basics (2006), released to positive critical acclaim. The album produced three singles "Ain't No Other Man", "Hurt" and "Candyman". Four years later Aguilera released her sixth studio album, Bionic (2010), which incorporated aspects of R&B, electropop, and synthpop and was met with mixed reviews and low sales. Aguilera's seventh studio album is set to be released in 2012.

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Christy Turlington
Christy Turlington Burns (born January 2, 1969) is an American model best known for representing Calvin Klein from 1987 to 2007. She has worked on dozens of modeling contracts with companies including Maybelline Cosmetics and Versace. Turlington starred in her fashion documentary Catwalk and Isaac Mizrahi's Unzipped. She was added on as the fourth model investor, after Elle Macpherson, Naomi Campbell and Claudia Schiffer of the now defunct Fashion Cafes. Christy most recently founded, Every Mother Counts, an advocacy and mobilization campaign to increase education and support for maternal mortality reduction globally. EMC was founded after the completion of Christy's documentary, "No Woman, No Cry", about maternal mortality in Tanzania, Bangladesh, Guatemala, and the United States.
Turlington was born in Walnut Creek, California, the middle of three daughters born to Dwain Turlington, a pilot for Pan American World Airways and a flight attendant from El Salvador, María Elizabeth (née Parker).

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Ciro Rodriguez
Ciro Davis Rodriguez (born December 9, 1946) is the former U.S. Representative for Texas's 23rd congressional district, serving from 2007 until 2011. The district stretches from El Paso in the west to San Antonio in the east, a distance of some 500 miles. He previously represented the neighboring Texas's 28th congressional district from 1997 to 2005, and was a member of the Texas House of Representatives from 1987 to 1997. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
Rodriguez was born in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, but was raised and received his education in San Antonio, Texas. When Ciro Rodriguez was young, his mother died suddenly and he dropped out of school. After working at a gas station for a year, he decided to go back to school and attended two different summer schools to catch up. He graduated with his entering class from Harlandale High School and then briefly attended San Antonio College, but subsequently graduated from St. Mary’s University with a B.A. in Political Science. He received his Master of Social Work from Our Lady of the Lake University.

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Claudio Reyna
Claudio Reyna (born July 20, 1973) is a retired American soccer player and the current USSF US Youth Soccer Technical Director. He was the captain of the United States national team before retiring from international football following the USA's exit from the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He is widely considered one of the greatest players the United States has ever produced. Reyna last played for New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer, where he was team captain. On July 16, 2008, Reyna held a press conference, where he announced his retirement.
Reyna's father Miguel moved to the United States in 1968 from Argentina, where he had gone through the youth system of Independiente and played professionally with Los Andes. He settled in New Jersey where he married a Portuguese American woman, Maria Silva, and raised a family.^{[citation needed]} Claudio learned the game from his father. Born in Livingston, New Jersey, Reyna would go on to become a youth player at Saint Benedict's Preparatory School in New Jersey as a teammate of Gregg Berhalter. He graduated from St. Benedict's in 1991. During Reyna's three years with the team, St Benedict's went undefeated (65-0) while Reyna was named as the only two-time Parade Magazine's national high school Player of the Year and the Gatorade National Player of the Year. In 1999, he was named by The Star-Ledger as one of the top ten New Jersey high school soccer players of the 1990s.

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Colombian American
Colombian Americans are citizens of the United States who trace their nationality or heritage from the South American nation of Colombia. They are the largest South American ethnic group in the United States.
The first Colombians inmigrants that settled in the United States arrived, probably, in the nineteenth century. However, the Colombian presence in United States would not be known with certainty since the federal census did not specify the country of origin for South Americans until 1960. These immigrants did not maintain any relation with their native countries, just until a few generations after, they identify themselves only as Americans.
The first Colombian community formed after World War I, through the arrival of several hundred professionals (nurses, accountants, laboratory technicians, pharmacists, and bilingual secretaries) that established to New York City; more late, were added to community the students who decided stay on after earning their degrees. Most immigrants settled in Jackson Heights, a middle-class neighborhood in Queens, that have good houses, school and churches. The growth of neighborhood was slow until 1940, when increase the Colombian immigration to New York.

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Costa Rican American
A Costa Rican American is an inhabitant of the United States who is of Costa Rican descent or birth.
The American Community Survey estimated the population of Costa Rican Americans to be 117,563 in 2007.
There have never been waves of migration from Costa Rica to the United States, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service records indicate that very few Costa Ricans have tried to enter the country so illegally. This is because, unlike other Hispanic groups, they have not been forced to emigrate to the U.S. for political oppression or extreme economic circumstances. Most Costa Ricans living in the United States have moved here following marriage to an American, or following work opportunities in the United States.
Since 1931 only 57,661 Costa Ricans have immigrated to the United States. Hence, the number of Costa Rican emigrants has been increasing very slowly. This is very different from the pattern of emigration from most other Central American countries. In fact, the other two countries in this region that have a continuously slow rate of emigration are Belize and Panama.

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Cote de Pablo
María José de Pablo Fernández, better known as Coté de Pablo (born November 12, 1979), is a Chilean-American actress and recording artist. She is best known for her role as Ziva David in the CBS television series NCIS, for which she has won an ALMA Award. She has also embarked on a career as a songwriter and vocalist.
De Pablo was born in Santiago, Chile, to an upper-classCatholic family. She has a younger sister, Andrea, and a brother who works as a DJ. In the 5th grade, she found many people could not properly pronounce her first name of "Maria José" so she asked them to call her Coté (a common Chilean nickname for María José). When de Pablo was 10 years old, her mother, María Olga Fernández, received a job in Miami, Florida, at a Spanish-speaking television network. There, de Pablo attended Arvida Middle School and New World School of the Arts where she studied musical theater. She then attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she studied music and theater and appeared in several plays. These aforementioned plays include: And The World Goes 'Round, The House of Bernarda Alba, Indiscretions, The Fantasticks, and A Little Night Music. She graduated in 2000.

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Cuban American
A Cuban American (Spanish: Cubano estadounidense) is a United States citizen who traces his or her "national origin" to Cuba. Cuban Americans are also considered native born Americans with Cuban ancestry or Cuban-born persons who were raised and educated in US. Cuban Americans form the third-largest Hispanic group in the United States and also the largest group of Hispanics of European ancestry (predominantly Spanish) as a percentage but not in numbers.
Many communities throughout the United States have significant Cuban American populations. However Miami, Florida, with a Cuban American population of 856,007 in its environs, stands out as the most prominent Cuban American community, in part because of its proximity to Cuba. It is followed by the Tampa Bay Area and North Hudson, New Jersey, particularly Union City and West New York. With a population of 141,250, the New York metropolitan area's Cuban community is the largest Cuban-American community outside of Florida.
Prior to the Louisiana Purchase and the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819, all of Florida and Louisiana were provinces of the Captaincy General of Cuba (Captain General being the Spanish title equivalent to the British colonial Governor). Consequently, Cuban immigration to the U.S. has a long history, beginning in the Spanish colonial period in 1565 when St. Augustine, Florida was established by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, and hundreds of Spanish-Cuban soldiers and their families moved from Cuba to St. Augustine to establish a new life. Thousands of Cuban settlers also immigrated to Louisiana between 1778 and 1802 and Texas during the period of Spanish rule.^{[citation needed]}

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Cubans
Cubans or Cuban people (Spanish: Cubanos) are the inhabitants or citizens of Cuba. Cuba is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds. As a result, some Americans do not treat their nationality as an ethnicity but as a citizenship with various ethnicities comprising the "Cuban people." Nearly all Cubans or their ancestors immigrated within the past five centuries.
Despite its multi-ethnic composition, the culture held in common by most Cubans is referred to as mainstream Cuban culture, a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of Western European migrants, beginning with the early Spanish settlers, along with other Europeans arriving later such as the Portuguese and French with African culture which has also been very influential.
The population of Cuba (2010) was 11,241,161 people. The largest urban populations of Cubans in Cuba (2010) are to be found in Havana ( 2,135,498), Santiago de Cuba ( 425,851), Camagüey (305,845), Holguín (277,050), Guantanamo ( 207,857), and Santa Clara ( 205,812). According to Cuba's Oficina Nacional de Estadisticas ONE 2002 Census, the population was 11,177,743, including:

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Daniel Fernandez
Daniel D. Fernandez (June 30, 1944 – February 18, 1966) was a United States Army soldier in the Vietnam War who received the U.S. military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor. Fernandez was awarded the medal for his actions in Hậu Nghĩa province, Republic of Vietnam, in February 1966 — throwing himself on a live grenade, he sacrificed his life to save lives of the soldiers around him.
Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on June 30, 1944, Fernandez grew up in nearby Los Lunas. He had two younger brothers, Peter and James.
Fernandez joined the Army from Albuquerque in 1962 and by 1966 was on his second tour of duty in Vietnam. During that deployment, he served as a specialist four in Company C, 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment (Mechanized), 25th Infantry Division. On February 18, 1966, in Củ Chi, Hậu Nghĩa province, his 16-man patrol was ambushed by a Viet Cong rifle company and forced to fall back. Fernandez and two others volunteered to follow a sergeant back to the ambush site and rescue a wounded soldier who had been left behind. After reaching the injured man, the sergeant was shot in the knee and Fernandez took over command of the patrol. All five men were pinned down by heavy fire when a rifle grenade landed in their midst. In the scramble to get away from the device, Fernandez accidentally kicked it closer to the rest of the group. He then shouted "move out", jumped over the immobile sergeant, and threw himself on the grenade. He was killed in the resulting explosion, but successfully saved the lives of his fellow soldiers.

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David Farragut
David Glasgow Farragut (July 5, 1801 – August 14, 1870) was a flag officer of the United States Navy during the American Civil War. He was the first rear admiral, vice admiral, and admiral in the United States Navy. He is remembered in popular culture for his order at the Battle of Mobile Bay, usually paraphrased: "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" by U.S. Navy tradition.
Farragut was born in 1801 to Elizabeth Shine (b. 1765 - d. 1808), of North Carolina Scots-Irish descent, and her husband George Farragut, a native of Minorca, Spain, at Lowe's Ferry on the Holston River. It was a few miles southeast of Campbell's Station, near Knoxville, Tennessee. His father operated the ferry and also served as a cavalry officer in the Tennessee militia. Born Jordi Farragut, his father became a Spanish merchant captain from Minorca, son of Antoni Farragut and Joana Mesquida. He had joined the American Revolutionary cause after arriving in America in 1766, when he changed his first name to George. The Farraguts moved west to Tennessee after George finished serving in the American Revolution.

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David Ortiz
David Américo Ortiz Arias (born November 18, 1975), nicknamed "Big Papi", is a Dominican-American professional baseball player with the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball. Previously, Ortiz played with the Minnesota Twins from 1997 until 2002. Ortiz is a seven-time All-Star and holds the Red Sox single season record for home runs in a regular season with 54, set during the 2006 season. In 2005, Red Sox ownership presented him with a plaque proclaiming Ortiz "the greatest clutch-hitter in the history of the Boston Red Sox".
Ortiz graduated from Estudia Espallat High School in the Dominican Republic and in 1992 he was signed by the Seattle Mariners who listed him as "David Arias". He played for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, a Mariners farm team, until 1996, when he was traded to the Minnesota Twins as the player to be named later in an earlier trade for Dave Hollins. When he arrived in Minnesota, he informed the team that he preferred to be listed as "David Ortiz."
He made his Twins debut in September 1997. For a few years, he was moved back and forth between the Twins and their minor league affiliate in Connecticut, the New Britain Rock Cats. The Twins advanced to the American League Championship Series that year, where they lost to the Anaheim Angels. Despite showing flashes of talent, Ortiz's time with the Twins will be remembered as a series of injuries and inconsistency both in the field and at the plate. Ortiz suffered wrist injuries in both 1998 and 2001. He continued to experience knee problems in early 2002 that plagued him throughout the season, despite hitting 32 doubles, 20 home runs and 75 RBIs in 125 games. He was released by the Twins after the season. In six seasons with the Twins, Ortiz hit 58 home runs and 238 RBI.

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Dennis Chavez
Dionisio "Dennis" Chavez (April 8, 1888 – November 18, 1962) was a Democratic politician from the U.S. State of New Mexico who served in the United States House of Representatives, and in the United States Senate from 1935 to 1962.
Chavez was born in Los Chaves, Valencia County, New Mexico. His parents, David and Paz Chavez, were members of families that had lived in Los Chaves for generations. In 1895, David Chavez moved his family to the Barelas section of Albuquerque where Dennis attended school until financial hardships necessitated that he work. His first job was delivering groceries at the Highland Grocery store. Later on, he studied engineering and surveying at night, and worked as an engineer for the City of Albuquerque for several years.
In 1911, Chavez married Imelda Espinosa, a member of a prominent New Mexico family. In 1914, they moved to Belen. He worked briefly as editor of a Belen weekly newspaper, as a court interpreter, and as a private contractor until 1916, when he obtained temporary employment as a Spanish interpreter for Senator Andrieus A. Jones' election campaign. In 1917, he was offered a position as assistant executive clerk of the Senate in Washington, D.C. by Senator Jones. He accepted this position, passed a special admission exam at Georgetown University Law Center and studied law at night. He graduated from Georgetown in 1920, and returned to Albuquerque to establish a law practice.

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Desi Arnaz
Desi Arnaz (March 2, 1917 – December 2, 1986) was a Cuban-born American musician, actor and television producer. While he gained international renown for leading a Latin music band, the Desi Arnaz Orchestra, he is best known for his role as Ricky Ricardo on the American TV series I Love Lucy, starring with Lucille Ball, to whom he was married at the time. He is generally credited as the inventor of the rerun.
Desi Arnaz was born Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III in Santiago de Cuba to Desiderio Alberto Arnaz II (March 8, 1894 - May 31, 1973) and his wife Dolores de Acha (April 2, 1896 - October 24, 1988). His father was Santiago's youngest mayor and also served in the Cuban House of Representatives. His maternal grandfather was Alberto de Acha, one of the three founders of Bacardi Rum. According to Arnaz himself, in his autobiography A Book (1976), the family owned three ranches, a palatial home, and a vacation mansion on a private island in Santiago Bay, Cuba. Following the 1933 Cuban Revolution, led by Fulgencio Batista, which overthrew President Gerardo Machado, Alberto Arnaz was jailed and all of his property was confiscated. He was released after six months when U.S. officials, who believed him to be neutral, intervened on his behalf. The family then fled to Miami, Florida, where Desi attended St. Patrick Catholic High School. In the summer of 1934 he attended Saint Leo Prep (near Tampa) to help improve his English.

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Diana Taurasi
Diana Lorena Taurasi (born June 11, 1982 in Chino, California) is a professional basketball player who plays for the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA and UMMC Ekaterinburg from Russia. In 2011, she was voted in by fans as one of the Top 15 players in WNBA history.
Taurasi grew up in Chino, California and attended Don Antonio Lugo High School where she was the recipient of the 2000 Cheryl Miller Award, presented by the Los Angeles Times to the best player in Southern California. She was also named the 2000 Naismith and Parade Magazine National High School Player of the Year. Taurasi finished her prep career ranked third in state history with 3,047 points (behind Giuliana Mendiola's 3,069 and Cheryl Miller's 3,446). Taurasi was named a WBCA All-American. She participated in the 2000 WBCA High School All-America Game, where she scored twelve points, and earned MVP honors.
Taurasi was born to her parents Mario and Liliana. Taurasi has an older sister, Jessika. Her father was born in Italy and raised in Argentina, which is also the native land of her mother Liliana. Her parents moved to the U.S. before she was born. Diana's father was a professional soccer player in Italy. He had logged several years as a goalie.

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Dick Versace
Dick Versace (born April 16, 1940) is a former basketball coach and National Basketball Association executive. He's also the first person of Puerto Rican descent to have coached an NBA team.
Versace (birth name Richard Versace) was born in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. His parents were Colonel Humbert Joseph Versace and Marie Teresa Rios, a Puerto Rican author. The 1960s television sitcom The Flying Nun was based on one of her books.
Versace has coached at the high school and collegiate level and in the NBA. Versace coached at St. Joseph High School in Kenosha, Wisconsin and Gordon Tech in Chicago. Oddly, his first coaching position after college was at Forrest-Strawn- Wing High School in the small Central Illinois community of Forrest during the years of 1964 and 1965. The odd thing being that he was the head football coach. He led the team to an 8-1 record and a Vermilion Valley Conference championship. He coached junior varsity basketball that winter. Versace began his college coaching career at St. Louis University in 1973, after compiling a 204-66 record at the high school coaching level. He then moved to Michigan State University, where he was heavily involved in the recruitment of Magic Johnson. Versace's first head coaching assignment was at the Jackson Community College in 1976. In the early 1980s, he was head men's basketball coach at Bradley University, where he led the team to the NIT championship and was named National College Coach of the Year by the U.S. Basketball Writers' Association. That year, his Bradley Braves went 32-3 and were ranked #7 in the nation during the season. His back court players included future NBA star Hersey Hawkins and former Bradley Head Coach Jim Les.

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Diego Archuleta
Brigadier General Diego Archuleta (March 27, 1814 – 1884), was a member of the Mexican Congress. He joined the Mexican Army to fight against the United States in the Mexican American War. Later, he was appointed an Indian (Native Americans) Agent by President Abraham Lincoln, and joined the Union Army (US Army) during the American Civil War. Archuleta became the first Hispanic to reach the military rank of Brigadier General.
Archuleta was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, then a province of Mexico. His family were wealthy ranchers and, as such, they had the economic means to send him to Durango, Mexico where he received his primary and secondary education.
In 1843, Archuleta was elected to represent New Mexico before the Mexican National Congress, and served as such until 1845. As a congressman, Archuleta supported Mexico upon the outbreak of the Mexican-American War.
The Mexican-American War was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848 in the wake of the 1845 U.S. annexation of Texas, which Mexico considered part of its territory despite the 1836 Texas Revolution. In 1846 and 1847, Archuleta participated and led two unsuccessful rebellions against the U.S.

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Diego Sanchez
Diego J. Sanchez (born December 31, 1981) is an American mixed martial artist (MMA) of Mexican descent, with a background in wrestling and Gaidojutsu, system of submission wrestling developed by his longtime trainer Greg Jackson. He currently fights as a welterweight with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Sanchez is currently ranked as the #9 welterweight fighter in the world by MMAWeekly.
Sanchez was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He attended Del Norte High School, where he became a state champion wrestler.^{[citation needed]}
Diego Sanchez wrestled in New Mexico before starting training MMA while working for UPS. Sanchez eventually joined Jackson's Submission Fighting, still while working for UPS, managing the time between work and training. In 2002, he made his MMA debut for King of the Cage where he also later became a champion.
His UFC debut came when he was chosen as a participant on the first season of the reality show, The Ultimate Fighter. Presented as a young, focused middleweight who only had one goal, to become a UFC champion, he won a contract with the UFC after winning a fight against Kenny Florian, becoming the middleweight winner for the first season of the show. On the show, Sanchez was known for being the "odd-ball" of the group, practicing yoga at odd moments and trying to extract "energy" from a lightning storm, and was also a self-proclaimed "Zen master". Sanchez' last fight before his loss to Josh Koscheck was against Joe Riggs on December 13, 2006 at UFC Fight Night 7. Sanchez landed a right hook that knocked Riggs down, followed by a running knee that knocked Riggs out. Sanchez won at 1:45 of the first round, scoring the first UFC knockout of his career.

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Dolores del Río
Dolores del Río (August 3, 1905 – April 11, 1983) was a Mexican film actress. She was a star of Hollywood films during the silent era and in the Golden Age of Hollywood. She later became a prominent actress in Mexican films. She was considered one of the most beautiful actresses of her time and was the first Latin American movie star to have international success.
In the silent film era, del Río was considered a female counterpart to Rudolph Valentino. Her career flourished until the end of the silent era, with successful films such as Resurrection (1927), Ramona (1928) and Evangeline (1929). With the arrival of the talkies in the early thirties, Del Río's exotic image was radically changed. She scored successes with Bird of Paradise (1932), Flying Down to Rio (1933), Madame Du Barry, Wonder Bar (1934) and Journey into Fear (1942).
Del Río returned to México. Under the guidance of Emilio Fernández, and at the age of 37, Del Río became the most important star of the Golden age of Mexican cinema, which was at the time as powerful as Hollywood. Her masterpiece is the legendary film Maria Candelaria (1943). She was frequently named the "Princess of México".

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Dominican American
A Dominican American is any American who has origins in the Dominican Republic.. Although their emigration began in the nineteenth century, waves of migration of Dominicans in the United States emerged in the 60's especially, after the fall of the Trujillo regime. In 2010, there were approximately 1.71 million people of Dominican descent in the US, inclusive both native and foreign-born.

Immigration records of Dominicans in the United States date from the late 19th century, and New York City has had a Dominican community since the 1930s. From the 1960s onward, after the fall of the Rafael Trujillo military regime, large waves of migration have thoroughly transnationalized the Dominican Republic, metaphorically blurring its frontier with the United States. Thus, be created Dominican communities in New Jersey, the Miami area, Philadelphia, Providence, Rhode Island, and Boston, Massachusetts. Smaller waves of Dominicans have gone to the metropolitan areas of Chicago, Illinois; Washington, D.C.; Houston, Texas; Los Angeles, California; Portland, Oregon; Kansas City, Missouri; Orlando, Florida; Buffalo, New York; and New Orleans, Louisiana. The Dominican population has similar settlement patterns to that of the Puerto Rican population.

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Dominican people
Dominicans (Spanish: Dominicanos) are people inhabiting or originating from Dominican Republic. Most Dominicans live in Dominican Republic, although there is also a large Dominican diaspora, especially in the United States, Puerto Rico and Spain. The population of the Dominican Republic in 2007 was estimated by the United Nations at 9,760,000.
The ethnic composition of the Dominican population is 73% multiracial, 16% white, and 11% black.The population is primarily a mixture of European and African with a notable amount of Taíno ancestry ( each with varying degrees). There is also a large Haitian minority. Other groups in the country include the descendants of Southwest Asians—mostly Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians. A smaller, yet significant presence of East Asians (primarily ethnic Chinese and Japanese) can also be found throughout the population.
In the twentieth century, many Chinese, Arabs (primarily from Lebanon and Syria), Japanese and to a lesser degree Koreans settled in the country, working as agricultural laborers and merchants. Waves of Chinese immigrants, the latter ones fleeing the Chinese Communist People's Liberation Army (PLA), arrived and worked in mines and building railroads. The current Chinese Dominican population totals 15,000. The Arab community is also rising at an increasing rate. Estimates are at 3,400.^{[citation needed]} Japanese immigrants, who mostly work in the business districts and markets, are at an estimate of 1,900 living in the country.^{[citation needed]} The Korean presence is minor but evident at a population of 500.^{[citation needed]}

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Ecuadorian American
An Ecuadorian American is any person in the United States who is of Ecuadorian ancestry. Ecuadorian Americans can be Mestizo, White, Afro-Ecuadorian, Indigenous, Mulato, or Zambo. Many Ecuadorians are of Lebanese descent. There are also sizable populations of Ecuadorians of Italian, German, Chinese, and Japanese descent.

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Eddie Guerrero
Eduardo Gory "Eddie" Guerrero Llanes (October 9, 1967 – November 13, 2005) was a Mexican-American professional wrestler born into the Guerrero wrestling family. He wrestled in Mexico and Japan for several major professional wrestling promotions. In the United States, Guerrero wrestled in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Guerrero's gimmick was that of "Latino Heat", a crafty, resourceful wrestler who would do anything to win a match. His catchphrase became "I Lie! I Cheat! I Steal!," which was used in one of his entrance themes. Guerrero partly used this phrase in his autobiography Cheating Death, Stealing Life.
Despite being a villain for most of his career, he got over in and outside the ring being the youngest, yet most popular and successful of the Guerrero brothers. Guerrero was widely regarded as one of the most respected and gifted technical wrestlers in history. Throughout his career, Guerrero encountered various substance abuse problems outside of wrestling, including alcoholism and an addiction to painkillers. His real-life problems were sometimes integrated into his storylines. Notwithstanding these issues, Guerrero won 23 titles during his career, including the WWE Grand Slam Championship.

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Edward Gomez
Private First Class Edward Gomez (August 10, 1932 – September 14, 1951) was a United States Marine from Omaha, Nebraska who posthumously received the Medal of Honor — the United States' highest decoration for valor — for gallantly sacrificing his life to save the lives of four fellow-Marines on his machine gun team. PFC Gomez was the 18th Marine to receive the Medal of Honor for heroism during the Korean War.
Gomez attended Omaha High School before enlisting in the Marine Corps Reserve on August 11, 1949, at the age of 17. After recruit training at MCRD San Diego, California, he trained at Camp Pendleton, California, and went to Korea with the 7th Replacement Draft.
The United States' highest decoration for valor was awarded to Gomez for extraordinary heroism on September 14, 1951, at Kajon-ni, when he smothered a hand grenade with his own body to prevent destruction of his Marine machine gun team. In addition to the Medal of Honor, PFC Gomez was awarded the Purple heart with a Gold Star in lieu of a second award, the Korean Service Medal with bronze star, and the United Nations Service Medal.

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Edward James Olmos
Edward James Olmos (born February 24, 1947) is an American (with Mexican citizenship) actor and director. Among his most memorable roles are William Adama in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica, Lt. Martin Castillo in Miami Vice, teacher Jaime Escalante in Stand and Deliver, patriarch Abraham Quintanilla in the film Selena, Detective Gaff in Blade Runner, and narrator El Pachuco in both the stage and film versions of Zoot Suit.
In 1988, Olmos was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for the film Stand and Deliver.
He has also been a longtime pioneer for more diversified roles and images of Latinos in the U.S. media besides from his most notable roles/work by him starring, directing and producing films, Made for TV Movies and TV shows such as American Me, The Burning Season, My Family/Mi Familia, 12 Angry Men, The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca, Walkout, The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit and American Family: Journey of Dreams.
Olmos was born Edward Olmos in Los Angeles, California, where he was raised, the son of Eleanor (nee Huizar) and Pedro Olmos, who was a welder and mail carrier. His father was a Mexican immigrant and his mother was Mexican American. He grew up wanting to be a professional baseball player, and became the Golden State batting champion. In his teen years, he turned to rock and roll, and became the lead singer for a band he named Pacific Ocean, so-called because it was to be "the biggest thing on the West Coast." He graduated from Montebello High School in 1964. While at Montebello High School, he lost a race for Student Body President to future California Democratic Party Chair Art Torres. For several years, Olmos performed at various clubs in and around Los Angeles, and released a record in 1968. At the same time, he attended classes at East Los Angeles College, including courses in acting.

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Ellen Ochoa
Ellen Ochoa (born May 10, 1958) is a former astronaut and engineer, and current Deputy Director of the Johnson Space Center.
Ellen Ochoa was born on May 10, 1958 in Los Angeles, California, but considers La Mesa, California to be her hometown. Ellen received a bachelor of science degree in physics from San Diego State University in 1980, a master of science degree and doctorate in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1981 and 1985, respectively(1). Her parents got divorced when she was in high school and so she lived with her mother, three brothers and one sister. She is married to Coe Fulmer Miles, with whom she has two children.
As a pioneer of spacecraft technology, she patented an optical system to detect defects in a repeating pattern. At the NASA Ames Research Center, she led a research group working primarily on optical systems for automated space exploration.
As a doctoral student at Stanford, and later as a researcher at Sandia National Laboratories and NASA Ames Research Center, Ochoa investigated optical system for performing information processing.

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English American
English Americans (occasionally known as Anglo-Americans, although this may have a wider linguistic meaning) are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England.
According to American Community Survey in 2010 data, Americans reporting English ancestry made up an estimated 9.0% of the total U.S. population, and form the third largest European ancestry group after German Americans and Irish Americans. However, demographers regard this as an undercount, as the index of inconsistency is high, and many, if not most, people from English stock have a tendency to identify simply as Americans or, if of mixed European ancestry, nominate a more recent and differentiated ethnic group. Throughout the nineteenth century, England was the largest investor in American land development, railroads, mining, cattle ranching, and heavy industry. Perhaps because English settlers gained easy acceptance, they founded few organizations dedicated to preserving the traditions of their homeland.

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Enrique Iglesias
Enrique Iglesias (born Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler; May 8, 1975) is a Spanish singer, songwriter and occasional actor, popular in both the Latin market and the Hispanic American market in the United States. He is the son of the famous Spanish singer Julio Iglesias. Within five years of beginning his musical career in the 1990s, he became the biggest seller of Spanish-language albums of that decade. He made his crossover into the mainstream English language market before the turn of the millennium, signing a multi-album deal with Universal Music Group for an unprecedented US$50,000,000 with Universal Music Latino to release his Spanish albums and Interscope to release English albums. In 2010, he parted with Interscope and signed with another Universal Music Group label, Universal Republic.
Iglesias has sold over 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best selling Spanish language artists of all time. He has had five Billboard Hot 100 top five singles, including two number-ones, and holds the record for producing 22 number-one Spanish-language singles on the Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks. He has also had ten number-one songs on Billboard's Dance charts, more than any other single male artist. Altogether, Iglesias has amassed 55 number-one hits on the various Billboard charts. Billboard has called him The King of Latin Pop and The King of Dance. Billboard also named Enrique the number two Latin artist of the years 1986–2011 (Luis Miguel taking the first spot).

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Erik Estrada
Henry Enrique "Erik" Estrada (born March 16, 1949) is an American police officer and actor, known for his co-starring lead role in the 1977–1983 United States police television series CHiPs. He later became known for his work in Spanish language telenovelas, and in more recent years, his appearances in reality television shows and infomercials and as a regular voice on the Adult Swim series Sealab 2021.
Estrada was born in East Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, the son of Carmen, a seamstress, and Renildo Estrada. He is of Puerto Rican descent.
In the 1970 film version of The Cross and the Switchblade, Estrada made his film debut in the role of Nicky Cruz alongside Pat Boone who played the role of David Wilkerson. In 1974, Estrada took part in the disaster film, Airport 1975, where he played a role as the flight engineer on a Boeing 747. His character was killed in a midair collision. Two years later, he was a player in the military historical epic Midway, as a fictional airman Ens. "Chili Bean" Ramos.

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Erneido Oliva
Erneido Andres Oliva Gonzalez (Born 20 June 1932 in Aguacate, Cuba) is a Cuban-American who was the deputy commander of Brigade 2506 land forces in the abortive Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba in April 1961.
In 1954 Oliva was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Cuban Army after graduating from the Cuban Military Academy, "the Cadet School." After graduating with honors from the Artillery Academy in 1955 he was appointed professor of Artiller in the Cadet School until 1958. From 1958 to 1959 he was a student, also graduating with honors, and an instructor at the US Army Caribbean School in the Canal Zone, Panama. In late 1959 after the Castro revolution overthrew General Batista, the Cuban army was "purged", but Oliva was appointed General Inspector at the INRA. In May 1960 he was one of a group of former Cuban officers planning a campaign against the Castro regime. They were all graduates of Cuba's military academy. He left the army early in August 1960 and flew to Miami. On August 29, 1960, Oliva and about 40 young Cuban exiles, recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency were transported via CIA C-54 aircraft to San Jose, Guatemala to perform guerrilla training that later became conventional.

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Esai Morales
Esai Manuel Morales (born October 1, 1962) is an American actor. He is well known for his role as Bob Morales in the 1987 biopic La Bamba. He also appeared in the PBS drama American Family and in the Showtime series Resurrection Blvd.. However, he is best known for his roles as Lt. Tony Rodriguez on NYPD Blue and Joseph Adama in the science fiction television series Caprica.
Morales is of Puerto Rican descent and was born in Brooklyn, New York to parents Iris Margarita (née Declet), a union activist involved with the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, and Esai Morales, Sr., a welder. Morales began his pursuit of an acting career by attending the School of Performing Arts in Manhattan.
His first professional performances were in theater and television in New York, and his first film—Bad Boys, about teenagers in prison—was released in 1983. He played the ex-convict and biker half-brother of 1950s rock and roll singer Ritchie Valens in the 1987 movie La Bamba. Some of his other roles have reflected his socio-political interests, such as The Burning Season in 1994, My Family/Mi Familia in 1995, The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca in 1997, and Southern Cross in 1999. In the latter three films, as well as in a others such as Bloodhounds of Broadway in 1989 and Rapa Nui in 1994, Morales saw increased amounts of screen time, starting with a role in the Pauly Shore film In The Army Now. He portrayed a police officer in the film Dogwatch in 1996. He played Father Herrera in The Virgin of Juarez.

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Estevanico
Estevanico (c. 1500–1539) (Arabic: إستيفانيكو‎; also known as "Mustafa Zemmouri" (مصطفى زموري), "Black Stephen", "Esteban", "Esteban the Moor", "Estevan", "Estebanico", "Stephen the Black", "Stephen the Moor", "Stephen Dorantes" after his owner Andres Dorantes, and "Little Stephen") was the first known person born in Africa to have arrived in the present-day continental United States. An enslaved servant, he was one of four survivors of the Spanish Narváez expedition and traveled with explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca across northern New Spain (present-day U.S. southwest and northern Mexico). Estevanico, Cabeza De Vaca, and Andrés Dorantes de Carranza were helped by the skills of their comrade Alonso Del Castillo, who became known as a healer among the indigenous people they encountered.
Estevanico was sold into slavery to the Portuguese in the town of Azemmour, a Portuguese enclave on Morocco's Atlantic coast, in 1513, at an early age. Contemporary accounts referred to him as an "Arabized black";Moor, a term sometimes used for Berber natives; and black African. "A Spaniard, Diego de Guzmán, who saw him in Sinaloa in 1536, described him as 'brown'." He was raised as a Muslim; some believe he converted to Roman Catholicism upon enslavement but there is not a lot of substantial proof. In 1520 he was sold to Andrés Dorantes de Carranza, a Spanish nobleman, with whom he developed close ties.

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European American
A European American (also known as a Euro-American) is a citizen or resident of the United States who has origins in any of the original peoples of Europe. This includes people via African, North American, Caribbean, Central American or South American and Oceanian nations which have a large European diaspora.
The Spanish were the first Europeans to establish a continuous presence in what is now the United States.Martín de Argüelles born 1566, San Agustín, La Florida, was the first known person of European descent born in what is now the United States. Twenty-one years later, Virginia Dare, born in 1587 on Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina, was the first child born in the Thirteen Colonies to English parents.
In 2009, German Americans (16.5%), Irish Americans (11.9%), English Americans (9.0%) and Italian Americans (6.4%) were the four largest self-reported ancestry groups in the United States forming 43.8% of the total population.British Americans (English, Welsh, Northern Irish and Scottish) are estimated to be up to (20%) or (60,000,000) of the United States population.

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Eva Longoria
Eva Jacqueline Longoria (born March 15, 1975) is an American actress, best known for portraying Gabrielle Solis on the ABC television series Desperate Housewives. Longoria received a nomination for the 2006 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series for her performance on Desperate Housewives.
Longoria first rose to fame on television for portraying Isabella Braña on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless from 2001 to 2003. She became nationally recognized in the 2000s after appearing in several high-profile advertising campaigns and numerous men's magazines, reaching #14 in the FHM "Sexiest Women 2008" poll, and having appeared on the cover of various international women's magazines including Vogue, Marie Claire and Harper's Bazaar. Longoria has also starred in films such as Harsh Times (2005), The Sentinel (2006) and Over Her Dead Body (2008).
Eva Jacqueline Longoria was born in Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas, the youngest of four daughters born to Mexican-Americans Enrique Longoria, Jr. and Ella Eva Mireles. She was raised Roman Catholic. The Longoria family originated in Spain and has resided in Texas since before the creation of the United States, predating the English-speaking settlers.

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Eva Mendes
Eva Mendes (born March 5, 1974) is an American actress, model, singer and homeware designer. She began acting in the late 1990s, and after a series of roles in B movies such as Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror (1998) and Urban Legends: Final Cut (2000), she broke into the Hollywood mainstream with an appearance in Training Day (2001). She has since starred in many films including All About The Benjamins (2002); 2 Fast 2 Furious, Once Upon a Time in Mexico and Stuck on You (2003); Hitch (2005); Ghost Rider and We Own the Night (both 2007); The Spirit (2008); Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009); The Other Guys and Last Night (both 2010).
Mendes has worked as a spokesmodel for Cocio chocolate milk, Magnum ice cream, Revlon make-up, Calvin Klein underwear and perfume, Cartier jewelery, Thierry Mugler perfume, Reebok trainers, Campari apéritif, Pantene shampoo, Morgan clothes and Peek & Cloppenburg clothes. Mendes is the creator of a home decor line, Vida, sold exclusively at Macy's. She launched a bedding collection in 2008 and a dinnerware collection in 2010. Mendes is a singer: she has recorded a version of The Windmills of Your Mind and has collaborated with Cee Lo Green on a song entitled Pimps Don't Cry. She is dating Ryan Gosling and lives in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles.

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Federico Peña
Federico Fabian Peña (born March 15, 1947) is a former United States Secretary of Transportation from 1993 to 1997 and United States Secretary of Energy from 1997 to 1998, during the presidency of Bill Clinton.
Born in Laredo, Texas, Peña earned a B.A. (1969) and a J.D. (1972) from the University of Texas at Austin and The University of Texas School of Law, respectively. Moving to Colorado, where he became a practicing attorney, Peña was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1979, where he rose to become Minority Leader. In 1983, Peña defeated a 14-year incumbent, William H. McNichols, Jr. to become the first Hispanic Mayor of Denver, a post to which he was re-elected in 1987.

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Felipe Alou
Felipe Rojas Alou (born May 12, 1935 in Bajos de Haina, Dominican Republic), is a former Major League Baseball outfielder, first baseman, and manager. He managed the Montreal Expos (1992–2001) and the San Francisco Giants (2003–06). The first Dominican to play regularly in the major leagues, he is the most prominent member of one of the sport's most notable families of the late 20th century: he was the oldest of the trio of baseball-playing brothers that included Matty and Jesús, who were both primarily outfielders, and his son Moisés was also primarily an outfielder; all but Jesús have been named All-Stars at least twice. The family name in the Dominican is Rojas, but Felipe Alou and his brothers became known by the name Alou when the Giants' scout who signed Felipe mistakenly thought his matronymic was his father's name.
During his 17-year career spent with the Giants, Milwaukee & Atlanta Braves, Oakland Athletics, New York Yankees, Montreal Expos, and Milwaukee Brewers, Alou played all three outfield positions regularly (736 games in right field, 483 in center, 433 in left), and led the National League in hits twice and runs once. Batting regularly in the leadoff spot, he hit a home run to begin a game on 20 occasions. He later became the most successful manager in Expos history, leading the team from 1992 to 2001 before rejoining the Giants in 2003.

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Fermín Tangüis
Fermín Tangüis (March 29, 1851 - August 24, 1930), was a Puerto Rican businessman, agriculturist and scientist who developed the seed that would eventually produce the Tanguis cotton in Peru and save that nation's cotton industry.
Tangüis' father, Enrique Tangüis, emigrated from France to San Juan, Puerto Rico where he met and married a young Puerto Rican girl by the name of Justa Uncal. Tangüis was born in San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, and there he received his primary and secondary education. Tangüis moved to Cuba to pursue a university degree; however when the Ten Years' War (1868–1878) broke out in that island, he decided that it would be best to move to South America.
He moved to Lima, Peru in 1873, when he was 22 years old and worked as a mercantile accountant. Tangüis went on to work in the mines of Castrovirreyna and later established his own businesses in Ayacucho and in Huancavelica. In July 1884, he married Isabel Novoa and in 1890, at the age of 39, he purchased land in Valle de Pisco and established a plantation dedicated to cultivation of cotton.

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Fernando Caldeiro
Fernando "Frank" Caldeiro (June 12, 1958, Buenos Aires, Argentina – died October 3, 2009) was an Argentine-American astronaut with a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Arizona and the University of Central Florida.
Caldeiro was named a NASA astronaut on May 1, 1996, as part of Astronaut Group 16, nicknamed "The Sardines".
Caldeiro was assigned to high altitude research flights in NASA's WB-57 aircraft. In 2002, he was appointed to the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans.
He died October 3, 2009, at age 51, after two and a half years with brain cancer.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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Fernando Luis García
Private First Class Fernando Luis García (October 14, 1929 – September 5, 1952), a member of the United States Marines, was the first Puerto Rican, from a total of five, to be awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously.
García was born in Utuado, Puerto Rico where he received his primary and secondary education. He moved to San Juan where he started to work for the Texas Company as a file clerk.
On September 19, 1951, García was inducted into the Marines; he received his basic ("boot") training at Parris Island, South Carolina. After he graduated from his basic training he was sent to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina where he underwent advanced training before being sent to Korea.
García was a Private First Class when he arrived in Korea. He was assigned to Company I, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, of the 1st Marine division. On the night of his death, he was posted about one mile from the enemy lines. The Korean enemies were attacking with grenades, bombs and other types of artillery. García was critically wounded, but he led his team to a supply point to get hand-grenades.

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Fernando Valenzuela
Fernando Valenzuela Anguamea (Spanish pronunciation: [ferˈnando βalenˈswela]; born November 1, 1960) is a Mexican former left-handed pitcher, most notably with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In 1981, the 20-year-old Valenzuela took Los Angeles (and Major League Baseball) by storm, winning his first 8 decisions and leading the Dodgers to the World Championship. That year, Valenzuela became the only player in Major League history to win the Rookie of the Year award and the Cy Young Award in the same season, adding the Silver Slugger Award and World Series championship for good measure. With his youthful charm, devastating screwball, "Ruthian physique", and a connection with Los Angeles' large Latino community, Valenzuela touched off an early '80s craze dubbed "Fernandomania".
Valenzuela was a Dodgers mainstay throughout the 1980s, winning 21 games in 1986 and pitching a no-hitter in 1990, though he was injured during the 1988 championship run. However, he faltered because of injuries in the 1990s, pitching ineffectively for several teams. After one last effective season with the San Diego Padres in 1996, he retired from Major League Baseball.

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Filipino American
Filipino Americans are Americans of Filipino ancestry, including those who migrated from the Philippines. There are over 3.4 million people of Filipino descent residing in the United States, according to the 2010 United States Census. Filipino Americans make up about 1.1% of the country's population and making them the second largest Asian American subgroup. The Philippines is also one of the major sources of immigration into the United States.
The term Filipino American is sometimes shortened to "Fil-Ams", or "Pinoy". Some Filipinos believe that the term Pinoy was coined by the early Filipinos who came to the United States to distinguish themselves from Filipinos living in the Philippines.
Filipinos in what is now the United States were first documented in the 16th century, with small settlements beginning in the 18th century. Mass migration did not begin until the early 20th Century when the Philippines was ceded by Spain to the United States in the Treaty of Paris. The Philippines' independence recognized by the United States on July 4, 1946. Immigration was reduced significantly during the 1930s, except for those who served in the United States Navy, and increased following immigration reform in the 1960s.

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France Silva
Private France Silva (May 8, 1876 – April 10, 1951) born in Hayward, California, was the first Marine of Mexican-American and Hispanic heritage to receive the Medal of Honor. He received the Medal of Honor for his meritorious conduct in China during the Boxer Rebellion.
In 1900, Private France Silva was a member of the Legation Guards (Marines) under the command of Captain Newt Hall, aboard the USS Newark. The USS Newark was a United States Navy protected cruiser, the first modern cruiser in the U.S. fleet. On May 20, 1900, the Newark sailed for China to help land allied troops to assist civilians within the legations which came under siege by the Boxers at Peking. Arriving Tientsin on May 22.
Silva joined the Marine Corps on September 12, 1899, in San Francisco and attended Boot Camp at Mare Island. He was assigned to the U.S. Flag Ship Newark where Private Daniel Joseph Daly (future double Medal of Honor recipient) was already a member. The Newark soon headed to the Philippines, to take part in the Spanish-American War, but were then sent to Japan to prepare for a landing at Taku, Tientsen and Peking. They arrived in Peking on May 31 before the Boxers closed the city off from the world.

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Frankie J
Francisco Javier Bautista, Jr. (born December 7, 1975), better known by his stage name Frankie J, is a Mexican singer and former member of the musical group Kumbia Kings.
Born in Tijuana, he grew up in San Diego and became a freestyle artist under the stage name Frankie Boy in the late 1990s. After his debut freestyle album was shelved, he joined Kumbia Kings. Frankie J's solo debut album, What's a Man to Do, was released in 2003, followed by some more English and Spanish language albums.
Bautista was born in Tijuana, Mexico and raised in San Diego, California from the age of 2, after his uncle brought him and his siblings to the United States. He grew up listening to both traditional Latin music as well as American urban music. He attended Southwest Senior High School in San Diego. He later began to develop more interest in singing, with the encouragement of his family. At high school age, he began participating in talent shows and performing at school functions.
In 1997, Bautista signed with the now defunct Hola Recordings, the brainchild of dance music legend and producer Jellybean Benitez. At the time he was a freestyle artist known as Frankie Boy and his music was released on 3 Maximum Freestyle compilations but his solo CD was shelved before release.

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Freddie Prinze
Freddie Prinze (born Frederick Karl Pruetzel; June 22, 1954 – January 29, 1977) was an American actor and stand-up comedian. Prinze was the star of 1970s sitcom Chico and the Man. He is the father of actor Freddie Prinze, Jr.
Prinze was born Frederick Karl Pruetzel at St. Clair's Hospital in New York City, son of Edward Karl Pruetzel and his wife Maria Graniela Pruetzel. His mother was Puerto Rican, and his father was a Hungarian immigrant who had arrived in the U.S. in 1934. Prinze identified himself as Puerto Rican, and for comedic purposes called himself a "Hungarican."
Prinze was raised in a very mixed neighborhood in Washington Heights, New York City. He began his education at a private Lutheran school, in a religious compromise by his parents (his mother took him to Catholic Mass on Sundays). When Prinze was a small child, his mother enrolled him in ballet classes to deal with a weight problem. Without telling his parents, Prinze successfully auditioned for the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts, where he was introduced to drama and continued ballet—and where he discovered his gift for comedy while entertaining crowds in the boys restroom. He dropped out of school in his senior year to become a stand-up comedian.

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French people
The French (French: Français) are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups. Within France, the French are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence.
However, the word can also refer to people of French descent who are found in other countries, with significant French-speaking population groups or not, such as Argentina (French Argentines), Brazil (French Brazilians), French West Indies (the French Caribbean people), Canada (French Canadians) and the United States (French Americans), and some of them have a French cultural identity. The United Kingdom also has a large French population, mainly in England, and due to historic relations and immigration.
To be French, according to the first article of the Constitution, is to be a citizen of France, regardless of one's origin, race, or religion (sans distinction d'origine, de race ou de religion). According to its principles, France has devoted herself to the destiny of a proposition nation, a generic territory where people are bounded only by the French language and the assumed willingness to live together, as defined by Ernest Renan's "plébiscite de tous les jours" ("daily referendum" on the willingness to live together, in Renan's 1882 essay "Qu'est-ce qu'une nation?").

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Félix Rigau Carrera
First Lieutenant Félix Rigau Carrera (August 30, 1894–October 13, 1954), known as "El Águila de Sabana Grande" (The Eagle from Sabana Grande), was the first Puerto Rican pilot and the first Hispanic fighter pilot in the United States Marine Corps. Rigau Carrera was also the first Puerto Rican parachutist and the first pilot to fly on air mail carrying duties in Puerto Rico.
Rigau Carrera was one of nine siblings born to Felipe Rigau Balbás, a Spanish Navy sailor from Catalunia, and Carmen Carrera de Rigau, a Puerto Rican homemaker, in the town of Sabana Grande, Puerto Rico. There he received his primary and secondary education. As a child he showed an interest in mechanics and used to make model aircrafts, using the local cathedral as a launching pad for his small fixed-wing aircraft replicas.
After he graduated from high school, he enrolled at the Colegio de Agricultura y Artes Mecanicas (CAAM) (now the University of Puerto Rico) at Mayagüez and studied electronics and mechanical engineering. During his years at college he continued with his hobby of building and designing airplane models.

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Garifuna people
The Garifuna (/ɡəˈrɪfʉnə/gə-RIF-uu-nə; pl. Garinagu in Garifuna) are descendants of Carib, Arawak and West African people. The British colonial administration used the term Black Carib and Garifuna to distinguish them from Yellow and Red Carib, the Amerindian population that did not intermarry with Africans. The Amerindians who had not intermarried with Africans are still living in the Lesser Antilles; Dominica, St. Vincent and The Grenadines, etc.
Today the Garifuna live primarily in Central America. They live along the Caribbean Coast in Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras including the mainland, and on the island of Roatán. There are also diaspora communities of Garifuna in the United States, particularly in Los Angeles, Miami, New York and other major cities.

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Gaspar de Portolà
Gaspar de Portolà i Rovira (1716–1784) was a Spanish soldier, governor of Baja and Alta California (1767–1770), explorer and founder of San Diego and Monterey. He was born in Os de Balaguer, province of Lleida, in Catalonia, Crown of Aragon, of Catalan nobility. Don Gaspar served as a soldier in the Spanish army in Italy and Portugal. He was commissioned ensign in 1734, and lieutenant in 1743, and died in Spain in 1784.
By 1767, Jesuit missionaries on the peninsula of Baja California had established approximately twenty-three missions over a period of seventy-two years. Rumors were circulating that the Jesuits had amassed a fortune and were becoming very powerful. As part of the nearly global suppression of the Jesuits, King Carlos III ordered the Jesuits expelled at gunpoint and deported back to Spain. Following the command of the king, the viceroy of New Spain ordered the arrest and deportation of all Jesuits in missions and Don Gaspar de Portolà was charged with the expulsion of the Jesuits from Baja. The missions were turned over to the Franciscans, and later to the Dominicans.

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George Lopez
George Lopez (born April 23, 1961) is an American comedian, actor, and talk show host. He is mostly known for starring in his self-produced ABC sitcom George Lopez. His stand-up comedy examines race and ethnic relations, including the Mexican American culture. He was the host of the late-night talk show Lopez Tonight on TBS until its cancellation on August 12, 2011.
Lopez was born on April 23, 1961 in Mission Hills, California. He was deserted by his father when he was two months old and by his mother when he was 10 years old, but was raised by his maternal grandmother, Benita Gutierrez, a factory worker, and step-grandfather, Refugio Gutierrez, a construction worker.
In 1999, Lopez hosted a major morning radio show for Clear Channel Communications in Los Angeles. He was the first Latino to have headlined the keystone morning radio slot on an English-language station in LA—the nation’s top radio market.
In 2000, after several years of performing stand-up comedy, Lopez was approached by actress Sandra Bullock for Lopez to produce and star in a comedy. Bullock was concerned about the lack of Hispanic-oriented sitcoms on American television and pushed to get a sitcom on television that starred Hispanics without being exclusively about the Hispanic American community. Long criticized by Hispanic American groups for lack of Latinos on their television shows, ABC quickly picked up the television series. In 2002, Lopez became one of the few Latinos to star in a television comedy series, following in the footsteps of Desi Arnaz, Freddie Prinze, and John Leguizamo. George Lopez is an American situation comedy that originally aired on ABC from 2002–2007. Lopez is the co-creator, writer, producer, and star of the show.

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George Santayana
George Santayana (born Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás in Madrid, December 16, 1863; died September 26, 1952, in Rome) was a philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. A lifelong Spanish citizen, Santayana was raised and educated in the United States and identified himself as an American, although he always kept a validated Spanish passport. He wrote in English and is generally considered an American man of letters. At the age of forty-eight, Santayana left his position at Harvard and returned to Europe permanently, never to return to the United States. His last will was to be buried in the Spanish Pantheon of the Cimitero Monumentale del Verano in Rome.
Santayana is known for the sayings, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it", and "[O]nly the dead have seen the end of war." The latter sentence is often (for example, at the start of the film Blackhawk Down) falsely attributed to Plato; the former appears in Reason in Common Sense, the first volume of Santayana's five-volume Life of Reason. (In the 1905 Charles Scribner's Sons edition, it is found on page 284.) Santayana is broadly included among the pragmatists with Harvard University colleagues William James and Josiah Royce. He said that he stood in philosophy "exactly where [he stood] in daily life."

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German American
German Americans are citizens of the United States of German ancestry and comprise about 50 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population, the country's largest self-reported ancestral group.California, Texas and Pennsylvania have the largest numbers of German origin, although upper Midwestern states, including Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and the Dakotas, have the highest proportion of German Americans at over one-third.
None of the historical German states had overseas colonies, so not until the 1680s did the first significant groups of German immigrants arrive in the British colonies, settling primarily in New York and Pennsylvania. Immigration continued in very large numbers during the 19th century, with some eight million arrivals from Germany. They were pulled by the attractions of land and religious freedom, and pushed out of Europe by shortages of land and religious or political oppression. Many arrived seeking religious or political freedom, others for economic opportunities greater than those in Europe, and others simply for the chance to start fresh in the New World. The arrivals before 1850 were mostly farmers who sought out the most productive land, where their intensive farming techniques would pay off. After 1840, many came to cities, where "Germania"—German-speaking districts—soon emerged.

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Germans
The Germans (Deutsche) are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages. Legally, Germans are citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Of approximately 100 million native speakers of German in the world, about 66–75 million consider themselves Germans. There are an additional 80 million people of German ancestry mainly in the United States, Brazil, Canada, Argentina, France, Russia, Chile, Poland, Australia and Romania who most likely are not native speakers of German. Thus, the total number of Germans worldwide lies between 66 and 160 million, depending on the criteria applied (native speakers, single-ancestry ethnic Germans, partial German ancestry, etc.).
Today, peoples from countries with a German-speaking majority or significant German-speaking population groups other than Germany, such as Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg, have developed their own national identity and usually do not refer to themselves as "Germans" in a modern context.

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Giannina Braschi
Giannina Braschi (b. San Juan, Puerto Rico, February 5, 1953) is a Puerto Rican writer. She is credited with writing the first Spanglish novel YO-YO BOING! (1998), the poetry trilogy Empire of Dreams (Yale, 1994), and the explosive new work of philosophical fiction United States of Banana, (AmazonCrossing, 2011), which chronicles the Latin American immigrant's experiences in the United States. "For decades, Dominican and Puerto Rican authors have carried out a linguistic revolution," noted The Boston Globe, and "Giannina Braschi, especially in her novel YO-YO BOING!, testify to it." Her work has been described as a "synergetic fusion that marks in a determinant fashion the lived experiences of U. S. Hispanics." Written in three languages, English, Spanglish, and Spanish, Braschi's work captures the cultural experience of nearly 50 million Hispanic Americans and also seeks to explore the three political options of Puerto Rico: Nation, Colony, or Statehood.
In the 1970s, Giannina Braschi was a student of literature in Madrid, Rome, Paris, and London, before she settled in New York City. She obtained a PhD in Hispanic Literatures (State University of New York, Stony Brook, 1980) and has taught at Rutgers University, City University of New York, and Colgate University, where she served as a Distinguished Chair of Creative Writing (1997). She was a foreign correspondent for Grazie magazine (2001–2002).

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Gigi Fernández
Beatriz "Gigi" Fernández (born February 22, 1964, in San Juan, Puerto Rico) is a former professional tennis player, the first female athlete from her native Puerto Rico to turn professional, the first Puerto Rican woman to ever win an Olympic gold medal and the first to be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
Fernandez won 17 Grand Slam doubles titles and two Olympic gold medals representing the United States of America, and reached the World No. 1 ranking in women's doubles. She reached a career high singles ranking of 17 in 1991. Since retiring from the professional tour in 1997 at the age of 33, Fernández has been a tennis coach and entrepreneur.
Fernandez was recognized primarily as a doubles specialist during her professional career. Fernández won a non-calendar year doubles Grand Slam with 17 Grand Slam women's doubles title – six French Open, five US Open, four Wimbledon, and two Australian Open winning at least one Grand Slam title every year from 1988–1997, except 1989, and for three straight years winning three of the four Grand Slam doubles titles in the same year (1992–1994). She won 14 of her 17 Grand Slam titles partnering Natasha Zvereva; their partnership is the second most successful doubles pair in Grand Slam history after Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver in the Open era.

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Gilbert Arenas
Gilbert Jay Arenas, Jr. (pronounced /əˈriːnɨs/; born January 6, 1982) is an American professional basketball player who plays for the Memphis Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He plays as a point guard and shooting guard.
Arenas attended Grant High School in Valley Glen, California, and accepted a scholarship offer to the University of Arizona late in his junior year. He entered the 2001 NBA Draft and was selected in the second round (30th pick) by the Golden State Warriors.
Arenas is a three-time NBA All-Star, three-time member of the All-NBA Teams, and was voted the NBA Most Improved Player in the 2002–03 season. Arenas was most often nicknamed "Agent Zero," due to his former jersey number, but has increasingly been referred to as "Hibachi," a nod to the small Japanese heating device, which literally translates to "bowl of fire." Both names quickly became fan favorites in the Washington area during his time there.
Arenas was suspended for most of the 2009–10 season because of handgun violations stemming from an episode on December 24, 2009, and for subsequent actions that appeared to make light of this episode.

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Gloria Estefan
Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García de Estefan, known professionally as Gloria Estefan (born September 1, 1957) is a Cuban-born American singer, songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Known as the "Queen Of Latin Pop", she is in the top 100 best selling music artists with over 100 million albums sold worldwide, 31.5 million of those in the United States alone. She has won three Grammy Awards, and 4 Latin Grammys, and is the most successful crossover performer in Latin music to date.
Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo was born September 1, 1957 in Havana, Cuba, to Jose and Gloria Fajardo. Her maternal grandfather, Leonardo Garcia, immigrated to Cuba from Pola de Siero, Asturias, Spain, where he married Gloria's maternal grandmother, originally from Logroño, Spain. Prior to the Cuban Revolution, her father was a Cuban soldier and a bodyguard to Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. The Fajardo family fled to Miami, Florida as a result of the Cuban Revolution and settled down there. Shortly after they moved to the United States, Gloria's father joined the US military and fought in the Vietnam War and moved to Houston, Texas, also having participated in the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion. Gloria attended St. Michael-Archangel School and Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Miami. Her father became ill after returning from Vietnam and Gloria helped her mother, Gloria Fajardo, care for him. Her mother worked as a school teacher for the Dade County Public School system. Gloria Estefan graduated from college in 1979 with a B.A. in psychology, with a minor in French, from the University of Miami. When she was studying at the university, she worked as an English/Spanish/French translator at Miami International Airport Customs Department and, because of her language abilities, was once approached by the CIA as a possible employee. Estefan was raised Catholic.

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Greg Giraldo
Greg Giraldo (December 10, 1965 – September 29, 2010) was an American stand-up comedian, television personality, and retired lawyer. Giraldo was best known for his appearances on Comedy Central's televised roast specials, and for his work on that network's television shows Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn, Lewis Black's Root of All Evil, and the programming block Stand-Up Nation, the last of which he hosted.
Gregory C. Giraldo was born in The Bronx and was raised in a predominantly Irish lower-middle-class neighborhood in Queens. His father, Alfonso, was from Colombia and worked for Pan Am, and his mother, Dolores, was from Spain. Giraldo was the oldest of three children (brother John and sister Elizabeth) and was raised Roman Catholic.
Giraldo was an excellent student and was accepted into the prestigious Regis High School in Manhattan. He then went on to earn a bachelor's degree in English from Columbia University in 1987 and a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1990. While at Columbia, he was an active member of the Psi Upsilon Fraternity.

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Gualberto Ruaño
Dr. Gualberto Ruaño, MD, PhD, is a pioneer in the field of personalized medicine and the inventor of molecular diagnostic systems used worldwide for the management of viral diseases. Ruaño is President and Founder of Genomas, a genetics-related company and now the bio-tech anchor of Hartford Hospital’s Genetic Research Center; he also serves as Director of genetics research at the Center.
Ruaño, who was born and raised in the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, came to the United States to study medicine. He attended Johns Hopkins University where he obtained his baccalaureate degree, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Ruaño also attended Yale University and his thesis was "A PCR-Based Paradigm for the Analysis of DNA Sequence Variation.
Ruaño founded Genomas in 2003. Dr. Ruaño had previously founded Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in 1997 as the pioneer company in pharmacogenomics. He served as Genaissance's CEO and Chief Scientific Officer. As CEO he led the IPO of the company in 2000 (NASDAQ: GNSC), which successfully raised $90 million, and to R&D partnerships with major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies furthering the field with visibility. As CSO, he developed fundamental technology for genetic associations based on gene haplotypes. Prior to that, at Bios Laboratories since 1992, he invented the Coupled Amplification and Sequencing (CAS) System (U.S. patent 5,427,911) for the rapid determination of sequence variation and now used for infectious disease pharmacogenomics. Marketed worldwide by Bayer Diagnostics as Trugene, this technology was the first pharmacogenomic diagnostic system approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is a leading example of personalized medicine in practice.

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Guatemalan American
A Guatemalan American is an American of Guatemalan descent.
The Guatemalan American population in the USA in 2009 was estimated by the US Census Bureau at 1,081,858 (+/-36,453). Guatemalans are the 2nd largest national subgroup of Central Americans in the USA (after Salvadorans).
Guatemalan-Americans tend to concentrate mainly in Greater Los Angeles, followed by the New York metropolitan area, Baltimore-Washington area, Greater Boston, and San Francisco Bay Area. Also Texas and Pennsylvania have very rapidly growing Guatemalan populations.
As of 2009, the largest Guatemalan communities were in the following metropolitan areas:
The states with the highest number of Guatemalans are as follows:

Guatemalans have emigrated to the USA since the 1930s and 1940s.^{[citation needed]} Along with other Central Americans such as Costa Ricans, they first arrived by way of Mexico and settled in urban areas like Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Houston, New York City and San Francisco.
The intensification of the Guatemalan Civil War during the 1970s and 1980s led to an influx of tens of thousands of Guatemalan refugees into the United States via Mexico, via both legal and illegal means. Guatemalan refugees became an important political and economic influence on seeking an end to the civil war, which finally came about in 1996. They also organized to change policies of the Mexican government in dealing with Guatemalan immigrants' legal status, their experience in Mexico, and difficulties of Guatemalans in Mexico immigrating to the US.

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Guillermo del Toro
Guillermo del Toro (Spanish pronunciation: [ɡiˈʎermo ðel ˈtoɾo]; born October 9, 1964) is a Mexican director, producer, screenwriter, novelist and designer. He is mostly known for his acclaimed films, Blade II, Pan's Labyrinth and the Hellboy film franchise. He is a frequent collaborator with Ron Perlman, Federico Luppi and Doug Jones. His films draw heavily on sources as diverse as weird fiction, fantasy and war.
Del Toro was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. He was raised in a strict Catholic household. Del Toro studied at the Centro de Investigación y Estudios Cinematográficos, in Guadalajara. He first got involved in filmmaking when he was about eight years old and studied special effects and make-up with SFX artist Dick Smith. Del Toro participated in the cult series La Hora Marcada with other renowned Mexican filmmakers such as Emmanuel Lubezki and Alfonso Cuarón.
He spent ten years as a special effects make-up designer and formed his own company, Necropia. He also co-founded the Guadalajara International Film Festival. Later on in his directing career, he formed his own production company, the Tequila Gang.

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Guy Gabaldon
PFC Guy Louis Gabaldon (March 22, 1926–August 31, 2006) was a United States Marine who, at age 18, captured (or persuaded to surrender) roughly 1,500 Japanese soldiers and civilians during the Battle of Saipan (1944) in World War II. He did this even though his own family, back in the U.S., had been sent to a Japanese-American internment camp.
For these actions, Gabaldon was nominated for the Medal of Honor but was instead awarded the Silver Star, which was later upgraded to the Navy Cross Medal. His exploits were the basis for the 1960 Hollywood film Hell to Eternity.
Gabaldon was born in Los Angeles, California. His family was Mexican-American, and he was one of seven children. He was raised in East Los Angeles and, as a ten-year old, he helped his family by shining shoes on Skid Row. Gabaldon was a member of a multi-ethnic gang known as the "Moe Gang," and he moved out of his house at age 12 to live with the Nakanos, a family of Japanese-American heritage whom he considered his extended family. He attended language school every day with their children and learned to speak Japanese. He also learned about their customs and culture.

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Guyanese American
Guyanese Americans are citizens and residents of the United States who can trace their ancestry back to the South American nation of Guyana, or a Guyanese who emigrated to the United States but has American citizenship.
After the independence of Guyana from Great Britain, in 1966, Guyanese immigration to the United States increased dramatically. Political and economic uncertainty, and the internal strife two years earlier prompted many Guyanese who could make the move to seek opportunities abroad.
Many of the first Guyanese emigrants to the United States were of African descent. They were women who were recruited as domestic workers or nursing assistants. Prior to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 Guyanese of Asian descent faced immigration restrictions because of US Immigration policy that was more pro-European. However, many Guyanese who had studied in the US in the mid 20th century or earlier stayed on the US; some, like Cheddi Jagan returned to Guyana. Shirley Chisholm's father represents one of the earliest of Guyanese immigrants to the US during the 20th century; emigration from Guyana at that time was mostly to Caribbean or Commonwealth countries.

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Haitian American
Haitian Americans are Americans of Haitian heritage, or Haitian-born people who are naturalized citizens or permanent residents of the United States. The largest proportion of Haitians live in South Florida counties and cities such as New York, Washington, D. C., Philadelphia, Chicago and Boston.
In 2009 the US Census estimated that there are 830,000 Haitian Americans living in the U.S. but many consider this number inaccurate due to the presence of illegal Haitian immigrants. During the early 1960s and the 1970s, many Haitians emigrated to the U.S. legally as well as illegally during the family dictatorships of François "Papa Doc" and Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier.

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Harold Gonsalves
Private First Class Harold Gonsalves (January 28, 1926-April 15, 1945) was a United States Marine who sacrificed his life to save fellow Marines in the Battle of Okinawa during World War II. For his heroism on this occasion, he was posthumously awarded the highest military honor of the United States — the Medal of Honor.
Harold Gonsalves was born in Alameda, California, on January 28, 1926. He attended school at Alameda and after two and one half years of high school, quit to take a job as a stock clerk with Montgomery Ward in Oakland. In high school he had taken part in football, baseball, track, and swimming, and sang tenor in the school glee club.
Gonsalves enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve on May 27, 1943 and was called to active duty on June 17, 1943. He went through recruit training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California, and then, at his own request, was sent to the Raiders at Camp Pendleton, California. After three weeks, he was transferred to the artillery at the same camp. He was classified as a cannoneer on 75 and 105 millimeter guns before he joined the 30th Replacement Battalion in the fall of 1943. Gonsalves left the United States on November 8, 1943 and at the end of that month was assigned to the 2nd Pack Howitzer Battalion, which was then in Hawaii. He was promoted to private first class in March 1944 and with his battalion became part of the 22nd Marines two months later.

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Henry Bonilla
Henry Bonilla (born January 2, 1954) is a former congressman who represented Texas's 23rd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. He was defeated in his bid for re-election by Ciro Davis Rodriguez, a former Democratic member of Congress, in a special election runoff held on December 12, 2006. His term expired January 3, 2007 when the 110th Congress officially began.
Bonilla was born in San Antonio to Anita Arellano and Enrique A. Bonilla. He graduated from South San Antonio High School in 1972 and received his Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1976. Before entering politics, he was a television news executive at San Antonio's CBS affiliate, KENS-TV. His former wife, Deborah Knapp (born December 1, 1954), continues as an anchor at the station. He has since married the former Sheryl White Shelby (born 1959).
In March 1992, Bonilla won the 23rd district's Republican nomination for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives (map). The 23rd had been a Democratic district since its creation in 1967, but Bonilla charged four-term incumbent Albert G. Bustamante with neglecting his constituents' needs, being involved in the House banking scandal by writing 30 "cheques calientes" in the House Bank, and taking excessive junkets abroad. Bonilla got an inadvertent assist from the state legislature, which left a heavily Republican area of western San Antonio in the 23rd while carving the new 28th District out of much of the 23rd's territory. Despite being outspent by $758,453 to $594,032 and being in a district that Bill Clinton carried the same year, Bonilla won by a huge 21-point margin, 59 to 38 percent, the largest margin of defeat for an incumbent that year. Bonilla did not win in heavily Democratic Webb County in 1992 or in any election thereafter though the small contingent of Republicans there, led by former Laredo City Council member Joe A. Guerra, worked hard for his candidacy.

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Henry Cisneros
Henry Gabriel Cisneros (born June 11, 1947) is a politician and businessman. A Democrat, Cisneros served as the 10th Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the administration of President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997. As HUD Secretary, Cisneros was credited with initiating the revitalization of many of the nation’s public housing developments and with formulating policies that contributed to achieving the nation’s highest ever homeownership rate.^{[citation needed]} In his role as the President’s chief representative to the nation’s cities, Cisneros personally worked in more than 200 U.S. cities in every one of the 50 states. Cisneros' decision to leave his Secretary position, and not serve a second term with Clinton, was overshadowed by controversy involving payments to his former mistress.
Prior to his cabinet position, Cisneros served four terms as the second Hispanic mayor of a major United States city, (the first being Alfonso Cervantes of St. Louis, Missouri 1965–1973) his hometown of San Antonio, Texas. As mayor, Cisneros rebuilt the city's economic base, recruiting convention business, attracting high tech industries, increasing tourism and creating jobs in San Antonio. Before being elected mayor, he was elected to three terms in the San Antonio city council.

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Herman Badillo
Herman Badillo (born August 21, 1929) is a Bronx, New York politician who has been a borough president, United States Representative, and candidate for Mayor of New York City. He was the first Puerto Rican to be elected to these posts and be a mayoral candidate in the continental United States.
Badillo was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico. When he was 11 years old, both of his parents died of tuberculosis and he was sent to live with his aunt in New York City. After graduating from the public school system, Badillo attended and earned a Bachelor's degree from the City College of New York in 1951. In 1954, he received an LL.B. from Brooklyn Law School graduating first in his class. The next year he was admitted to the New York State Bar. In 1956, he also became a certified public accountant.
In 1958, Badillo joined the "Caribe Democratic Club" and has since then held various offices within the City and State, including Bronx Borough President in 1965. Prior to becoming the Borough President, he served as New York Commissioner of Housing Preservation and Development.

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Herman Santiago
Herman Santiago (born February 18, 1941) is a rock and roll pioneer and songwriter who claimed to have written the iconic hit "Why Do Fools Fall In Love".
Santiago was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and raised in Manhattan, New York. In the early 1950s Santiago and friends, 2nd tenor Jimmy Merchant, fellow Puerto Rican Joe Negroni a baritone, and bassman Sherman Garnes, would meet in front of Santiago's apartment stoop in New York City to sing a cappella versions of hits of the day. They originally called themselves the "Ermines" and Santiago was their lead singer. On one occasion the "Ermines" participated in a talent show at PS 143 (Public School 143), at which another group, "The Cadillacs" were guests. After the show, in honor of the "Cadillacs", they changed their name to the "Coupe de Villes." This name only lasted a short time and they soon changed it to the "Premiers."
In 1955, 12 year old Frankie Lymon, who sang with his brothers Lewis and Howie, was working in a grocery store as a bag boy. He met the "Premiers" backstage at an amateur show and "jammed" with them. Lymon was quickly invited to join them, initially singing first tenor behind Santiago's lead. That same year Richard Barrett, a talent scout and producer for Rama Records (and also the lead singer of the "Valentines"), heard them singing and introduced them to George Goldner, the record company's owner. Goldner signed them to a contract and changed the group's name once more, this time to The Teenagers.

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Hernando de Soto
Hernando de Soto (c.1496/1497–1542) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who, while leading the first European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States, was the first European documented to have crossed the Mississippi River.
A vast undertaking, de Soto's North American expedition ranged throughout the southeastern United States searching for gold and a passage to China. De Soto died in 1542 on the banks of the Mississippi River in Arkansas or Louisiana.
Hernando de Soto was born to parents who were hidalgos of modest means in Extremadura, a region of poverty and hardship from which many young people looked for ways to seek their fortune elsewhere. Two towns—Badajoz and Barcarrota—claim to be his birthplace. He spent time as a child at each place, and he stipulated in his will that his body be interred at Jerez de los Caballeros, where other members of his family were interred. The age of the Conquerors came on the heels of the Spanish reconquest of the Iberian peninsula from Islamic forces. Spain and Portugal were filled with young men seeking a chance for military fame after the Moors were defeated. With discovery of new lands to the west (which they thought at the time to be East Asia), the poor young men were attracted to whispers of glory and wealth.

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Hilda Solis
Hilda Lucia Solis (pronounced /sɵˈliːs/; born October 20, 1957) is the 25th United States Secretary of Labor, serving in the Obama administration. She is a member of the Democratic Party and served in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2009, representing the 31st and 32nd congressional districts of California that include East Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley.
Solis was raised in La Puente, California by immigrant parents from Nicaragua and Mexico. She gained degrees from the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) and the University of Southern California (USC) and worked for two federal agencies in Washington, D.C. Returning to her native state, she was elected to the Rio Hondo Community College Board of Trustees in 1985, the California State Assembly in 1992, and the California State Senate in 1994. She was the first Hispanic woman to serve in the State Senate, and was reelected there in 1998. She became known for her work toward environmental justice and was the first female recipient of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in 2000.

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Honduran American
A Honduran American is an American of Honduran descent. The number of Hondurans in the U.S. in 2005 was estimated at 459,653 .
The first Hondurans came to United States in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, in the 1820´s, while the continent part of Centroamerica be independence from Spain and be founded of the republic of Honduras. Since then, all periods of conflict has led to a Honduran emigration to the United States (as was the case with the 1956 succession dilemma) which, however, has been increasingly less numerous (until the 1980´s), migrating only several thousand persons from Honduras to the United States. Despite of that many Honduran Americans are migrant farm laborers, the most of the them, first be established in the largest cities, in which they had support networks by part of Honduran American communities. In the 1990´s the most of the Honduran American lived in New York City (with had 33,000 Honduran American), Los Angeles (with 24,000), and Miami (with 18,000).

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Indian American
Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestral roots lie in India. The U.S. Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with the indigenous peoples of the Americas commonly referred to as American Indians.
In North America, the term Indian has an ambiguous meaning. In the western hemisphere, historically and currently, Indian has been commonly used to refer to the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Qualifying terms such as American Indian and East Indian were and are commonly used to avoid ambiguity.
While East Indian remains in use, South Asian is often chosen instead. The U.S. government coined Native American to refer to the indigenous peoples of the United States, but American Indian remains popular among the indigenous and general populations.
People of Indian origin often prefer the term Desi to refer to the diasporic subculture of South Asians. Indian Americans are categorized as Asian Indian (and more broadly, Asian American) by the United States Census Bureau.
It was after the Luce–Celler Act of 1946, that Indian Americans were restored naturalization rights in the United States. A number of Indian Americans came to the U.S. via Indian communities in other countries such as the United Kingdom and Canada, in both of which 2% of the population is currently of Indian origin,Mauritius, nations of Southeast Asia such as Malaysia and Singapore, South Africa, Suriname, Guyana, Fiji, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Trinidad & Tobago, and Jamaica.

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Irish American
Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. Roughly another 3.5 million (or about another 1.2% of Americans) identified more specifically with Scotch-Irish ancestry. The Irish diaspora population in the United States is roughly 6 times the modern population of Ireland.
The only self-reported ancestral group larger than Irish Americans is German Americans. The Irish are widely dispersed in terms of geography, and demographics. Irish American political leaders have played a major role in local and national politics since before the American Revolutionary War: eight Irish Americans signed the United States Declaration of Independence, and 22 American Presidents, from Andrew Jackson to Barack Obama, have been at least partly of Irish ancestry. (See "American Presidents with Irish ancestry" below.)

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Isabel Allende
Isabel Allende Llona (born in Lima, Peru, on 2 August 1942) is a Chilean American writer. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the "magic realist" tradition, is famous for novels such as The House of the Spirits (La casa de los espíritus, 1982) and City of the Beasts (La ciudad de las bestias, 2002), which have been commercially successful. Allende has been called "the world's most widely read Spanish-language author". In 2004, Allende was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2010, she received Chile's National Literature Prize.
Allende's novels are often based upon her personal experience and pay homage to the lives of women, while weaving together elements of myth and realism. She has lectured and toured many American colleges to teach literature. Fluent in English as a second language, Allende was granted American citizenship in 2003, having lived in California with her American husband since 1989.
Allende was born in Lima, Peru, the daughter of Francisca Llona Barros and Tomás Allende, who was at the time the Chilean ambassador to Peru. Her father was a first cousin of Salvador Allende, President of Chile from 1970 to 1973; so Salvador is her first cousin once removed. Many sources cite Allende as being Salvador Allende's niece (without specifying that the relationship is that Tomas and Salvador are cousins); the confusion stems from Allende herself often referring to Salvador as her "'uncle" (tío) in her private life and public interviews. This is because in Spanish a "first cousin once removed" is translated as "second degree uncle" (tío en segundo grado).

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Isleño
Isleño (Spanish pronunciation: [izˈleɲo], pl. isleños) is the Spanish word meaning "islander." The Isleños are the descendants of Canary Island settlers and immigrants to Louisiana, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and other parts of America. The name "islander" was given to the Canary Islanders to distinguish them from Spanish mainlanders known as "peninsulars" (Spanish: peninsulares) But in these places or countries, the name has evolved from a category to an identity. The name evolved to the point that when addressing the Canary Islanders of Louisiana, they would be referred to as the Isleños, or Los Isleños.
In Latin America, the Canary Islanders or "Canarians", are known as Isleños as well. Another name to refer to a Canary Islander is "Canarian" in English, or Canario in Spanish, as well as Isleño Canario.

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Isleño American
The term Isleño American applied to a set of peoples from the southern United States that descended from Spanish settlers originating from the Canary Islands. They arrived there in the XVIII century and have preserved the culture of their ancestors. Although colloquially the term can also be used to refer to any Canarian person having the American citizenship and his descendants in the U.S. This term is different from the term "Isleños", which refers to people of Canarian descent in the set of American countries without distinction.
Some people in Isleño American communities still speak the Spanish language of their ancestors. In particular members of the Isleño community of Saint Bernard Parish, being geographically isolated, have managed to preserve his culture and, until recently, their Canarian dialect (currently spoken by only a few Isleños in that community and in the Isleño communities of the United States in general).
Isleño culture consists of combination of a Canarian folk tradition and material created by the themselves Isleño Americans, and includes songs, proverbs, riddles and stories. They fought in the American Revolution, defending the Alamo, the Civil War and both World Wars.

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Italian American
An Italian American (Italian: Italoamericano singular, Italian: Italoamericani plural), is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship. Italian Americans are the fourth largest European ethnic group in the United States (not including American ethnicity, an ethnonym used by many in the United States; overall, Italian Americans rank seventh, behind German, Irish, African American, English, American and Mexican).
About 5.5 million Italians immigrated to the U.S. from 1820 to 2004. The greatest surge of immigration, which occurred in the period between 1880 and 1920, alone brought more than 4 million Italians to America. About 80% of the Italian immigrants came from Southern Italy, especially from Sicily, Campania, Abruzzo and Calabria. This was a largely agricultural and overpopulated region, where much of the populace had been impoverished by centuries of foreign misrule, and the economic measures imposed on the South after Italian unification in 1861 . After unification the Italian government initially encouraged emigration of landless peasants to relieve economic pressures in the South. In the U.S., most Italians began their new lives as unskilled, manual workers in Eastern cities, mining camps and in agriculture. Italian Americans gradually moved from the lower rungs of the economic scale in 1890-1910 to a level comparable to the national average by 1970. By 1990, more than 65% of Italian Americans were managerial, professional, or white-collar workers. The Italian-American communities have often been characterized by strong ties with family, the Catholic Church, fraternal organizations and political parties. Today, over 17.8 million Americans claim Italian ancestry.

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Iván Rodríguez
Iván Rodríguez Torres (born November 30, 1971), nicknamed "Pudge", is a retired Major League Baseball catcher. In his career, he played for the Texas Rangers (on two different tours, comprising the majority of his career), Florida Marlins, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, Houston Astros and Washington Nationals.
Rodríguez was awarded the AL MVP award in 1999. He is also regarded as one of the best defensive catchers of all time. Rodríguez won the World Series with the Marlins in 2003, and also played in the 2006 World Series while with the Tigers. On June 17, 2009, Rodríguez set a MLB record by catching his 2,227th game, passing Carlton Fisk. During his career, he had the best caught stealing percentage of any major league catcher, at 45.68%.
Rodríguez was born in Manati, Puerto Rico, and raised in Vega Baja. His father, Juan, worked for a U.S.-based construction company, and his mother, Eva Torres, was an elementary school teacher. Iván's first job involved delivering flyers in the shopping malls in Puerto Rico.

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Japanese American
Japanese Americans (日系米国人, Nikkei Beikokujin^?) are American people of Japanese heritage. Japanese Americans have historically been among the three largest Asian American communities, but in recent decades, it have become the sixth largest group at roughly 1,304,286, including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity. In the 2000 census, the largest Japanese American communities were found in California with 394,896, Hawaii with 296,674, Washington with 56,210, New York with 45,237, and Illinois with 27,702.
People from Japan began migrating to the U.S. in significant numbers following the political, cultural, and social changes stemming from the 1868 Meiji Restoration. Particularly after the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Japanese immigrants were sought by industrialists to replace the Chinese immigrants. In 1907, the "Gentlemen's Agreement" between the governments of Japan and the U.S. ended immigration of Japanese workers (i.e., men), but permitted the immigration of spouses of Japanese immigrants already in the U.S. The Immigration Act of 1924 banned the immigration of all but a token few Japanese.

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Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Lopez (born July 24, 1969) is an American actress, businesswoman, dancer and recording artist. Often referred to as J.Lo, she is reportedly the highest earning actress of Latin descent. Born and raised in The Bronx, New York, she enrolled in singing and dancing classes as a child and grew up in a musically influenced household. She started her career as a fly girl on the television comedy program In Living Color and a back-up dancer for Janet Jackson. Lopez gained recognition in the action-thriller Money Train (1995). Her first leading role was in the biographical film Selena (1997), which was her breakthrough role, earning her an ALMA Award for Outstanding Actress and Golden Globe nomination. She earned her second ALMA Award for her performance in Out of Sight (1998), which made her the highest-paid Latin actress. She has since appeared in various films including The Cell (2000), The Wedding Planner (2001), Maid in Manhattan (2002), Shall We Dance? (2004), Monster-in-Law (2005), The Back-up Plan (2010) and What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012).

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Jerry Apodaca
Raymond S. "Jerry" Apodaca (born October 3, 1934) was the 24th Governor of New Mexico.
Apodaca graduated from the University of New Mexico, and went into the insurance business. In 1965, he was elected to the New Mexico Senate, serving four terms from 1966 to 1974. Apodaca was elected governor of New Mexico as a Democrat in 1974, becoming the first Hispanic governor in the U.S. since 1918, along with Arizona Governor Raúl Héctor Castro, also elected that year.
Apodaca reorganized the New Mexico state government, creating a cabinet system with twelve departments. He also consolidated agencies and abolished several boards and commissions. He also increased numerous taxes during his tenure. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed Apodaca as Chair of the President's Council on Physical Fitness. After his term as governor, Apodaca became involved in publishing Hispanic-audience periodicals. He was a member of the University of New Mexico Board of Regents from 1985 to 1991.
In 2004, the headquarters building of the New Mexico Department of Education was renamed for Apodaca.

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Jerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia (August 1, 1942 – August 9, 1995) was an American musician who was best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead. Though he disavowed the role, Garcia was viewed by many as the leader or "spokesman" of the group.
One of its founders, Garcia performed with the Grateful Dead for their entire three-decade career (1965–1995). Garcia also founded and participated in a variety of side projects, including the Saunders-Garcia Band (with longtime friend Merl Saunders), Jerry Garcia Band, Old and in the Way, the Garcia/Grisman acoustic duo, Legion of Mary, and the New Riders of the Purple Sage (which Garcia co-founded with John Dawson and David Nelson). He also released several solo albums, and contributed to a number of albums by other artists over the years as a session musician. He was well known by many for his distinctive guitar playing and was ranked 13th in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" cover story.

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Jim Plunkett
James William "Jim" Plunkett (born December 5, 1947) is a former American football quarterback who played college football for Stanford University, where he won the Heisman Trophy, and professionally for three National Football League teams: the New England Patriots, San Francisco 49ers and Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders. He led the Raiders to two Super Bowl victories (XV and XVIII). He is the only eligible quarterback to start (and win) two Super Bowls without being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
Plunkett was born to Mexican American parents with an Irish-German great-grandfather on his paternal side. Plunkett's father was a news vendor afflicted with progressive blindness, who had to support his blind wife along with their three children. In an effort to aid the family's financial situation, Plunkett worked a series of odd jobs while growing up, including serving as a gas station attendant, grocery store clerk and as a laborer on construction sites. In an acknowledgement of his Mexican roots, Plunkett chose the fictional character of Zorro as his hero.^{[citation needed]}

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Jimmy Smits
Jimmy Smits (born July 9, 1955) is an American actor. Smits is perhaps best known for his roles as attorney Victor Sifuentes on the 1980s legal drama L.A. Law, as NYPD Detective Bobby Simone on the 1990s police drama NYPD Blue, and as Congressman and then President Matthew Vincente Santos on The West Wing. He is also notable for his portrayal of Bail Organa in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, and Miguel Prado in Dexter. In the fall of 2010, he starred in NBC's short-lived series Outlaw, about a U.S. Supreme Court justice who leaves the bench to return to practicing law.
Smits was born in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Cornelius Smits, was a Surinamese immigrant of Dutch descent who managed a screen-printing factory. His mother, Emilina, was a Puerto Rican who worked as a nurse. Smits was raised in a strict devout Roman Catholic family. "Jimmy" is actually the name on his birth certificate, rather than "Jim" or "James." He has two sisters, Yvonne and Diana. He grew up in a working-class neighborhood and spent time in Puerto Rico during his childhood. Smits earned a bachelor's degree from Brooklyn College in 1980 and an MFA from Cornell University in 1982. Though born in New York, Smits has deep Puerto Rican roots and frequently visits the island. In 2001, he was arrested for his participation in protests against U.S. Navy bombing practices on the Puerto Rican offshore island of Vieques.

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Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez ( /ˈbaɪ.ɛz/) (born January 9, 1941 as Joan Chandos Báez) is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice.
Baez has a distinctive vocal style, with a strong vibrato. Her recordings include many topical songs and material dealing with social issues.
Baez began her career performing in coffeehouses in Boston and Cambridge, and rose to fame as an unbilled performer at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival. She began her recording career in 1960, and achieved immediate success. Her first three albums, Joan Baez, Joan Baez, Vol. 2, and Joan Baez in Concert all achieved gold record status, and stayed on the charts for two years.
Baez has had a popular hit song with "Diamonds & Rust" and hit covers of Phil Ochs's "There but for Fortune" and The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". Other songs associated with Baez include "Farewell, Angelina", "Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word", "Joe Hill", "Sweet Sir Galahad" and "We Shall Overcome". She performed three of the songs at the 1969 Woodstock Festival, helped to bring the songs of Bob Dylan to national prominence, and has displayed a lifelong commitment to political and social activism in the fields of nonviolence, civil rights, human rights and the environment.

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Joe Baca
Joseph N. "Joe" Baca (born January 23, 1947) is the U.S. Representative for California's 43rd congressional district, serving since 2003. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, numbered as the 42nd from 1999 to 2003, is located in southwestern San Bernardino County and includes Fontana, Rialto, Ontario and parts of the city of San Bernardino.
Baca was born in Belen, New Mexico in 1947, the youngest of 15 children in a primarily Spanish-speaking household. His father was a railroad laborer. The family moved to Barstow, California when Joe was young, where he shined shoes at age 10, delivered newspapers, and later worked as a laborer for the Santa Fe Railroad, until he was drafted in 1966. He served in the U.S. Army until 1968. He did not serve in Vietnam.
Following military service, Baca attended Barstow Community College and went on to receive his bachelor's degree in sociology from California State University, Los Angeles. He worked for 15 years in community relations with General Telephone and Electric. In 1979, he was the first Latino elected to the Board of Trustees for the San Bernardino Valley College District. He was elected to the State Assembly in 1992, and to the State Senate in 1998.

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Joe Kapp
Joseph Robert Kapp (born March 19, 1938) is a former professional American and Canadian football quarterback. He is also a former college football head coach of the University of California, and a former general manager of the CFL's BC Lions. Kapp played primarily with the NFL's Minnesota Vikings and the CFL's BC Lions during the 1960-70s. He is a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame, the BC Lions Wall of Fame, the College Football Hall of Fame, and the University of California Athletic Hall of Fame. Kapp's #22 jersey is one of eight numbers retired by the Lions. In November, 2006, Kapp was voted to the Honour Roll of the CFL's top 50 players of the league's modern era by Canadian sports network TSN.Sports Illustrated once called him "The Toughest Chicano." Kapp is the only player to quarterback in the Super Bowl, Rose Bowl, and the Grey Cup. Prior to the 2011 Grey Cup in Vancouver, Kapp and Angelo Mosca, a member of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats when Kapp was with the Lions, got into a fight at the CFL Awards luncheon that made it onto YouTube. The pair remain at odds over a hit Mosca delivered to Kapp's teammate Willie Fleming in the 1963 Grey Cup.

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Joel Casamayor
Joel "El Cepillo" Casamayor Johnson (born July 12, 1971 in Guantánamo, Cuba) is a Cuban boxer, who turned pro after defecting to the United States on the eve of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. The nickname "El Cepillo", literally translated to "the brush", comes from his uppercut, which rakes his opponents across the face. Also, for his ability to "brush off" punches from his opponents.
He won the NABF Super Featheweight title in 1999 by beating Jose Luis Noyola. Later that year, he won the WBA Super Featherweight title by stopping Jong-Kwon Baek in 5 rounds. In 2002, he lost that title in a controversial unification bout with WBO champion Acelino Freitas. At one point in the fight, Casamayor slipped and the referee ruled it a knockdown. Casamayor also had a point deducted for a late hit. Many believe Casamayor should have won the fight. In 2004, Diego Corrales, whom Casamayor stopped in 2003 for the Vacant IBA Super Featherweight Title, defeated him for the vacant WBO Super Featherweight title via a very close and controversial decision. Casamayor failed to take the WBC Lightweight title from José Luis Castillo later that year because the judges scored what seemed to be a clear win for Casamayor over Castillo. After the disputed loss to Castillo, Casamayor's career appeared to be in a downward spiral and he was set up with undefeated rising prospect Almazbek Raiymkulov in June 2005. In a close, spirited battle the bout ended in a draw, with many believing that Casamayor's best days were behind him.

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John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior United States Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to then President George W. Bush.
The son of an Army Air Corps serviceman, Kerry was born in Aurora, Colorado. He attended boarding school in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and went on to graduate from Yale University class of 1966, where he majored in political science. He enlisted in the Naval Reserve in 1966 and, during 1968-1969, served a four-month tour of duty in South Vietnam as officer-in-charge (OIC) of a Swift Boat. For that service he was awarded several combat medals that include the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts. After returning to the United States, Kerry joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War in which he served as a nationally recognized spokesperson and as an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam war. During that period, he appeared before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs where he deemed United States war policy in Vietnam to be the cause of "war crimes".

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John Leguizamo
Jonathan Alberto "John" Leguizamo (born July 22, 1964) is a Colombian-American actor, producer, voice artist, and comedian.
John Leguizamo was born in Bogotá, Colombia, to Alberto and Luz Leguizamo, According to Leguizamo, his paternal grandfather was of Puerto Rican and Italian descent and his maternal grandfather was Lebanese. Leguizamo has also described himself as being of Amerindian and Mestizo heritage. Leguizamo's father was once an aspiring film director and studied at Cinecittà, but eventually dropped out due to lack of finances. When Leguizamo was four years old, his family emigrated to the United States and lived in various neighborhoods of Queens in New York City, including Jackson Heights. He later credited growing up as one of the first Latino children in his Jackson Heights neighborhood as formative in his acting ability: "It was tough. There were lots of fights. I would walk through a park and be attacked, and I had to defend myself all the time. But this helped me to become funny so that I wouldn’t get hit." Leguizamo attended the Joseph Pulitzer Middle School (I.S.145) and later the Murry Bergtraum High School. As a student at Murry Bergtraum, Leguizamo wrote comedy material and tested it out on his classmates. He was voted "Most Talkative" by his fellow classmates. After graduating from high school, he began his theater career as an undergraduate at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in which he eventually dropped out to seek a stand-up comedy career. Post NYU Leguizamo enrolled at Long Island University C.W. Post Campus where he took theater classes.

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John McCain
John Sidney McCain III (born August 29, 1936) is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican presidential nominee in the 2008 United States election.
McCain followed his father and grandfather, both four-star admirals, into the United States Navy, graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1958. He became a naval aviator, flying ground-attack aircraft from aircraft carriers. During the Vietnam War, he was almost killed in the 1967 USS Forrestal fire. In October 1967, while on a bombing mission over Hanoi, he was shot down, seriously injured, and captured by the North Vietnamese. He was a prisoner of war until 1973. McCain experienced episodes of torture, and refused an out-of-sequence early repatriation offer. His war wounds left him with lifelong physical limitations.
He retired from the Navy as a captain in 1981 and moved to Arizona, where he entered politics. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, he served two terms, and was then elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986, winning re-election easily four times, most recently in 2010. While generally adhering to conservative principles, McCain at times has had a media reputation as a "maverick" for his willingness to disagree with his party on certain issues. After being investigated and largely exonerated in a political influence scandal of the 1980s as a member of the Keating Five, he made campaign finance reform one of his signature concerns, which eventually led to the passage of the McCain-Feingold Act in 2002. He is also known for his work towards restoring diplomatic relations with Vietnam in the 1990s, and for his belief that the war in Iraq should be fought to a successful conclusion. McCain has chaired the Senate Commerce Committee, opposed spending that he considered to be pork barrel, and played a key role in alleviating a crisis over judicial nominations.

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John Ortega
Seaman John Ortega (born in 1840 in Spain), was the first Hispanic sailor to be awarded the United States' highest military decoration for valor in combat — the Medal of Honor — for having distinguished himself during the South Atlantic Blockade by the Union Naval forces during the American Civil War.
Ortega, a resident of Pennsylvania, was a Spanish immigrant who joined the Union Navy in his adopted hometown in Pennsylvania.
Ortega was assigned to the USS Saratoga during the American Civil War. The USS Saratoga, commissioned in 1843, was the third ship of the United States Navy christened with that same name. It was a sloop-of-war under the command of Commander George Musalas Colvocoresses.
On January 13, 1864, Secretary of the United States Navy Gideon Welles, ordered Commander Colvocoresses and the USS Saratoga to proceed to Charleston, South Carolina, and report to Rear Admiral Dahlgren for duty in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron in what is known as the Union blockade. This was a massive effort by the Union Navy to prevent the passage of trade goods, supplies, and arms to and from the Confederate States.

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John Rambo
John Rambo (born July 6, 1947) is an iconic fictional character and the basis of the Rambo saga. He first appeared in the 1972 novel First Blood by David Morrell, but later became more famous in the film series, played by Sylvester Stallone. The character John Rambo was considered a possible candidate for the American Film Institute's list 100 Years…100 Heroes and Villains.
John Rambo (John J. Rambo according to the first film), was born on July 6, 1947 in Bowie, Arizona, to a Native American (Navajo) father (R. Rambo according to the last film) and an Italian American mother (Marie Drago).^{[citation needed]} However, in Rambo: First Blood Part II, Marshall Murdock states that Rambo is of American Indian/German descent. Rambo enlisted in the United States Army at the age of 17 on August 6, 1964. After graduating from Rangeford High School in 1965, his military service began in January 1966. Rambo was deployed to South Vietnam in September 1966. He returned to the U.S. in 1967 and began training in the Special Forces (Green Berets) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In late 1969, Rambo was re-deployed to Vietnam. In November 1971, he was captured by North Vietnamese forces near the Chinese-Vietnamese border and held at a POW camp, where he and other American POWs were repeatedly tortured. Rambo escaped captivity in May 1972, but was then re-deployed. At some point in his military career he also apparently received training in flying helicopters. Rambo received his military discharge on September 17, 1974.

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John Ruiz
John "The Quietman" Ruiz (born January 4, 1972 in Methuen, Massachusetts), is a former American professional boxer. Ruiz is the first Latino heavyweight champion and former two-time WBA heavyweight champion. After a professional career spanning over 18 years, Ruiz officially announced his retirement from the sport at a press conference on April 26, 2010. His final fight was a title shot against the then WBA heavyweight title holder David Haye, in which Ruiz was defeated by TKO in round 9.
Ruiz has defeated three world champions in Evander Holyfield, Hasim Rahman, and Tony Tucker, as well as top contenders such as Andrew Golota, Fres Oquendo, Jameel McCline, and Kirk Johnson.
He is currently residing in Las Vegas, Nevada.
His professional record is 44–9–1–1, with 30 knockouts. Frustrated by years of criticism from the boxing press and fans, he retired upon his second loss of the WBA Title on April 30, 2005 (to James "Lights-Out" Toney). Ruiz un-retired in 10 days, after finding out that James Toney had tested positive for anabolic steroids. The official outcome, a unanimous-decision defeat, was changed to a no-contest; the WBA ordered that Ruiz retain the title. Ruiz then filed a lawsuit against Toney, claiming that he had damaged Ruiz's boxing career (due to Toney's use of illegal steroids before their bout).

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John Salazar
John Tony Salazar (born July 21, 1953) is the former Congressman for Colorado's 3rd congressional district, serving from 2005 until 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Following his service in Congress, he was appointed as Commissioner of the Colorado Department of Agriculture in the Cabinet of Governor John Hickenlooper in 2011.
Salazar was born in Alamosa, Colorado.
Salazar served in the U.S. Army from 1973 to 1976, and is a farmer and rancher. His formal education includes a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Adams State College in 1981. Salazar was the owner of an internet company, Spudseed.com, which marketed potatoes, as well as serving as a director of Monte Vista Production Credit Union and Agro Engineering, Inc.
Salazar served on several Colorado public bodies including the Governor's Economic Development Advisory Board, the Rio Grande Water Conservation District and the Colorado Agricultural Leadership Forum. He also served on the Colorado Agricultural Commission from 1999 to 2002 before being elected to the Colorado House of Representatives from 2003 until 2004.

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Jordi Farragut
Jordi Farragut, also known as George Farragut (born September 29 or September 30, 1755, – June 4, 1817), was a United States Navy officer during the American Revolutionary War. He also fought with the Continental infantry in battles in the South. After commanding a Spanish trading ship in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean, he had joined the South Carolina Navy as a lieutenant when the war broke out. He anglicized his name to George Farragut when he joined the South Carolina Navy.
Jordi Farragut Mesquida was born to Antoni Ferragut and Joana Mesquida in Ciutadella, Minorca (Spain). He first went to sea at the age of 10, and left Spain as a young man to join the Spanish merchant marines. He commanded a small vessel that traded goods between Veracruz, Mexico, New Orleans (under French and Spanish rule), and ports in the Caribbean, namely Havana, Cuba.
He joined his new country at the beginning of the American Revolution, initially as a lieutenant in the South Carolina Navy, and anglicized his first name to George. Farragut fought the British at Savannah and was captured in the Siege of Charleston in 1780. After being released in a prisoner exchange, he fought as a volunteer at the Battle of Cowpens and at Wilmington.

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Jorge Majfud
Jorge Majfud (born 1969) is a Uruguayan writer.
He was born in Tacuarembó, Uruguay. He received a professional degree in Architecture in 1996 from the Universidad de la República in Montevideo and studied at Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes. He travelled extensively to gather material that would later become part of his novels and essays, and was a professor at the Universidad Hispanoamericana of Costa Rica and at Escuela Técnica del Uruguay, where he taught art and mathematics.
In 2003 he entered the University of Georgia, where he obtained a Master and a PhD in the Department of Romance Languages. He is a member of the scientific committee of Araucaria review of Spain, Araucaria, The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, and a Professional Member of PEN American Center.[8].He taught at the University of Georgia and was a professor at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Currently he is a professor at Jacksonville University. Dr. Majfud has won many research awards including the Excellence in Research Award in Humanities and Letters, and Juan Rulfo Award finalist 2011. His novels and essays are under study in different universities in Europe, the U.S., and Latin America.

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Jorge Otero Barreto
Sergeant First Class Jorge Otero Barreto (Ret.) a.k.a. "The Puerto Rican Rambo" (born c. 1938), was a member of the United States Army who was the most decorated soldier in the Vietnam War
Otero Barreto was born in the town of Vega Baja, Puerto Rico where he received his primary and secondary education. He studied biology for three years, until 1959 when he joined the U.S. Army. After his basic training he was sent to the Army's Air Assault School from which he graduated in 1960.
Otero Barreto joined the U.S. Army and from 1961 to 1970 served five tours in Southeast Asia, starting as an advisor who helped train Vietnamese troops. Otero-Barreto participated in 200 combat missions and was awarded 38 military decorations, making him the most decorated person in the United States military of the Vietnam War. Among his many decorations are 3 Silver Stars, 5 Bronze Stars with Valor, 5 Purple Hearts and 5 Air Medals (one each for every 5th mission which involved a helicopter).
Otero Barreto was the keynote speaker at a Vietnam Veterans Memorial Dinner in Lorain, Ohio. In 2006, the Coalición Nacional Puertoriqueña (National Puerto Rican Collation) honored Otero Barreto in a Conference held at the Hotel Hilton of Chicago with a "Lifetime Achievement Award".

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Joseph Montoya
Joseph Manuel Montoya (September 24, 1915 – June 8, 1978) was a Democratic U.S. Senator for the State of New Mexico from 1964 until 1977.
Montoya was born in Peña Blanca, New Mexico. His parents, Thomas and Frances Montoya, were Roman Catholic descendants of eighteenth-century Spanish settlers to New Mexico. He received his early education in public schools in Sandoval County and graduated from Bernalillo High School in 1931. He continued his education at Regis College in Denver, Colorado. In 1934 he began law school at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C..
In 1936 at age 21, while Montoya was still at Georgetown, he became the youngest representative in the history of the state to be elected to the New Mexico State House of Representatives. In 1938 Montoya graduated from law school and was reelected. The following year he was elected the Democratic majority floor leader
Montoya continued his political ascent with his election to the New Mexico State Senate in 1940, once again becoming the youngest member of that body ever elected. By the time he left the Senate in 1946, Montoya had been twice reelected to the State Senate and held the positions of majority whip and Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. From 1947 to 1957 he was elected Lieutenant Governor of New Mexico three times and also served two additional terms in the State Senate.

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José Feliciano
José Feliciano (born September 10, 1945) is a Puerto Rican singer, virtuoso guitarist and composer known for many international hits including the 1970 Christmas single "Feliz Navidad".
Feliciano was born in Lares, Puerto Rico, on September 10, 1945. Left permanently blind at birth as a result of congenital glaucoma, Feliciano was first exposed to music at age three and would play on a tin cracker can while accompanying his uncle playing the Cuatro. When he was five, his family moved to Spanish Harlem, New York City, and at age nine, he played the Teatro Puerto Rico in the Bronx. He started his musical life playing the accordion until his father and family friend, Benjamin Borges, gave him his first guitar in a brown paper bag. He played every chance he had by himself in his room for up to 14 hours a day listening to 1950s rock'n'roll records, classical guitarists such as Andrés Segovia, and jazz players such as Wes Montgomery. He later had classical lessons with Harold Morris, who earlier had been a student of Segovia.

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José Ferrer
José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón (January 8, 1912 – January 26, 1992), best known as José Ferrer, was a Puerto Rican actor, as well as a theater and film director. He was the first Puerto Rican, as well as the first Hispanic actor to win an Academy Award. Jose Ferrer donated his Academy Award to the University of Puerto Rico as a tribute to his roots. The prolific and distinguished thespian also won numerous Tony Awards: In 1947 he won a Tony Award for his theatrical performance of Cyrano de Bergerac, and in 1952 Ferrer won the Distinguished Dramatic Actor Award for The Shrike, plus the Outstanding Director Award for The Shrike, The Fourposter, and Stalag 17. Jose Ferrer's contributions to American theatre were recognized in 1981 when he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. Further honors came in 1985 when he was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
Ferrer was born in the Santurce, Puerto Rico, the son of Maria Providencia Cintron and Rafael Ferrer, an attorney and writer. He studied in the Swiss boarding school Institut Le Rosey. In 1933, he graduated from Princeton University, where he wrote a senior thesis "French Naturalism and Pardo Bazán"; he was also a member of the Princeton Triangle Club.

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José Juan Barea
José Juan "J.J." Barea Mora (born June 26, 1984) is a Puerto Rican professional basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves. He also played for the 2011 NBA champion Dallas Mavericks from 2006 to 2011. Barea has played in the NBA, NBA Development League, NCAA and the BSN with Indios de Mayagüez and the Cangrejeros de Santurce. After playing college basketball at Northeastern University, he participated in the 2006 NBA Draft but was undrafted, and he was subsequently signed by the Dallas Mavericks following his participation in the NBA Vegas Summer league, becoming the seventh Puerto Rican to play in the NBA. He was a member of the Puerto Rican team that won the gold medal in the 2006 and 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games. Barea was the starting point guard of the Puerto Rican national team's squad that won the gold medal in the 2011 Pan American Games and the silver medal in the 2007 Pan American Games.
Jose Juan Barea is the son of Jaime Barea and Marta Mora. He was born and raised in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico where he lived until he was seventeen. While living in Mayagüez, Barea was a member of Boy Scouts of America Troop 790 for seven years. He then moved to Miami, Florida after joining the Miami Tropics program, organized by Arturo Álvarez and Miguel Mercado. As part of the program, Barea enrolled at Miami Christian School, where he played his senior high school year with the school’s team. During this season the team won the Class 1A state title, Barea averaged 24.8 points per game, and was selected to Florida’s All-State team and was Miami-Dade’s Player of the Year.

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Juan Bandini
Juan Bandini (1800 – November 4, 1859) was an early settler of what would become San Diego, California.
Juan Bandini was born 1800 in Lima, Peru to José Bandini, a Spanish sea captain. His father came to California in 1819 and 1821 and participated in the Mexican War of Independence. After the revolution his father's family moved to San Diego, arriving in San Diego September 1, 1834 on the brig Natalie.
Bandini married Marie de los Dolores Estudillo on November 20, 1822. She was born c. 1808, daughter of Captain José María Estudillo. They had three daughters, Arcadia, Ysidora, and Josefa, and two sons, Juanito and one who died in childhood.
Bandini's second wife was Refugia Argüello, daughter of Santiago Argüello. They had three sons, Juan de la Cruz, Alfredo, and Arturo, and two daughters, Dolores and Victoria.
Bandini built a large U-shaped house, Casa de Bandini, in 1829. Initially it had 12 rooms and was one-story. Bandini was forced to sell his house in 1859 due to financial losses. Part of the building was converted into a store. His house was later converted to the Cosmopolitan Hotel in 1869, with a second story and wraparound porch added. The house still stands in Old Town San Diego, at the east corner of the town square, and has recently been fully remodeled and reopened as a hotel and restaurant. Originally the house and hotel were not stuccoed—that was added in modern times to make it look "Spanish Colonial".

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Juan de Oñate
Don Juan de Oñate y Salazar (1550–1626) was a Spanish explorer, colonial governor of the New Spain province of New Mexico, and founder of various settlements in the present day Southwest of the United States.
Oñate was born in the New Spain city of Zacatecas to Spanish-Basque colonists and silver mine owners. His father was the conquistador/silver baron Cristóbal de Oñate, and his mother Doña Catalina Salazar y de la Cadena. His Cadena ancestor fought in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, and was the first to break the line of defense protecting Mohammad Ben Yacub. The family was granted a coat of arms, and thereafter were known as the Cadenas. (Ref. La Calle de Cadena en Mexico," pps. 1—46, Guillermo Porras Munoz). Juan de Oñate married Isabel de Tolosa Cortés de Moctezuma, granddaughter of Hernán Cortés, the conqueror of the Aztec Triple Alliance, and great granddaughter of the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma Xocoyotzin.
In 1595 he was ordered by King Philip II to colonize the northern frontier of New Spain. His stated objective was to spread Roman Catholicism and establish new missions. He began the expedition in 1598, fording the Rio Grande, or Río del Norte, at the present-day El Paso, in late April. On April 30, 1598, he claimed all of New Mexico beyond the river for Spain.

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Juan Ponce de León
Juan Ponce de León (/ˈpɒns də ˈliən/Spanish pronunciation: [ˈponθe ðe leˈon]; 1474 – July 1521) was a Spanish explorer. He became the first Governor of Puerto Rico by appointment of the Spanish crown. He led the first European expedition to Florida, which he named. He is associated with the legend of the Fountain of Youth, reputed to be in Florida.
Juan Ponce de León was born in the village of Santervás de Campos in the northern part of what is now the Spanish province of Valladolid. Although early historians placed his birth in 1475, more recent evidence shows he was likely born in 1474. The surname 'Ponce de León' is of Basque origin, and dates from the XI century. He was descended from Ponce Vélaz, a nobleman from León, who was the son of Vela Gutiérrez and Sancha de Cabrera. Vela Gutiérrez was the great-grandson of Vermudo Nuñez, fifth child of Nuño Vela, count of Álava, who was descended from the kings of Vasconia.
The identity of his parents is unknown, but he appears to have been a member of a distinguished and influential noble family. His relatives included Rodrigo Ponce de León, Marquis of Cádiz, a celebrated figure in the Moorish wars.

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Junot Díaz
Junot Díaz (born December 31, 1968) is a Dominican-American writer, creative writing professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and fiction editor at Boston Review. Central to Díaz's work is the immigrant experience. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, in 2008.
Díaz was born in Villa Juana, a neighborhood in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He was the third child in a family of five. Throughout most of his early childhood, he lived with his mother and grandparents while his father worked in the United States. Díaz emigrated to Parlin, New Jersey in December 1974, where he was re-united with his father. There he lived less than a mile from what he has described as "one of the largest landfills in New Jersey".
He attended Madison Park Elementary and was a voracious reader, often walking four miles in order to borrow books from his public library. At this time Díaz became fascinated with apocalyptic films and books, especially the work of John Christopher, the original Planet of the Apes films, and the BBC mini-series Edge of Darkness. Díaz graduated from Cedar Ridge High School (now merged to form Old Bridge High School) in Old Bridge Township, New Jersey in 1987. Though he would not begin to write formally until years later, Díaz was introduced to writing during this time in the form of composing twenty to thirty page letters to his brother, who was hospitalized with Leukemia for long stretches of their childhood.

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Kat DeLuna
Kathleen Emperatriz "Kat" DeLuna (born November 17, 1987) is a Dominican American pop singer. DeLuna has a soprano vocal range. Her debut single, "Whine Up", reached the top ten in Belgium and France, peaked inside the top forty of the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart. Her debut album, 9 Lives, was released in 2007. It peaked at number fifty-eight on the Billboard 200 and charted within the top twenty of Belgium and Poland. In 2008, DeLuna began work on her second studio album, Inside Out. It was released in Belgium in 2010, peaking at number sixteen.
In 2007, DeLuna won "Best New Artist" at the Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica 2007 awards. In 2008, she won "Best New Artist" and "Best Urban Artist" at the TMF Awards. DeLuna's single, "Whine Up", won the award for "Latin Dance Club Play Track Of The Year" at the 2008 Latin Billboard Music Awards. She also won a Casandra Award in 2008 for "Best International Artist".
Kat DeLuna was born on November 17, 1987, in the Bronx borough of New York City, USA. At a young age, DeLuna and her family moved to the Dominican Republic. When she was 12, DeLuna performed onstage and was heard by Milly Quezada who commended her vocals. Friends and family recognized her talent at an early age, but it was not until she moved back to the United States at age 14, to Newark, New Jersey, that DeLuna realized her potential as a singer. She attended Benjamin Franklin Elementary in Newark, and was taught by Nicholas Straus. DeLuna then attended the Newark Arts High School, which was the only school she applied to. While there, DeLuna and her friends formed an R&B group called Coquette. DeLuna had a tough upbringing and was raised in poverty. She spent her time listening to Aretha Franklin and Billie Holiday records, which she imitated daily on her karaoke machine.

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Katy Jurado
Katy Jurado (January 16, 1924 – July 5, 2002), born María Cristina Estela Marcela Jurado García in Mexico, D.F., was a Mexican actress who had a successful film career both in Mexico and in Hollywood.
Jurado had already established herself as an actress in Mexico in the 1940s when she came to Hollywood becoming a regular in Western films of the 1950s and 1960s. She worked with many Hollywood legends, including Gary Cooper in High Noon, Spencer Tracy in Broken Lance, and Marlon Brando in One-Eyed Jacks, and such respected directors as Fred Zinneman (High Noon), Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid) and John Huston (Under the Volcano).
Jurado made seventy-one films during her career. She became the first Latin American actress nominated for an Academy Award, as Best Supporting Actress for her work in 1954's Broken Lance, and was the first to win a Golden Globe. Like many Latin actors, she was typecast to play ethnic roles in American films. By contrast, she had a greater variety of roles in Mexican films; sometimes she also sang and danced.

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Ken Salazar
Kenneth Lee "Ken" Salazar (pronounced /ˈsæləzɑr/; born March 2, 1955) is the current United States Secretary of the Interior, in the administration of President Barack Obama. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as a United States Senator from Colorado from 2005 to 2009. He and Mel Martinez (R-Florida) were the first Hispanic U.S. Senators since 1977; they were joined by Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey) in January 2006. Prior to his election to the U.S. Senate, he served as Attorney General of Colorado from 1999 to 2005.
On December 17, 2008, President-elect Obama announced he would nominate Salazar as U.S. Secretary of the Interior. The environmentalist movement's reaction to this nomination was mixed. Previously, Salazar supported the nomination of Gale Norton to Secretary of the Interior, President George W. Bush's first appointee who preceded Salazar as Colorado Attorney General. On January 20, 2009, Salazar was confirmed by unanimous consent in the Senate.
Ken Salazar was born in Alamosa, Colorado, the son of Emma M. and Henry (Enrique) S. Salazar. He grew up near Manassa, in the community of Los Rincones in the San Luis Valley area of south-central Colorado. Salazar attended St. Francis Seminary and Centauri High School in La Jara, graduating in 1973. He later attended Colorado College, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1977, and received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Michigan Law School in 1981. Later Salazar was awarded honorary degrees (Doctor of Laws) from Colorado College (1993) and the University of Denver (1999). After graduating, Salazar started private law practice.

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Kenny Ortega
Kenneth John "Kenny" Ortega (born April 18, 1950) is an American producer, director, and choreographer. He is known for directing the High School Musical trilogy and Michael Jackson's This Is It concert tour.
Ortega was born in Palo Alto, California, the son of Madeline, a waitress, and Octavio (Tibby) Ortega, a factory worker from Redwood City. His grandparents were from Spain. Initially known for working with dancer and choreographer Gene Kelly on the film Xanadu, Ortega went on to choreographing the dance for the Menudo video "Hold Me", as well as the 1987 film Dirty Dancing, and has won awards for choreography in music videos, such as Madonna's "Material Girl".
Ortega directed Billy Squier's "Rock Me Tonite" video, which is often cited as the worst music promo clip ever made and has been blamed by Squier for killing his career. Together with Michael Jackson, he created and designed the Dangerous World Tour 1992-1993 and the HIStory World Tour 1996-1997. He has also choreographed events ranging from Super Bowl XXX, the 72nd Academy Awards, the 1996 Summer Olympics (Atlanta) and the 2002 Winter Olympics (Salt Lake City).

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Kika de la Garza
Eligio “Kika” de la Garza, II (born September 22, 1927, in Mercedes, Texas) was the Democratic representative for the 15th congressional district of Texas from January 3, 1965, to January 3, 1997.
De la Garza grew up in Mission in Hidalgo County. At the age of seventeen, he entered the United States Navy and served for two years. De la Garza chose to continue his education at Edinburg Junior College and the United States Army Artillery School at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. For two years beginning in 1952, he was a lieutenant in the Army while deployed in the Korean War. After returning home, he completed his law degree at St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio. After having practiced law for several years in the Rio Grande Valley, he was elected to the Texas House of Representatives.
While in the state House, de la Garza was famous for sponsoring much legislation in the fields of education and the environment. He authored bills to protect wetlands, create state-sponsored preschools, and more international bridges to Mexico. From 1955 to 1957, he was the only Hispanic member of the Texas House. He was joined in 1957 by a second Mexican American member, Oscar M. Laurel of Laredo, the seat of Webb County.

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Korean War
The Korean War (Korean: 한국전쟁 or 조선전쟁, Hanja: 韓國戰爭 or 朝鮮戰爭; 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was a war between the Republic of Korea (supported primarily by the United States of America, with contributions from allied nations under the aegis of the United Nations) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (supported by the People's Republic of China, with military and material aid from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). The Korean War was primarily the result of the political division of Korea by an agreement of the victorious Allies at the conclusion of the Pacific War at the end of World War II. The Korean Peninsula was ruled by the Empire of Japan from 1910 until the end of World War II. Following the surrender of the Empire of Japan in September 1945, American administrators divided the peninsula along the 38th parallel, with U.S. military forces occupying the southern half and Soviet military forces occupying the northern half.

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Ladislas Lazaro
Ladislas Lazaro (June 5, 1872 – March 30, 1927) was a Democratic U.S. Representative from Louisiana.
Born near Ville Platte, Evangeline (then St. Landry) Parish, Louisiana, son of Alexandre Lazaro and Marie Denise Ortego. Lazaro attended public and private schools and Holy Cross College, New Orleans, Louisiana. He was graduated from Louisville (Kentucky) Medical College in 1894 and practiced his profession in Washington, Louisiana, until 1913.
He became interested in agricultural pursuits. He served as president of the parish school board for four years. He also served in the Louisiana State Senate from 1908 to 1912.
Lazaro was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-third and to the seven succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1913, until his death in Washington, D.C., March 30, 1927. He was interred in the Old City Cemetery, Ville Platte, Louisiana.

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Lauren Vélez
Lauren Vélez (born November 2, 1964) is an American actress of Puerto Rican descent and the twin sister of actress Loraine Vélez. Her most notable roles are as María LaGuerta on Dexter, Detective Nina Moreno on Fox's New York Undercover, Dr. Gloria Nathan on HBO's prison drama, Oz, and Elena on ABC's comemdy-drama, Ugly Betty.
Vélez's parents moved from Puerto Rico in the early 1950s and lived in the Brooklyn section of New York City where she and her twin sister were born. Their father was a New York City police officer who eventually bought a house in the middle class neighborhood of Rockaway, Queens, and moved there with his wife and eight children. The sisters enjoyed setting up improvised plays and acting for the family since childhood. Vélez once played the part of a groundhog in a second grade school play, after which she decided to be an actress.
After graduating from high school, the twins both received scholarships to attend the Alvin Ailey Dancing School. They also studied acting at The Acting Studio with James Price, and Lauren studied Shakespeare with Michael Howard.

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Lauro Cavazos
Lauro Fred Cavazos Jr. (b. January 4, 1927, Kingsville, Texas) is a U.S. educator. He served as Secretary of Education, and was the first Hispanic to serve in the United States Cabinet.
A sixth-generation Texan, he was born on the King Ranch, Kingsville, Texas, where his father served as foreman of the showcase Santa Gertrudis Division. He was the son of Lauro F. Cavazos Sr. and Tomasa Quintanilla Cavazos. Through his maternal ancestry, he is a descendant of Texas Revolution heroine Francisca Alvarez, the "Angel of Goliad".
He earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in zoology from Texas Tech University, and a Ph.D. in physiology from Iowa State University. While in college, he was a member of Kappa Kappa Psi. Following a stint on the faculties of Tufts University and the Medical College of Virginia. From 1975 to 1980, he served as Dean of the Tufts University School of Medicine. From 1980 to 1988, he served as President of Texas Tech University. He was both the first alumnus and the first Hispanic to serve as Texas Tech President.

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Lea T
Lea T (born Leandro Cerezo in 1981), is a Brazilian fashion model.
Lea T is the daughter of well-known former Brazilian football player Toninho Cerezo. Lea was born male; but now identifies as female. On January 4, 2011 interview, Lea T stated intentions to undergo sex reassignment surgery in March 2011.
Lea T was first discovered by Givenchy senior designer Riccardo Tisci and became the face of Givenchy in late 2010. Her first runway show was for Alexandre Herchcovitch during São Paulo Fashion Week in January 2011.
She has been featured in editorials in Vogue Paris, Hercules Magazine, Interview Magazine, Cover Magazine and Love Magazine. In 2011, she was also the cover star of two editions of the Spring/Summer 2011 edition of Love Magazine, one as the solo model and another featuring her kissing Kate Moss.
She is ranked 42nd on the Top 50 Models Women List by models.com.
While Lea T has stated an attraction to both sexes in her adolescence, she did not experiment with her sexuality until her twenties.

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Lebanese people
The Lebanese people (Arabic: الشعب اللبناني‎ el shaab el libnene, Lebanese Arabic pronunciation: [eʃˈʃaʕb ellɪbˈneːne]) are a nation and ethnic group of Levantine people originating in what is today the country of Lebanon, including those who had inhabited Mount Lebanon prior to the creation of the modern Lebanese state.
The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Lebanese people is a rich blend of both indigenous elements and the foreign cultures that have come to rule the land and its people over the course of thousands of years.
Lebanon does not collect official census data on ethnic background and therefore is difficult to have an exact demographic analysis of Lebanese society, with the last census conducted by the French Mandate government in 1932. The largest concentration or people of Lebanese ancestry is in Brazil having an estimated population of 6 to 7 million. As with their predecessors, the Lebanese have always travelled the world, many of them settling permanently, most notably in the last two centuries.

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Lee Trevino
Lee Buck Trevino (born December 1, 1939) is a Mexican American professional golfer. He is an icon for Mexican Americans, and is often referred to as "The Merry Mex" and "Supermex". He won six major championships over the course of his career.
Trevino was born in Dallas, Texas into a family of Mexican ancestry. He was raised by his mother, Juanita Trevino, and his grandfather, Joe Trevino, a gravedigger. Trevino never knew his father, Joseph Trevino, who left when his son was small. Trevino's childhood consisted of attending school occasionally and working to earn money for the family. At age five, he started working in the cotton fields.
Trevino was introduced to golf when his uncle gave him a few golf balls and an old golf club. He then spent his free time sneaking into nearby country clubs to practice, and began as a caddy at the Dallas Athletic Club. He soon began caddying full-time. Trevino had to leave school at 14 to go to work. He earned $30 a week as a caddy and a shoeshiner. He was also able to practice golf, since the caddies had three short holes behind their shack. After work, he would hit at least 300 balls. Trevino has claimed to have earned extra money by challenging competitors to rounds of golf where he used only a shovel and taped-up 32-ounce glass Dr. Pepper bottle.

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Lefty Gomez
Vernon Louis "Lefty" Gomez (November 26, 1908 – February 17, 1989) was an American left-handed major league pitcher who played in the American League for the New York Yankees between 1930 and 1942. Considered one of the great pitchers of the day, Gomez was a seven-time All-Star and a five-time World Series Champion with the Yankees. He was also known for his colorful personality and humor throughout his career and life.
Gomez was born in Rodeo, California. His father, Francisco Gomez, had been born in California to a Spanish father, Juan Gomez, and a Portuguese mother, Rita. His mother, Lizzie Herring, was an American of Welsh-Irish descent. He played sandlot baseball in Oakland while attending Richmond High School. It was during that timeframe that he was recruited by the San Francisco Seals. The New York Yankees purchased Lefty from the Seals for an estimated $39,000.
A 20-game winner four times and an All-Star every year from 1933 to 1939, Gomez led the league twice each in wins, winning percentage and ERA, and three times each in shutouts and strikeouts. In the historic first major league All-Star Game (July 6, 1933), Gomez not only was the winning pitcher for the American League, but also drove in the first run of the game. This was out of character for him, as he was, even by the standards of pitchers, notorious for poor hitting. "I never broke a bat until I was 73 years old," he said. "And that was from backing the car out of the garage." His career OPS+ of -7 is the fifth-worst in baseball history among players with at least 1,000 plate appearances. [2] Gomez holds the record for the most innings pitched in a single All-Star game (six, in 1934).

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Linda Garcia Cubero
Captain Linda Garcia Cubero (born 1958) is a former United States Air Force officer, of Mexican-American-Puerto Rican descent.
In 1980 Cubero was a member of the first class of women to graduate from the United States Air Force Academy, and thus became the first Hispanic woman to graduate from any service academy; she is currently the president of Falcon Cash Investments LLC.
Cubero's father was a United States Air Force officer of Mexican-American descent and her mother of Puerto Rican ancestry. Her father was a very influential factor in her life and she decided to follow in his footsteps and apply for admission to the United States Air Force Academy. Despite the fact that she ranked 25/485 students in her high school class and that she was a member of the National Honor Society, her guidance counselors told her that she “wasn’t good enough” to make it into the USAFA.
The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA or Air Force), located immediately north of Colorado Springs in El Paso County, Colorado, United States, is an institution for the undergraduate education of officers for the United States Air Force. Graduates of the four-year program receive a Bachelor of Science degree and most are commissioned as second lieutenants in the United States Air Force.

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Linda Ronstadt
Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden Globe nominations.
A singer, songwriter, and record producer, she is recognized as a definitive interpreter of songs. Being one of music's most versatile and commercially successful female singers in U.S. history, she is recognized for her many public stages of self-reinvention and incarnations.
With a one-time standing as the Queen of Rock, where she was bestowed the title of "highest paid woman in rock", and known as the First Lady of Rock, she has more recently emerged as music matriarch, international arts advocate and human rights advocate.
Ronstadt has collaborated with artists from a diverse spectrum of genres—including Billy Eckstine,Frank Zappa, Rosemary Clooney, Flaco Jiménez, Philip Glass, Carla Bley, The Chieftains, Gram Parsons, Dolly Parton, Kate and Anna McGarrigle and has lent her voice to over 120 albums around the world. Christopher Loudon of Jazz Times noted in 2004, Ronstadt is "Blessed with arguably the most sterling set of pipes of her generation ... rarest of rarities—a chameleon who can blend into any background yet remain boldly distinctive ... It's an exceptional gift; one shared by few others."

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Linda Sánchez
Linda T. Sánchez (born January 28, 1969) is the U.S. Representative for California's 39th congressional district, serving since 2003. She is a member of the Democratic Party.
Sánchez was born in Orange, California and grew up with six siblings, raised by Mexican immigrant parents in Anaheim. She earned her BA in Spanish in 1991 at the University of California, Berkeley and her Juris Doctor degree in 1995 at the UCLA School of Law, where she was an editor of the Chicano-Latino Law Review.
Sánchez was an attorney specializing in labor law prior to her public service career. In 1998, she joined the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 441 and became a compliance officer. In 2000 she was unanimously elected to the position of Executive Secretary/Treasurer of the Orange County Central Labor Council.
She has two committee assignments in the House: the Judiciary Committee and the United States House Committee on Ways and Means. In 2005, she was appointed Assistant Minority Whip. She is a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and is Co-Chair of the Congressional Labor and Working Families Caucus (she co-founded this caucus).

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Lisa Fernandez
For the politician, see Liza Fernandez Rodriguez
Lisa Fernandez (born February 22, 1971, in New York City) is a right-handed softball pitcher of Cuban-Puerto Rican descent. She established an Olympic record in softball with 25 strikeouts in a game as a member of the United States Women's team.
Fernandez's father emigrated from Cuba, where he played baseball. In New York, he met Fernandez's mother, who had migrated from Puerto Rico and whom he married. Fernandez's mother played stickball, a street game similar to baseball played with a broom stick and a rubber ball, with her brother in the streets. Fernandez began playing at the age of eight. At twelve, she played in a local children's league; when she tried out as a pitcher, her coach told her that she would never make it because she didn't have the right size and build. In 1986, Fernandez and her family moved to Lakewood, California, where she attended St. Joseph High School. She joined her school's girls' softball team and she and her teammates won the CIF Championship.

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Loretta Sanchez
Loretta Sanchez (born January 7, 1960) is the U.S. Representative for California's 47th congressional district, and previously the 46th, serving since 2003. She is a member of the Democratic Party, and a member of the Blue Dog Coalition. The district lies in central Orange County.
Sanchez was born in California and graduated from Katella High School in Anaheim in 1978. Her father was a unionized machinist and her mother worked as a secretary.^{[citation needed]} Her Mexican immigrant parents had seven children. She joined the United Food and Commercial Workers when she worked as an ice cream server in high school, and received a union scholarship to college. She received her undergraduate degree from Chapman College in Orange in 1982, obtained her MBA from American University in Washington, DC in 1984, and was a financial analyst until entering the House. Sanchez describes herself as growing up a "shy, quiet girl" who did not speak English. She credits government with much of her success in public life.

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Lucian Adams
Staff Sergeant Lucian Adams (October 26, 1922 – March 31, 2003) was a United States Army soldier during World War II who received the Medal of Honor for single-handedly destroying enemy machine gun emplacements to re-establish supply lines to U.S. Army companies. He also received the Bronze Star and Purple Heart for his heroic actions in Italy.
Lucian Adams was born on October 26, 1922, in Port Arthur, Texas. He was one of twelve children from a large Mexican American family. He attended Port Arthur High School. Adams enlisted in the Army in February 1943 after spending two years in a wartime plant making landing craft- Just like the ones that would carry him to the shores of Italy then France in the American invasion of Europe.
In the summer of 1944, the 3rd Infantry Division landed near Saint – Tropez and began advancing into central France. By late October, Sergeant Adam's company was near the town of Saint-Die in the Mortagne forest, moving down a country road to open a supply line to two assault companies of his battalion that were cut off by the Germans.When stopped by heavy enemy fire, Adams, was sent forward to scout the German position and reported three enemy machine-gun nests to his company commander. He was then told "You go on out there and make a breakthrough to get those GIs".

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Luis Gutiérrez
Luis Vicente Gutiérrez (born December 10, 1953) is an American politician and the U.S. Representative for Illinois's 4th congressional district, serving since 1993. Gutiérrez was the first Latino to be elected to Congress from the Midwest. From 1986 until his election to Congress he served as a member of the Chicago City Council representing the 26th ward. He is a member of the Democratic Party and the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He is recognized as the "national leader on comprehensive immigration reform," and the top Latino elected official in the United States of America.
Of Puerto Rican descent, he is a supporter of Puerto Rican independence, and the Vieques movement. Gutiérrez is also an outspoken advocate of workers' rights, LGBTQ rights, gender equality, and other liberal and progressive causes. Gutiérrez has been compared to civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., due to both figures' use of non-violent civil disobedience in their advocacy for the equal rights of their communities. In 2010 Frank Sharry of America's Voice, a leading pro-immigrant group, said of Gutiérrez: "He’s as close as the Latino community has to a Martin Luther King figure." His supporters have given him the nickname El Gallito – the little fighting rooster – in reference to his fiery oratory and political prowess.

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Luis Valdez
Luis Valdez (born June 26, 1940) is an American playwright, writer and film director.
He is regarded as the father of Chicano theater in the United States.
Valdez was born in Delano, California to migrant farm worker parents. His brother is the actor Daniel Valdez. Luis Valdez graduated from James Lick High School in San Jose and went on attend San Jose State University (SJSU) on a scholarship for math and physics. He later switched his major and earned a degree in English in 1964.
According to Valdez, when he was six years old, he watched a teacher use part of a paper bag to make paper-mâché masks for a theater production. This experience transformed him and would have a lasting effect. In college, it helped lead him to the theater. Valdez's first full-length play, The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa, debuted at SJSU in 1963.
After graduation, Valdez spent the next few months with The San Francisco Mime Troupe, where he was introduced to agitprop theatre.
In 1965, Valdez returned to Delano, where he formed El Teatro Campesino, a farm worker's theater troupe. Valdez's teatro was influential, according to Gale Resources, "Thanks to Valdez and El Teatro Campesino. What began as a farm workers' theater in the migrant camps of Delano now exploded into a national Chicano theater movement. Theater groups sprang up with surprising speed on college campuses and in communities throughout the United States."

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Luis Walter Alvarez
Luis W. Alvarez (June 13, 1911 – September 1, 1988) was an American experimental physicist and inventor, who spent nearly all of his long professional career on the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley. The American Journal of Physics commented, "Luis Alvarez (1911–1988) was one of the most brilliant and productive experimental physicists of the twentieth century." He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1968, and took out over 40 patents, some of which led to commercial products.
Alvarez was of Spanish descent from his paternal grandfather. Alvarez was the son of Walter C. Alvarez, a doctor who for a time was a researcher at the Mayo Clinic, and of Harriet Smythe, and a grandson of Luis F. Alvarez, a doctor living in Hawaii who found a better method for diagnosing macular leprosy. His aunt, Mabel Alvarez, was a California artist specializing in oil painting. Alvarez married Geraldine Smithwick in 1936 and had two children, Walter and Jean. In 1958, he married Janet L. Landis and had two more children, Donald and Helen.

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Lupe Vélez
Lupe Vélez (July 18, 1908 – December 14, 1944) was a Mexican film actress. Vélez began her career in Mexico as a dancer, before moving to the U.S. where she worked in vaudeville. She was seen by Fanny Brice who promoted her, and Vélez soon entered films, making her first appearance in 1924. By the end of the decade she had progressed to leading roles. With the advent of talking pictures Vélez acted in comedies, but she became disappointed with her film career, and moved to New York where she worked in Broadway productions.
Returning to Hollywood in 1939, she made a series of comedies. She also made some films in Mexico. Vélez's personal life was often difficult; a five year marriage to Johnny Weissmuller and a series of romances, were highly publicized. She is often associated with the nicknames "The Mexican Spitfire" and "The Hot Pepper".
Vélez was one of the first Mexican actresses to succeed in Hollywood. The others are Dolores del Río, Katy Jurado and in more recent years, Salma Hayek.

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Lynda Carter
Lynda Jean Carter (born July 24, 1951) is an American actress and singer, best known for being Miss World USA and as the star of the 1970s television series The New Original Wonder Woman (1975–77) and The New Adventures of Wonder Woman (1977–79).
Carter was born Lynda Jean Carter in Phoenix, Arizona. Her father, Colby Carter, is an art dealer of Irish English descent and her mother, Juana Córdova, is of Mexican Spanish descent with roots in Chihuahua, Mexico, with her Spanish roots most likely of Basque origin. and previously worked in the telephone industry. Lynda speaks fluent Spanish.^{[citation needed]} Carter grew up an avid reader of the Wonder Woman comic books. She went to Arcadia High School in Phoenix and Kachina Elementary School in Glendale, Arizona.
During high school, Carter performed in a band called Just Us, consisting of a marimba, a conga drum, an acoustic guitar, and a stand-up bass played by another girl. When she was 17, Lynda joined two of her cousins in another band called The Relatives. Actor Gary Burghoff was the drummer. The group opened at the Sahara Hotel and Casino lounge in Las Vegas, Nevada, for three months; and, because Lynda was under 21, she had to enter through the kitchen. She attended Arizona State University and was a member of Alpha Xi Delta. After being voted "Most Talented," she dropped out to pursue a career in music. In 1970, Carter sang with The Garfin Gathering with Lynda Carter. Their first performance was in a San Francisco hotel so new that it had no sidewalk entrance. Consequently, they played mostly to the janitors and hotel guests who parked their cars in the underground garage. She returned to Arizona in 1972.

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Manny Ramirez
Manuel Arístides "Manny" Ramírez Onelcida (born May 30, 1972) is a Dominican-American professional baseball outfielder and designated hitter who is currently with the Oakland Athletics organization. He was recognized for great batting skill and power, a nine-time Silver Slugger and one of 25 players to hit 500 career home runs. Ramirez's 21 grand slams are third all-time, and his 28 post-season home runs are the most by any player in MLB history. He was a fixture in the All-Star Game with 12 appearances including eleven consecutive beginning 1998. He appeared in the All-Star game in every season that he played with the Boston Red Sox.
Ramirez was allegedly among a group of 104 major league players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs during 2003. In 2009 he was suspended 50 games for violating baseball's drug policy by taking human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), a women's fertility drug. According to steroid dealer Victor Conte, hCG is often used to restart natural testosterone production after a steroid cycle.

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Marc Anthony
Marco Antonio Muñiz (born September 16, 1968), known professionally by his stage name Marc Anthony, is an American singer-songwriter, actor and producer. Anthony is the top selling tropical salsa artist of all time. The two-time Grammy and three-time Latin Grammy–winner has sold more than 12 million albums worldwide. He is best known for his Latin salsa numbers and ballads.
Anthony has won numerous awards and his achievements have been honored through various recognitions. He was the recipient of the 2009 Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) Chair's Award. He also received the "2009 CHCI Chair's Lifetime Achievement Award" on September 16, 2009. Anthony holds the record having the most number-one singles on the Billboard Tropical Songs.
Anthony is a minority owner/limited partner of the Miami Dolphins NFL team.
Marco Antonio Muñiz, known professionally by his stage name Marc Anthony, born in New York City to Guillerminna, a housewife, and Felipe Muñiz, a musician and hospital lunchroom worker. Anthony is of Puerto Rican descent, and his parents named him after Mexican singer Marco Antonio Muñiz. Anthony grew up in East Harlem as the youngest of 7 children. He was raised Roman Catholic.

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Marc Bulger
Marc Robert Bulger [pronounced /ˈbʊldʒər/] (born April 5, 1977) is a former American football quarterback. He was drafted by the New Orleans Saints in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft. He played college football at West Virginia.
Bulger was also a member of the Atlanta Falcons, St. Louis Rams, and Baltimore Ravens. He was the 2004 Pro Bowl MVP.
Bulger played college football at West Virginia University where he holds 20 passing records including 8,153 passing yards. He was a sports management major.
Bulger was originally drafted by the New Orleans Saints in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft and spent training camp with the team before being waived.
Bulger spent two weeks on the practice squad of the Atlanta Falcons during the 2000 season.
After spending time on the St. Louis Rams practice squad late in the 2000 season, Bulger was re-signed by the Rams on January 12, 2001.

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Marcario Garcia
Staff Sergeant Marcario Garcia or Macario Garcia (January 20, 1920-December 24, 1972) born in Villa de Castaño, Mexico, was the first Mexican immigrant to receive the Medal of Honor, the United States' highest military decoration. He received the award for his heroic actions as a soldier during World War II.
In 1924, Garcia's family immigrated to the United States from Mexico in search of a better way of life. He lived in Sugar Land, Texas where he worked as a cotton farmer.
Upon the outbreak of World War II, Garcia joined the United States Army at a recruiting station in his adopted hometown in November 1942. He was assigned to Company B, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division.
On November 27, 1944, Garcia was the squad leader of his platoon which found itself engaged in combat against the German troops in the vicinity of Grosshau, Germany. Realizing that his company could not advance because it was pinned down by enemy machine gun fire, Garcia, on his own initiative, went alone and destroyed two enemy emplacements and captured four prisoners. Despite being wounded himself, he continued to fight on with his unit until the objective was taken.

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Marcelino Serna
Private Marcelino Serna (April 26, 1896-February 29, 1992) was an undocumented Mexican immigrant who joined the United States Army and became the most decorated soldier from Texas in World War I. Serna was the first Hispanic to be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
Serna was born in the city of Chihuahua, in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, to a poor family. In 1916, when he was 20 years old, Serna decided to enter the United States, by crossing the Rio Grande and going to El Paso, Texas in search of a job and better way of life. Serna, did not know how to speak English and could only find employment that paid low wages. It wasn't long before he found himself working as a farm hand in a sugar beet field in Denver, Colorado.
The United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917. Serna was with a group of men in Denver, when he was picked up by federal officials. He faced the possibility of being deported and before that could happen he volunteered to serve in the Army.
After his basic training Serna was sent overseas and assigned to Company B, 355th Infantry of the 89th Division. When the Army realized that he was a Mexican National, he was offered a discharge. Serna, however refused and chose to stay with his new friends.

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Marcelo Balboa
Marcelo Balboa (born August 8, 1967 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American former soccer defender who played in the 1990s for the U.S. national team, becoming its captain. After retiring from playing, he has worked as a commentator for ESPN and ABC and MLS games on HDNet and Altitude. He is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. He is currently the head boys soccer coach for Monarch High School in Louisville, Colo.
Balboa, who is of Argentine descent, grew up in Cerritos, California, and was a product of the American Youth Soccer Organization program in Southern California, where he played for his father, Luis Balboa. Luis was a professional player in Argentina and also played with the Chicago Mustangs of the North American Soccer League.
After playing in college at San Diego State University, Marcelo Balboa anchored the American defense in the 1990 and the 1994 FIFA World Cups (his first cap came on January 10, 1988 against Guatemala). He was named U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year in 1992 and 1994. In 1995, he became the first U.S. player to break the 100-cap barrier.

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Marco Rubio
Marco Antonio Rubio (born May 28, 1971) is the junior United States Senator from Florida, serving since January 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives (2007–2009).
Born to Cuban immigrants, Rubio was raised in Miami, Florida, and Las Vegas, Nevada. He attended Tarkio College and Santa Fe Community College before graduating from the University of Florida. He earned his J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law in 1996 while interning for U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. In the late 1990s he served as a City Commissioner for West Miami. Rubio was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2000, representing the 111th House district. He was elected Speaker in November 2006.
Rubio announced a run for U.S. Senate in May 2009 after incumbent Republican Mel Martinez resigned. Initially trailing by double-digits against the incumbent Republican Governor Charlie Crist, Rubio eventually surpassed him in polling for the Republican nomination. Rubio won the Republican nomination after Crist opted instead for an independent run. In a three-way split against Crist and Democratic candidate Kendrick Meek, Rubio won the general election in November 2010 by a 19-point margin.

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Maria Montez
Maria Montez (June 6, 1912 – September 7, 1951) was a Dominican-born motion picture actress who gained fame and popularity in the 1940s as an exotic beauty starring in a series of filmed-in-Technicolor costume adventure films. Her screen image was that of a hot-blooded Latin seductress, dressed in fanciful costumes and sparkling jewels. She became so identified with these adventure epics that she became known as "The Queen of Technicolor." Over her career, Montez appeared in 26 films, 21 of which were made in North America and five in Europe.
Her beauty soon made her the centerpiece of Universal's Technicolor costume adventures, notably the six in which she was teamed with Jon Hall — Arabian Nights (1942), White Savage (1943), Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944), Cobra Woman (1944), Gypsy Wildcat (1944), and Sudan (1945). Montez also appeared in the Technicolor western Pirates of Monterey (1947) with Rod Cameron and the sepia-toned swashbuckler The Exile (1948), directed by Max Ophuls and starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.

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Mark Aguirre
Mark Anthony Aguirre (born December 10, 1959 in Chicago, Illinois) is a retired American basketball player in the National Basketball Association. Aguirre played from 1981–1994 and won two championships with the Detroit Pistons after being sent to Detroit from the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for Adrian Dantley. Aguirre was a three-time All-Star for Dallas.
While playing at DePaul University, he averaged 24.5 points over three seasons with the Blue Demons, and in 1981 was The Sporting News College Player of the Year. He also was the USBWA College Player of the Year and James Naismith Award winner in 1980, and a 2 time member of The Sporting News' All-America first team. As a freshman in 1978–1979, he led the Demons to the Final Four, where they lost to Indiana State, led by future NBA Hall of Famer Larry Bird.
The Chicago native played on the same DePaul team as future NBA star Terry Cummings and found himself in the national spotlight during his three years at the university. He averaged 24.0 points as a freshman in 1978–79 and led the Blue Demons to the NCAA Final Four. Over the next two seasons he scored 26.8 and 23.0 points per game, respectively, and he was named College Player of the Year in 1980–81. A member of the 1980 U.S. Olympic basketball team, Aguirre left school after his junior year. The Dallas Mavericks took him with the first overall pick in the 1981 NBA Draft.

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Mark Sanchez
Mark Travis John Sanchez (born November 11, 1986) is an American football quarterback for the New York Jets of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft as the fifth overall selection by the Jets and the second quarterback taken overall. He played college football at the University of Southern California (USC).
Sanchez grew up in a well-disciplined and athletic family. In the eighth grade, he began to play football and learn the intricacies of the quarterback position, training with his father, Nick. A well-regarded prospect, Sanchez committed to Southern California following his successful high school career in which he led his team to a championship title during his final season. At USC, Sanchez was relegated as the backup quarterback during his first three years though he rose to prominence due to his brief appearances on the field in 2007 due to injuries suffered by starting quarterback John David Booty. Sanchez also became popular within the community due to his Mexican-American heritage. Named the starter in 2008, Sanchez led USC to a 12–1 record and won the Rose Bowl against Penn State for which Sanchez was awarded the Most Valuable Player award for his performance on offense.

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Martin Sheen
Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez (born August 3, 1940), better known by his stage name Martin Sheen, is an American film actor best known for his performances in the films Badlands (1973), Apocalypse Now (1979), Wall Street (1987), The Departed (2006), his role as The Illusive Man in the Mass Effect trilogy and President Josiah Bartlet in the television series The West Wing.
He is considered one of the best actors never to be nominated for an Academy Award despite his acclaimed performances.^[opinion] In film he has won the Best Actor award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival for his performance as Kit Carruthers in Badlands. His portrayal of Capt. Willard in Apocalypse Now earned a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor. Sheen has worked with a wide variety of film directors, such as Richard Attenborough, Francis Ford Coppola, Terrence Malick, David Cronenberg, Mike Nichols, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Oliver Stone. He has had a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame since 1989. In television he has won both a Golden Globe and two Screen Actors Guild awards for playing the lead role of President Bartlet in The West Wing, and an Emmy for guest acting in the sitcom Murphy Brown.

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Maximo Yabes
First Sergeant Maximo Yabes (January 29, 1932–February 26, 1967) born in Lodi, California, was a United States Army soldier who posthumously received the Medal of Honor — the United States' highest military decoration — for his actions near Phu Hoa Dong in the Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Yabes distinguished himself when he used his body as a shield to protect others in a bunker, moved two wounded men to a safer position where they could be given medical treatment and destroyed an enemy machine gun position before being mortally wounded.
Yabes was born in Lodi, California, and at a young age moved with his family to Oakridge, Oregon where he received his primary and secondary education. In 1950, he dropped out of Oakridge High School and joined the United States Army.
By 1967, Yabes was a First Sergeant with a total of 15 years in the Army. He was assigned to Company A, 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry, of the 25th Infantry Division which found itself in the Republic of Vietnam. The division had been stationed at Cu Chi, a village northwest of Saigon since January 1966.

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Mel Martinez
Melquíades Rafael Martínez Ruiz, usually known as Mel Martinez (born October 23, 1946), is a former United States Senator from Florida and served as Chairman of the Republican Party from November 2006 until October 19, 2007, the first Latino to serve as chairman of a major party. Previously, Martínez served as the 12th Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President George W. Bush. Martínez is a Cuban-American and Roman Catholic. He announced he was resigning as Chairman of the Republican National Committee on October 19, 2007. He is an honorary initiate of the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity through the Eta Rho Chapter at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.
Martínez resigned his cabinet post on December 12, 2003, to run for the open U.S. Senate seat in Florida being vacated by retiring Democratic Senator Bob Graham. Martínez secured the Republican nomination and narrowly defeated the Democratic nominee, Betty Castor. His election made him the first Cuban-American to serve in the U.S. Senate. Furthermore, he and Ken Salazar (who is Mexican-American) were the first Hispanic U.S. Senators since 1977. They were joined by a third, Bob Menéndez (who is also Cuban-American) in January 2006, until Salazar resigned from the Senate on January 20, 2009, to become Secretary of the Interior. On December 2, 2008, Martinez announced he would not be running for re-election to the Senate in 2010.

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Melina Perez
Melina Nava Perez (born March 9, 1979) is an American professional wrestler. She is best known for her time with World Wrestling Entertainment under the ring name Melina.
Perez joined the independent professional wrestling circuit in 2000 before signing with WWE in 2004. Initially, she was a manager for the tag team MNM. She managed them to three reigns as WWE Tag Team Champions, as well as Johnny Nitro to two reigns as WWE Intercontinental Champion. Perez made her WWE singles debut in 2005 and is an three-time WWE Women's Champion, winning the belt twice in 2007 and once in 2009. She also captured the WWE Divas Championship on two occasions in 2009 and 2010, making her a five-time champion overall. As a WWE Diva, Perez was noted for her trademark ring entrance which involved performing the splits on the wrestling ring's apron. She was released from her contract with WWE on August 5, 2011.
She started training at Jesse Hernandez's School of Hard Knocks in San Bernardino, California and made her professional debut in April 2002. Many EWF officials stated that she had the most natural ability of any woman who came through their school. In late 2002, Perez auditioned for World Wrestling Entertainment's reality show Tough Enough III, making it through to the final twenty-one before being eliminated from the competition in the final cut of the first episode. After she was eliminated from the contest, trainer Al Snow pulled her aside and encouraged her to keep trying to pursue her dream as a wrestler.

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Mercedes Reaves
Mercedes Reaves is a Puerto Rican research engineer and scientist. She is responsible for the design of a viable full-scale solar sail and the development and testing of a scale model solar sail at NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia.
Reaves was born and raised in Puerto Rico, where she received her primary and secondary education. She enrolled at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, where she obtained a bachelor of science degree in Mechanical Engineering. She continued her graduate education in the Old Dominion University.
During her career in NASA, Reaves has been involved in the research on modeling and validation of smart structures, the implementation of probabilistic analysis tools for dynamic model updates, simulation of ground-induced vibration of the HSCT (High Speed Civil Transport) as it traversed a typical runway and experiments to determine static and dynamic properties of advanced aircraft tires
On August 2001 Reaves participated in a flight experiment called the Aero-structures Test Wing (ATW), conducted at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. The experiment successfully demonstrated a new software data analysis tool, the flutterometer, which is designed to increase the efficiency of flight flutter testing.

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Mexican American
Mexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. As of July 2009, Mexican Americans make up 10.3% of the United States' population with over 31,689,000 Americans listed as of Mexican ancestry. Mexican Americans comprise 66% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States. The United States is home to the second largest Mexican community in the world second only to Mexico itself comprising nearly 22% of the entire Mexican origin population of the world. Canada is a distant third with a Mexican origin population of 37,000 as of 2001 although increasing to 61,505 as of 2006. In addition, as of 2008 there were approximately 7,000,000 undocumented Mexicans living in the United States which if included in the count would increase the US share to over 28% of the world's Mexican origin population (Note that some of the undocumented would be captured in the US Census count depending on their willingness to provide information). Over 60% of all Mexican Americans reside in the states of California and Texas. Most Mexican Americans are the descendants of the Indigenous peoples of Mexico and/or Europeans, especially Spaniards.

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Mexican people
Mexican people (Spanish: Pueblo mexicano (collective), Mexicanos (individuals)) refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity.
Mexico became a nation in 1821 when Mexico achieved independence from the Spanish Empire; this began the process of forging a Mexican national identity that fused the cultural traits of indigenous pre-Columbian origin with those of European, particularly Iberian, ancestry. This led to what has been termed "a peculiar form of multi-ethnic nationalism"
The most spoken language by Mexicans is Mexican Spanish, but many also speak languages from 62 different indigenous linguistic groups and other languages brought to Mexico by recent immigration or learned by Mexican immigrants residing in other nations. Over 78% of the Mexican people live in Mexico but there is a sizable diaspora with nearly 22% living in the United States.
The Mexican people have varied origins and an identity that has evolved with the succession of conquests among Amerindian groups and by Europeans. The area that is now modern-day Mexico has cradled many predecessor civilizations, going back as far as the Olmec which influenced the latter civilizations of Teotihuacan (200 B.C. to 700 A.D.) and the much debated Toltec people who flourished around the 10th and 12th centuries A.D., and ending with the last great indigenous civilization before the Spanish Conquest, the Aztecs (March 13, 1325 to August 13, 1521). The Nahuatl language was a common tongue in the region of modern Central Mexico during the Aztec Empire, but after the arrival of Europeans the common language of the region became Spanish.

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Michael Carbajal
Michael Carbajal (born September 17, 1967 in Phoenix, Arizona) is an American five-time world boxing champion of Mexican descent. His nickname was "Little Hands Of Stone," after his favorite boxer,"Hands Of Stone" Roberto Durán.
Results were:

His amateur record was 94-9.
His gym, "The 9th Street Gym", is actually on 10th Street in Phoenix.
Seven months after the Olympics, in February 1989, Carbajal made his debut in front of a national television audience as part of the card where Duran became a four-time world champion by beating Iran Barkley in Atlantic City. In his first fight, Carbajal outboxed another future world champion, Will Grigsby.
Carbajal followed that win with a spectacular first-round knockout of Silviano Perez on NBC. In his tenth bout, he met the former WBO world champion Pedro Feliciano, handling him a ten-round beating. Four more wins followed, and Carbajal was presented with an opportunity to fight for a world championship.
On July 29, 1990, Carbajal faced Muangchai Kittikasem, who came to Phoenix from Thailand to defend his IBF light flyweight championship. Carbajal methodically took apart the champion in front of an ABC national audience. In round 7, after a combination of punches left Kittikasem lying defenseless against the ropes, the referee stepped in and stopped the fight, making Carbajal the world champion for the first time in his career.

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Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Often referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records. His contribution to music, dance, and fashion, along with a much-publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene along with his brothers as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1964, and began his solo career in 1971.
In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in popular music. The music videos for his songs, including those of "Beat It", "Billie Jean", and "Thriller", were credited with transforming the medium into an art form and a promotional tool, and the popularity of these videos helped to bring the relatively new television channel MTV to fame. Videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" made him a staple on MTV in the 1990s. Through stage performances and music videos, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk, to which he gave the name. His distinctive musical sound and vocal style influenced numerous hip hop, post-disco, contemporary R&B, pop and rock artists.

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Micol Ostow
Micol Ostow (born April 29, 1976) is an American author, editor and educator who has written more than 40 published works. Her first original hardcover novel, "Emily Goldberg Learns to Salsa", was named a "New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age". She has also been the ghostwriter for novelizations of television series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed and Fearless.
Ostow was born in New York City to a Jewish-American father and a Puerto Rican mother. Even though she was raised in the Jewish faith (her mother, who was a Catholic, converted before she married her father), she always maintained a good relationship and remained close to her Puerto Rican Catholic family. In 1990, when her grandmother was dying in Puerto Rico, she joined her immediate family and other members of the family who traveled from Florida, New York, and other places to the island to be with her. The experience of seeing how easily the family banded together, despite the fact that some of them had never even met before, served as an inspirational factor when she wrote her first novel "Emily Goldberg Learns to Salsa".

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Miguel Cotto
Miguel Ángel Cotto (born on October 29, 1980) is a Puerto Rican professional boxer. Cotto is a former WBA (Super) Light Middleweight Champion. He is the younger brother of contender Jose Miguel Cotto and cousin of Abner Cotto and Carlos Cotto. He is a four-time world champion in three weight divisions (light welterweight, welterweight and light middleweight).
On September 11, 2004, Cotto faced Kelson Pinto from Brazil, for the vacant WBO Light Welterweight title. This represented the third fight between them, with Pinto being victorious in their two previous encounters, both of which took place while they were still amateurs. Many fight fans feel this was due to the training from Edward Bemis in Puerto Rico. The fight was televised by HBO from San Juan, Puerto Rico. During this card, Cotto utilized a defensive stance with his hands in a high position instead of his usual aggressive orthodox stance. Over the course of the fight Cotto scored three knockdowns and won the fight by knockout in the sixth round.

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Miguel Keith
Miguel Keith (June 2, 1951-May 8, 1970) was a United States Marine who posthumously received the United States's highest military decoration — the Medal of Honor for heroism in Vietnam in May 1970. Despite being severely wounded, he advanced on enemy attackers, allowing his platoon to rout the attack of a numerically superior enemy force.
Miguel Keith was born on June 2, 1951 in San Antonio, Texas. He left North High School in Omaha, Nebraska in December 1968, and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve at Omaha on January 21, 1969. He was discharged from the Reserves on April 30, 1969, and the following day, on May 1, 1969, he enlisted in the regular Marine Corps.
Ordered to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California, on May 2, 1969 for recruit training, he completed training with the 1st Recruit Training Battalion on July 17, 1969. He was transferred to the Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, California, for individual combat training with Company B, 1st Battalion, 2nd Infantry Training Regiment. On August 1, 1969, he was promoted to the rank of Private First Class.

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Modesto Cartagena
Sergeant First Class Modesto Cartagena (July 21, 1921 – March 2, 2010) was a member of the United States Army who served in the 65th Infantry Regiment, an all-Puerto Rican regiment also known as "The Borinqueneers," during World War II and the Korean War. He was the most decorated Puerto Rican soldier in history.
Cartagena (birth name:Modesto Cartagena de Jesús ) was born in a poor family, and raised in the mountains of Cayey, Puerto Rico during the Great Depression. Cartagena enlisted in the U. S. Army in San Juan and was assigned to the 65th Infantry, also known as the The Borinqueneers, because it was made up entirely of Puerto Rican enlisted men. During World War II he served in units guarding military installations in the Caribbean and later in the Allied occupation of Germany. Cartagena was discharged after the 65th Infantry Regiment returned to Puerto Rico.
Upon the outbreak of the Korean War, Cartagena reenlisted and entered the Army with the rank of Sergeant. He was assigned to Company C, 65th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division and sent to Korea.

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Myrtle Gonzalez
Myrtle Gonzalez (September 28, 1891 – October 22, 1918) was an American actress. She starred in at least 78 silent era motion pictures from 1913 to 1917, of which 66 were one and two-reel shorts. She is regarded as Hollywood's first Latin and Hispanic movie star actress.
Gonzalez was best known for her role as Enid Maitland in Vitagraph's six-reel feature length drama The Chalice of Courage (1915) opposite William Duncan. A magazine writer once called her "The Virgin White Lily of the Screen."
She was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of Manuel George Gonzalez (1868–?) and Lillian L. Cook (1874–1932). Her siblings were Stella M. Gonzalez (1892–1965) and Manuel G. Gonzalez, Jr. (1898–?).
Her paternal side comes from a Spanish Californio family from Spain, while her maternal grandparents were born in Ireland. Her father was a retail grocer, her mother a former opera and popular singer.
From early childhood, Myrtle displayed remarkable dramatic talent, and she had a good soprano voice. She appeared in many local concerts and benefits and sang in church choirs. She later played juvenile parts on the stage with Fanny Davenport and Florence Stone.

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Nancy Lopez
Nancy Marie Lopez (born January 6, 1957) is an American professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1977 and won 48 LPGA Tour events during her LPGA career, including three major championships.
She won the New Mexico Women's Amateur at age 12, and the U.S. Girls' Junior in 1972 and 1974, at ages 15 and 17, respectively. Playing in the U.S. Women's Open as an 18-year-old amateur in 1975, she finished tied for second. In 1976, Lopez was named All-American and Female Athlete of the Year for her play at the University of Tulsa. She won the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) National Championship and was a member of the U.S. Curtis Cup and World Amateur teams. She left college after her sophomore year and turned pro in 1977. That year she finished second again in the U.S. Women's Open.
In 1978, her first full season on the LPGA Tour, Lopez won nine tournaments, including at one stretch, five tournaments in a row. She appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, won the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average, LPGA Rookie of the Year, Player of the Year and was named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year. She won another eight times in 1979. She won multiple times in each year from 1980 to 1984, although she played only half-seasons in 1983 and 1984 due to the birth of her first child.

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Narciso Rodriguez

Narciso Rodriguez

fashion designer, New York City

One of the foremost American designers during the last two decades, Narciso Rodriguez plays a singular role in global fashion. As Anna Wintour, editor in chief of American Vogue has said, "No one but Narciso has ever made a simple line look more stunning."
In 1996, Rodriguez received international acclaim when he designed the bias-cut sheath wedding dress that his close friend Carolyn Bessette wore when she married John Kennedy, Jr.
On November 4, 2008, Narciso Rodriguez became part of a monumental event in American history. To celebrate her husband Barack Obama’s triumphant victory as the first African American president of The United States, Michelle Obama chose to wear a dress from the designer’s Spring 2009 Collection. “It was both emotional and exhilarating,” Rodriguez said. “To be part of this memorable moment in history was a great honor.”
Today, Narciso Rodriguez’s fashion house is based in New York City where he shows his women’s ready-to-wear collections.

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Native Hawaiians
Native Hawaiians (in Hawaiian, kānaka ʻōiwi, kānaka maoli or Hawaiʻi maoli) refers to the indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands or their descendants. Native Hawaiians trace their ancestry back to the original Polynesian settlers of Hawaii.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau report for 2000, there are 401,162 people who identified themselves as being "native Hawaiian" alone or in any combination. 140,652 people identified themselves as being "native Hawaiian" alone. The majority of native Hawaiians reside in State of Hawaiʻi, California, Nevada and Washington. Two-thirds live in the State of Hawaiʻi while the other one-third is scattered among other states with a high concentration in California.
The history of native Hawaiians, and of Hawaiʻi in general, is classified into four major periods: antiquity (Ancient Hawaiʻi), monarchy (Kingdom of Hawaiʻi), territorial (Territory of Hawaiʻi), and statehood (State of Hawaiʻi).
The early settlement history of Hawaiʻi is still not completely resolved. Some believe that the first Polynesians arrived in Hawaiʻi in the 3rd century from the Marquesas and were followed by Tahitian settlers in AD 1300 who conquered the original inhabitants. Others believe that there was only a single, extended period of settlement. Patrick Kirch, in his 2001 Hawaiki, argues for an extended period of contact but not necessarily for a Tahitian invasion:

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Nicaraguan American
Nicaraguan American (Spanish: Nicaragüense Estadounidense) are Americans of Nicaraguan ancestry who were born in or have immigrated to the United States. In 2010 the U.S. Census’ American Community Survey counted an estimated 247,593 people in the United States that were born in Nicaragua and the 2010 Decennial Census counted 348,202 who identified as Hispanics of Nicaraguan origin (which would include both U.S.- and foreign-born Nicaraguans). According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 177,684 Americans who identified as Hispanics of Nicaraguan origin living in the U.S. in 2000 and an estimated 281,167 in 2005.
Nicaraguans have immigrated to the United States in small groups since the early 1900s, but their presence was especially felt over the last three decades of the 20th century. The Nicaraguan community has concentrated in three major urban areas: Miami, Los Angeles, and New York City. And also in the state of Texas. More specifically Houston. According to the U.S. Census 1997 yearbook, more than 50 percent of Nicaraguans lived in Florida, 35 percent reported living in California, mostly around Los Angeles; and only 7 percent were registered in the New York-New Jersey area. In general, the Nicaraguan-American community is financially better off than most Central American groups. Nevertheless, there are major differences amongst the Nicaraguan American community: the most affluent community is located in the New York-New Jersey area, and the poorest are found in the Miami area. Nicaraguan Americans are Spanish-speaking and predominately Catholic. They celebrate the patron saints of the Roman Catholic Church with festivals and processions, which also provide a context for artistic and cultural expressions of the local identity. The most important patronal festivals for communities in Florida include Santa Ana, San Sebastian, La Purisima, San Jeronimo and La Griteria.

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Nina Tassler
Nina Tassler is an American television executive, a graduate of Boston University (bachelor of fine arts in theater), and holds the position of President of CBS Entertainment since September 2004.
Tassler was born to a Jewish father and a Puerto Rican mother who converted to Judaism. She is the highest profile Latina in network television and one of the few executives who has the power to greenlight series. Her boss is Nancy Tellem, President, CBS Paramount Network Television Entertainment Group. Tassler oversees CBS' prime time, late night and daytime programming, as well as program development for all genres.
Tassler grew up in upstate New York and eventually graduated from Boston University. After college, she moved to New York City and worked for Roundabout Theatre Co. After a few years, she moved To Los Angeles. There, she worked as a talent agent at Triad Artists for about 5 years before moving on to Warner Brothers.
"Tassler said media titan Leslie Moonves, currently the president and CEO of CBS Corp., helped her find a home at CBS. In 1997, she started out as vice president of drama at CBS Productions before being promoted to senior vice president of drama development at CBS Entertainment and ultimately settling into the role of president."

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Nomar Garciaparra
Anthony Nomar Garciaparra ( /ˈnoʊmɑr ɡɑrˌsiːəˈpɑrə/; born July 23, 1973, in Whittier, California) is a former Major League Baseball player and current ESPN analyst. After playing parts of 9 seasons as an All-Star shortstop for the Boston Red Sox, he played third base, first base, and designated hitter for the Oakland Athletics, first base and third base for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and shortstop and third base for the Chicago Cubs. He is one of 13 players in Major League history to hit two grand slams during a single game, and the only player to achieve the feat at his home stadium.
Garciaparra attended St. Mary's of the Assumption School in Whittier, California for elementary school; for high school he attended St. John Bosco High School in Bellflower, California, where he excelled in football, soccer, and baseball, and had a 3.9 GPA. His teams won high school league championships in 1990–91, and he won the league MVP honors in 1991, his last year of high school. St. John Bosco High School retired Garciaparra's baseball jersey. St. John Bosco High School's Activities Office window is home to an area dedicated to Garciaparra's baseball career both at the school and with the Dodgers.

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Nuevomexicano
The Nuevomexicanos are settlers and descendants of colonists from the state of New Mexico. Since the XVI century to 1848, most Europeans who settled in New Mexico in order to repopulate areas of it were Spanish and Mexican, already that New Mexico belonged to Spain (XVI century - 1821) and to Mexico (1821 - 1848). The original name of the state (province at that time) was that of Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico. The descendants of the settlers still have a community of thousands of people in this state, yet their numbers remain unknown. Also, there a community of people that descend of Nuevomexicanos in the South of Colorado.

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Nydia Velázquez
Nydia Margarita Velázquez (born March 28, 1953) is the U.S. Representative for New York's 12th congressional district, serving since 1993. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes residential areas of three boroughs (Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan). She is the first Puerto Rican woman to be elected to Congress, and the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus until January 3, 2011.
Velázquez, whose father worked the sugar cane fields, was one of nine siblings born in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico. She was raised with the influence of political dinner table conversations. Her father was a local political activist and, from a young age, she would accompany her father to political rallies. Her father would focus on the rights of sugar cane workers and denounce the abuse perpetrated by wealthy farmers.
After skipping a grade, she entered high school when she was 13. In high school she organized her classmates on a protest and the school was closed down. Their protest against the dangerous and unsanitary conditions of the school caused the necessary renovations to be made.

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Omar Minaya
Omar Teodoro Antonio Minaya y Sánchez (born November 10, 1958) is the current Sr. VP of Baseball Operations for the San Diego Padres. He previously served as General Manager for the Montreal Expos and New York Mets.
Born in the Dominican Republic, he moved to Elmhurst, in Queens, New York City at the age of eight and grew up in Corona. Minaya starred as a baseball player at Newtown High School in Elmhurst.
Minaya was drafted by the Oakland Athletics in the 14th Round (342nd overall) of the 1978 Major League Baseball Draft. He had a short-lived career in the minor leagues as well as stints in leagues in both the Dominican Republic and Italy.
After injuries ended his playing career, Minaya joined the Texas Rangers' scouting team in 1985, where he helped in the signing of players such as Sammy Sosa and Juan González.
In the mid-1990s, Minaya left Texas and returned home to join the staff of the New York Mets, working his way to Assistant General Manager behind Steve Phillips and being partly responsible for that team's late-1990s success. Minaya became the first Hispanic to hold a general manager position in Major League Baseball when he left the Mets in early 2002 to accept the General Manager position with the Montréal Expos. He returned to the Mets as General Manager following the 2004 season.

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Omar Vizquel
Omar Enrique Vizquel González (Spanish pronunciation: [oˈmar βisˈkel]; born April 24, 1967 in Caracas, Venezuela), nicknamed "Little O", is a Venezuelan Major League Baseball shortstop and third baseman for the Toronto Blue Jays. Vizquel has played for the Seattle Mariners (1989–1993), Cleveland Indians (1994–2004), San Francisco Giants (2005–2008), Texas Rangers (2009) Chicago White Sox (2010–2011), and Toronto Blue Jays (2012). In Venezuela he played with the team Leones del Caracas.
Vizquel is considered one of baseball's all-time best fielding shortstops, winning nine consecutive Gold Gloves (1993–2001) and two more in 2005 and 2006. He tied Cal Ripken, Jr.'s AL record, since surpassed, for most consecutive games at shortstop without an error (95, between September 26, 1999 and July 21, 2000). Currently, his .985 career fielding percentage is the highest of all-time for a shortstop in Major League history. On May 25, 2008, Vizquel became the all-time leader in games played at shortstop, passing Luis Aparicio. Vizquel is the all-time leader in double plays made while playing shortstop. He has the most hits recorded by any player from Venezuela (2,842; 45th all-time, as of April 18, 2012), surpassing Aparicio's record of 2,677 on June 25, 2009. On May 24, 2010, Vizquel became the shortstop with the second most hits all time, behind Derek Jeter. Vizquel is the sacrifice hit leader of the live-ball era.

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Orlando Antigua
Orlando Antigua a.k.a. "Hurricane" (born 1973), an American basketball player, became the first Hispanic and the first non-black to play for the Harlem Globetrotters in 52 years when he signed in 1995.
Raised in the Bronx, Antigua overcame various obstacles early in his life, among them having to live with a bullet lodged in his head for many years, before he was able to play for the Globetrotters. After his retirement from playing professional basketball he was named an assistant coach for the Pittsburgh Panthers, the Memphis Tigers, and most recently, the Kentucky Wildcats.
Antigua was born in the Dominican Republic to a Dominican father and a Puerto Rican mother. The family moved to New York City and lived in the Bronx where he was raised. There Antigua and his two siblings received their primary and secondary education. He attended St. Raymond's High School, where played basketball.
On Halloween night in 1988, Antigua became the victim of a drive-by shooting and was shot in the head near his left eye. He recovered from the shooting, however the doctors were unable to retrieve the slug from his head. He was back playing basketball just two weeks after the incident and gained media attention as the kid who’d taken a bullet to the head in a drive-by in his rough Bronx neighborhood. During this period of his life Antigua's family also went through a period of homelessness. He kept the family together while housing was secured.

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Orlando Figueroa
Orlando Figueroa (born: September 9, 1955), previously the NASA Mars Czar Director for Mars Exploration and the Director for the Solar System Division in the Office of Space Science at NASA Headquarters and the Deputy Center Director for Science and Technology of the Goddard Space Flight Center. He has since retired in 2010 from NASA.
Figueroa was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. As a child he always had an interest in learning how mechanical toys functioned. During his elementary school years, he would occupy most of his time building things and looking for solutions to problems. After he finished his primary and secondary education, he went to high school, where he was an advanced mathematics student. The beginning of the space era, captured his attention during his childhood. He would gaze at the stars and moon and would try to imagine what it would be like to travel into space.
Figueroa enrolled in the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez and in 1978, he earned his Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering. Upon his graduation, he continued his studies and completed advanced courses in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park.

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Oscar De La Hoya
Oscar De La Hoya (born February 4, 1973 in East Los Angeles, California) is a retired American professional boxer of Mexican descent. Nicknamed "The Golden Boy," De La Hoya won a gold medal at the Barcelona Olympic Games shortly after graduating from James A. Garfield High School. De La Hoya comes from a boxing family. His grandfather Vicente, father Joel Sr. and brother Joel Jr. were all boxers. De La Hoya was The Ring's "Fighter of the Year" in 1995 and Ring Magazine's top-rated Pound for Pound fighter in the world in 1997 & 1998. De La Hoya officially announced his retirement from the sport at a press conference held in Los Angeles on April 14, 2009.
De La Hoya has defeated 17 world champions and has won ten world titles in six different weight classes. He has also generated more money than any other boxer in the history of the sport, an estimated $696 million pay-per-view income.
De La Hoya founded Golden Boy Promotions, a combat sport promotional firm. He is the first American of Hispanic descent to own a national boxing promotional firm and one of the few boxers to take on promotional responsibilities while still active.

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Oscar de la Renta
Óscar de la Renta (born July 22, 1932 in Dominican Republic) is one of the world's leading fashion designers. Trained by Cristóbal Balenciaga and Antonio Castillo, he became internationally known in the 1960s as one of the couturiers to dress Jacqueline Kennedy. An award-winning designer, he worked for Lanvin and Balmain; his eponymous fashion house continues to dress leading figures, from film stars to royalty, into the 2010s. De La Renta is particularly known for his red carpet gowns and evening wear.
De la Renta was born Óscar Aristides Renta Fiallo in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, to a Dominican mother and a Puerto Rican father. At the age of 18 he left the Dominican Republic to study in Spain, where he studied painting at the Academy of San Fernando in Madrid. He quickly became interested in the world of fashion design and began sketching for leading Spanish fashion houses, which soon led to an apprenticeship with Spain's most renowned couturier, Cristóbal Balenciaga. Later, de la Renta left Spain to join Antonio Castillo as a couture assistant at Lanvin in Paris.

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Oscar Hijuelos
Oscar Jerome Hijuelos (born August 24, 1951) is an American novelist. He is the first Hispanic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Hijuelos was born in New York City, in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, to Cuban immigrant parents, Pascual and Magdalena (Torrens) Hijuelos, both from Holguín, Cuba. As a young child, he suffered from acute nephritis after a vacation trip to Cuba with his mother and brother, and was in St. Luke's Convalescent Hospital in Greenwich, Connecticut for almost a year and eventually recovered.
He attended the Corpus Christi School in Morningside Heights, public schools, and later attended Bronx Community College, Lehman College, and Manhattan Community College before matriculating into and studying writing at the City College of New York (B.A., 1975; M.A. in Creative Writing, 1976) under Donald Barthelme, Susan Sontag, William S. Burroughs, Frederic Tuten, and others. Barthelme became his mentor and friend.
He then practiced various professions, including working for an advertising agency, Transportation Displays Inc. (TDI), before taking up writing full time.

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Oscar Zeta Acosta
Oscar Zeta Acosta (April 8, 1935 – disappeared 1974) was an American attorney, politician, minor novelist and Chicano Movement activist, perhaps best known for his friendship with the American author Hunter S. Thompson, who characterized him as his Samoan Attorney, Dr. Gonzo, in his acclaimed novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Acosta was born in El Paso, Texas, and raised in a small San Joaquin Valley rural town named Riverbank, California near Modesto, California. Acosta's father was drafted during World War II, so he had to take care of the family. At times, Acosta felt like an outsider and he presented his feelings of alienation, mistrust, and dislocation in his works.
After finishing high school, Acosta joined the U.S. Air Force. Following his discharge, Acosta worked his way through Modesto Junior College; becoming the first member of his family to do so. He attended night classes at San Francisco Law School and passed the California Bar exam in 1966. In 1967, Acosta began working as an antipoverty attorney for the East Legal Aid Society in Oakland, California.

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Ozzie Guillén
Oswaldo José "Ozzie" Guillén Barrios (Spanish pronunciation: [ɡiˈʎen]; born January 20, 1964) is a Venezuelan-American former Major League Baseball player and current manager of the Miami Marlins. He managed the Chicago White Sox from 2004 to 2011 until him and GM Kenny Williams didn't see eye to eye and having the White Sox release their World Series winning coach Born in Ocumare Del Tuy, Venezuela, he played in Major League Baseball as a shortstop for the White Sox (1985–97), Baltimore Orioles (1998), Atlanta Braves (1998–1999) and Tampa Bay Devil Rays (2000). He batted left-handed and threw right-handed. As a player, Guillén was regarded for his passion, speed, hustle, intensity and defensive abilities and his ebullient love for the game. In 2005, Guillen became the first Latino manager in major league history to win a World Series.
Guillén was a light-hitting, quick-handed shortstop, emerging from a line of Venezuelan shortstops that included; Chico Carrasquel, Luis Aparicio (both White Sox players), Dave Concepción, and Omar Vizquel (who played for Guillen as a utility player for the White Sox). He was originally signed as a free agent by the San Diego Padres in 1980. In December 1984, he was traded to the Chicago White Sox as part of an eight-player trade, with Tim Lollar, Bill Long and Luis Salazar in exchange for LaMarr Hoyt.

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Pakistani American
A Pakistani American is any citizen or resident of the United States who has Pakistani heritage.
Muslim immigrants from areas that are now part of Pakistan have been migrating to America and first entered the United States as early as the eighteenth century, working in agriculture, logging, and mining in the western states of California, Oregon, and Washington. The passage of the Luce-Celler Act of 1946 allowed these immigrants to acquire U.S. citizenship through naturalization. Between 1947 and 1965, only 2,500 Pakistani immigrants entered the United States; most of them were students who chose to settle in the United States after graduating from American universities, according to reports from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. This marked the beginning of a distinct 'Pakistani' community in America. However after President Lyndon Johnson signed the INS Act of 1965 into law, eliminating per-country immigration quotas and introducing immigration on the basis of professional experience and education, the number of Pakistanis immigrating to USA increased dramatically. By 1990, the U.S. Census bureau indicated that there were about 100,000 Pakistani Americans in the United States and by 2005 their population had grown to 210,000.

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Panama Al Brown
Alfonso Teofilo Brown (1902–1951), better known as Panama Al Brown, was a bantamweight boxer from Panama who made history by becoming boxing's first Hispanic world champion. Brown was a native of the city of Colón.
Brown fought during the early 20th century, a period in which boxing records were not well kept. He is said to have fought professionally 164 times. He stood about six feet tall, an extraordinary height for a bantamweight/featherweight. His long arms contributed greatly to his success in the ring.
Brown was born in Panama in 1902. His first real exposure to boxing came when he saw American soldiers boxing when he was a young adult clerk for the United States Shipping Board at the Panama Canal Zone.
Brown turned pro in 1922 under the guidance of manager Dave Lumiansky. His first fight took place on March 19, 1922, when he beat Jose Moreno by a decision in six at Colon. By his seventh fight, December 13 of that same year, he beat Sailor Patchett by a fifteen round decision, to earn the Isthmus Flyweight title.

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Panamanian American
A Panamanian American is any United States citizen or resident who traces his or her ancestry to the Central American nation of Panama.
In the 2006 American Community Survey, Panamanian Americans were estimated at 123,631.
Since 1820, more than one million immigrants from Central and South America migrated to the United States. Until 1960, the U.S. Census Bureau did not produce statistics that separated the Panamanian immigrants, the South Americans and Central Americans. The Panamanian Americans increased slowly in the United States. Since the 1830's, only 44 arrivals were recorded in this country, by the early twentieth century more than 1,000 came annually. After World War II the flow of immigrants from Panama remained small even though there were no immigration restrictions on the people from the Western Hemisphere. However, the Panamanian immigration increased dramatically after the 1965 Immigration Act, which imposed a ceiling of 120,000 admissions from the hemisphere. Its increase immigration was such that by 1970, Panamanians were able to be one of the largest of the Central American groups in the United States. Most Panamanians that came were nonwhites and most were women. It could register that the number of immigrant males per 100 females was very low in the 1960s, falling to 51 for Panama. Many the female immigrants worked of in service, domestic, or low-paid, white-collar workers who immigrated to earn money to, in return, send home. Since 1962 the percentage of employed newcomers who are domestic servants has remained high, ranging from 15 to 28 percent. The entry of homemakers and children after 1968 was eased by the immigration preference system favoring family reunions. They had already approximated 86,000 people of Panamanian ancestry living in the United States.

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Pancho Gonzales
Ricardo Alonso González (May 9, 1928 – July 3, 1995), generally known as Richard "Pancho" Gonzales (or as Pancho Gonzales) was an American tennis player. He was the world no. 1 professional tennis player for an unequalled eight years in the 1950s and early 1960s. He won two Major titles and fifteen Pro Slam titles.
Largely self-taught, Gonzales was a successful amateur player in the late-1940s, twice winning the United States Championships. He is still widely considered to be one of the greatest players in the history of the game. A 1999 Sports Illustrated article about the magazine's 20 "favorite athletes" of the 20th century said about Gonzales (their number 15 pick): "If earth was on the line in a tennis match, the man you want serving to save humankind would be Ricardo Alonso Gonzalez." The American tennis commentator Bud Collins echoed this in an August 2006 article for MSNBC.com: "If I had to choose someone to play for my life, it would be Pancho Gonzales."
Gonzales was given a 51-cent racquet by his mother when he was 12 years old. He received tennis analysis from his friend, Chuck Pate, but mostly taught himself to play by watching other players on the public courts at nearby Exposition Park in Los Angeles. Once he discovered tennis, he lost interest in school and began a troubled adolescence in which he was occasionally pursued by truant officers and policemen. He was befriended by Frank Poulain, the owner of the tennis shop at Exposition Park, and sometimes slept there.

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Paraguayan American
A Paraguayan American is an American of Paraguayan birth or descent.
The Paraguayan American population in 2008 was an estimated 19,254, per the American Community Survey.
It is estimated that the first Paraguayans arrived to the United States between the years of 1841 and 1850. At that time, Paraguayans were not coming directly to the United States from Paraguay, but through others countries such as Brazil, Argentina, and Peru. The Paraguayan residents in the U.S. were included in the early records in the group of "other" South Americans. During those years, 3,579 "other" immigrants arrived. Still, in the 1960s, one-fourth of all Paraguayans were registered as living in countries outside Paraguay, with a majority in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. In 1979, close to 11,000 Paraguayans immigrated to the United States, but the numbers declined rapidly. In 1982, 4000 Paraguayans immigrated to the United States. The reasons of migration were varied, but many immigrants were young people that wanted educational opportunities to get professional knowledge, skills and to have better jobs. Additionally, some of the immigrants arrived for political reasons or to escape civil riots. The women exceeded in number to the male immigrants slightly, and more than half of its immigrants lacked occupation. Many Paraguayan immigrants were also infants adopted by American families. More than a thousand Paraguayan infants were adopted in this country. Of these, 254 were adopted in 1989, 405 in 1993 and 351 in 1995.

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Pau Gasol
Pau Gasol i Sáez (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈpaw ɡəˈzɔɫ]) (born July 6, 1980) is a Spanish professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was born to Marisa Sáez and Agustí Gasol, and he spent his childhood in Spain. Gasol was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in the 2001 NBA Draft, but his rights were traded to the Memphis Grizzlies, with whom he won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award. He currently holds the Memphis Grizzlies franchise records for career games played, minutes played, field goals made and attempted, free throws made and attempted, offensive, defensive, and total rebounds, blocked shots, turnovers, and points. After seven seasons with the team, Gasol was traded to the Lakers on February 1, 2008. His younger brother, Marc Gasol, who was involved in that trade, is also a professional basketball player for the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA.
Pau Gasol was born in Barcelona. He began playing basketball with his school team called Alvirne, and he eventually signed with Cornellà. When he was sixteen, he began playing for Barcelona's junior team. He also won both the 1998 Albert Schweitzer Tournament and the 1998 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship. After moving to the senior team of Barcelona, Gasol played just 25 total minutes in the Spanish ACB League 1998–99 season, and averaged 13.7 minutes per game in the ACB the next year. However, in his final season in the ACB, Gasol averaged 12.4 points and 5.8 rebounds in 24.7 minutes per game. Barcelona was victorious in the Spanish National Cup championship game in 2001, and Gasol was named Most Valuable Player. After entering the NBA Draft, Gasol was selected third overall in the first round in the 2001 NBA Draft by the Atlanta Hawks, who traded his draft rights to the Memphis Grizzlies in exchange for Shareef Abdur-Rahim.

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Paul Rodriguez
Paul Rodriguez (born January 19, 1955) is a Mexican-American stand-up comedian and actor.
Rodriguez was born in Culiacán, Sinaloa, México to Mexican agriculture ranchers.. His family migrated to East Los Angeles, where he enlisted in the military; he was stationed in Iceland and Duluth, Minnesota. His son, Paul Rodriguez Jr., is a professional skateboarder nicknamed P-Rod.
Rodriguez considered becoming a lawyer, but instead went into comedy. His first shot at national fame, the ABC sitcom a.k.a. Pablo, was canceled after seven episodes.
In 1988, Rodriguez replaced Bob Eubanks as host of The Newlywed Game. The show lasted one season before being canceled, During his Tenure as host of the Newlywed Game, The show began using the 1958 hit record Book of Love by The Monotones as the theme song.
Rodriguez has starred in several feature films including, D.C. Cab, Born in East L.A., Tortilla Soup, Rat Race, and Ali. He directed and starred in the film A Million to Juan. Rodriguez has also performed voice-over roles on King of the Hill, Dora the Explorer and Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

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Pedro del Valle
Lieutenant General Pedro Augusto del Valle (August 28, 1893 – April 28, 1978) was a United States Marine Corps officer who became the first Hispanic to reach the rank of Lieutenant General. His military career included service in World War I, Haiti and Nicaragua during the Banana Wars of the 1920s, in the seizure of Guadalcanal, and later as Commanding General of the 1st Marine Division during World War II.
Del Valle was born on August 28, 1893 in San Juan, Puerto Rico when the island was still under Spanish colonial rule. He was related to Dr. Francisco del Valle, a surgeon who had served as mayor of San Juan from 1907 to 1910. In 1900, two years after the Spanish–American War, the del Valle family moved to Maryland where they became U.S. citizens (The Jones Act of 1917 later gave United States Citizenship to all Puerto Ricans born on the island). He received his primary and secondary education in Maryland.
On June 17, 1911, after he graduated from high school, del Valle received an appointment by George Radcliffe Colton, who served from 1909 to 1913 as the U.S. appointed governor of Puerto Rico, to attend the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Del Valle graduated from the academy in June 1915 and was commissioned a second lieutenant of the Marine Corps on June 5, 1915.

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Peruvian American
A Peruvian American (Spanish: Inmigración peruana en Estados Unidos) is an immigrant or descendant of immigrants from Peru that arrived in the United States. Among Peruvian Americans there are those of White (mostly Spanish), mestizo, Amerindian, and Afro-Peruvian descent, as well as others, including Italian, French, and German or a mix of any of these. A significant number are of pure or mixed Chinese or/and Japanese heritage.
Peruvians emigrate mainly because of political turmoil and economic hardships. Peruvian Americans are a relatively recent ethnic group as most of them moved to the United States after 1990. According to the U.S. Census Bureau it is estimated that 435,368 U.S. residents identify themselves as being of Peruvian origin.
Small but significant waves of immigration occurred in San Francisco during the gold rush (along with Chilean miners beginning in 1848) and the Metro Detroit area in the 1950s. However, the majority of Peruvians that emigrated to the United States have arrived since the 90s. Peruvians typically emigrate due to economic reasons, to escape poverty and pursue a better quality of life. Significant demographics of Peruvians are found in New Jersey, New York, Miami and Los Angeles.

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Philip Bazaar
Seaman Philip Bazaar, born in Chile, South America, was a Navy seaman who was awarded the United States' highest military decoration for valor in combat — the Medal of Honor — for having distinguished himself during the battle for Fort Fisher of the American Civil War.
Bazaar, a resident of Massachusetts, was a Chilean immigrant who joined the Union Navy at New Bedford, Massachusetts. Bazaar was assigned to the USS Santiago de Cuba during the American Civil War. Santiago de Cuba was a wooden, brigantine-rigged, side-wheel steamship under the command of Rear Admiral David D. Porter.
In the latter part of 1864, Union General Ulysses S. Grant ordered an assault on Fort Fisher, a stronghold of the Confederate States of America. It protected the vital trading routes of Wilmington's port, at North Carolina. Rear Admiral Porter was in charge of the naval assault and General Benjamin F. Butler was in charge of the land assault. After the failure of the first assault, Butler was replaced by Major General Alfred Terry. A second assault was ordered for January 1865. Bazaar was aboard the USS Santiago de Cuba and served in both assaults on the fort. On January 12, 1865, both ground and naval Union forces attempted the second assault. Bazaar and 5 other crew members, under the direct orders from Rear Admiral Porter, carried dispatches during the battle while under heavy fire from the Confederates to Major General Alfred Terry. Bazaar and his comrades were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions.

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Pocahontas
Pocahontas (born Matoaka, and later known as Rebecca Rolfe, c. 1595 – March 1617) was a Virginia Indian notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of Chief Powhatan, the head of a network of tributary tribal nations in the Tidewater region of Virginia. In a well-known historical anecdote, she is said to have saved the life of an Indian captive, Englishman John Smith, in 1607 by placing her head upon his own when her father raised his war club to execute him.
Pocahontas was captured by the English during Anglo-Indian hostilities in 1613, and held for ransom. During her captivity, she converted to Christianity and took the name Rebecca. When the opportunity arose for her to return to her people, she chose to remain with the English. In April 1614, she married tobacco planter John Rolfe, and, in January 1615, bore him a son, Thomas Rolfe.
In 1616, the Rolfes traveled to London. Pocahontas was presented to English society as an example of the civilized "savage" in hopes of stimulating investment in the Jamestown settlement. She became something of a celebrity, was elegantly fêted, and attended a masque at Whitehall Palace. In 1617, the Rolfes set sail for home, but Pocahontas died at Gravesend of unknown causes. She was buried in a church in Gravesend, but the exact location of her grave is not known.

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Poles
The Polish people, or Poles (Polish: Polacy [pɔˈlat͡sɨ]; singular: Polak), are a nation indigenous to Poland. They speak the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe. The Polish word for a Polish person is "Polak" (masculine) and "Polka" (feminine).
The preamble to the Constitution of the Republic of Poland defines the Polish nation as comprising all the citizens of Poland. Poland's inhabitants live in the following historic regions of the country: Wielkopolska, Małopolska, Mazovia, Pomerania, Warmia, Mazury, Podlasie, Kujawy and Silesia. A wide-ranging Polish diaspora exists throughout Europe (Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Belarus, Lithuania and Ukraine), the Americas (the United States, Brazil and Argentina) and Australia. Chicago, in the United States, has the world's largest urban Polish population after Warsaw.
Over a thousand years ago, the Polans of Giecz, Gniezno and Poznań — an influential tribe in Wielkopolska — succeeded in uniting Lechitic tribes under what became the Piast dynasty, thus giving rise to the Polish state.

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Polish American
A Polish American (Polish: Amerykanin polskiego pochodzenia), is a citizen of the United States of Polish descent. There are an estimated 10 million Polish Americans, representing about 3.2% of the population of the United States. No distinction is made in the American census between ethnically Polish Americans and descendants of non-ethnic Poles, such as Jews or Ukrainians, who were born in the territory of Poland and considered themselves Polish nationals. Therefore, some say, of the 10 million Polish Americans, only a certain portion are of Polish ethnic descent. On the other hand, many ethnic Poles when entering the US from 1795–1917, when Poland did not exist, did not identify themselves as ethnic Poles and instead identified themselves as either German, Austrian or Russian (this pertained to the nations occupying Poland from 1795–1917). Therefore, the actual amount of Americans of at least partial Polish ancestry, could be well over 10 million. Polish Americans are the largest European ethnic group in the United States of Slavic origin.

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Portuguese people
The Portuguese (Portuguese: os Portugueses) are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion.
Due to the large historical extent of the Portuguese Empire and the colonization of territories in Africa, Asia and the Americas, as well as historical and recent emigration, Portuguese communities can be found in many diverse regions around the globe, and a large Portuguese diaspora exists.
The Portuguese are a southwestern European population, with origins predominantly from Atlantic Europe, Western Europe and the Western Mediterranean.
The earliest modern humans inhabiting Portugal are believed to have been Paleolithic peoples that may have arrived in the Iberian Peninsula as early as 35,000 to 40,000 years ago. Current interpretation of Y-chromosome and mtDNA data suggests that modern-day Portuguese traces largely a significant amount of these lineages to the paleolithic peoples which began arriving to the European continent between the end of the last glaciation around 45,000 years ago.

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Puerto Rican people
A Puerto Rican (Spanish: puertorriqueño) (Taíno term: boricua) is a person who was born in Puerto Rico.
People born and raised in other parts of the world, most notably in the continental United States, of Puerto Rican parents are also sometimes referred to as Puerto Ricans, even though they were not born in Puerto Rico themselves. Since 2007, the government of Puerto Rico has been granting Certificates of Puerto Rican citizenship to any person born on the island as well as to those born outside of the island that have at least one parent who was born on the island.
Puerto Ricans, who also commonly refer to themselves as "boricuas", are largely the descendants of Europeans, Taíno, Africans or a blend of these groups which has produced a very diversified population. The population of Puerto Ricans and descendants is estimated to be between 8 to 10 million worldwide, with most living within the islands of Puerto Rico, Central Florida, Chicago Metropolitan Area and in New York City, where there is a large Nuyorican community.

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Pánfilo de Narváez
Pánfilo de Narváez (1478–1528) was a Spanish conqueror and soldier in the Americas. He is most remembered as the leader of two expeditions, one to Mexico in 1520 to oppose Hernán Cortés, and the disastrous Narváez expedition to Florida in 1527.
Pánfilo de Narváez was born in Castile (in either Cuéllar or Valladolid) in 1478. He was a relative of Diego Velazquez de Cuellar, the first Spanish governor of Cuba. His nephew was Antonio Velazquez de Narváez.
Narváez took part in the Spanish conquest of Jamaica in 1509. In 1511 he went to Cuba to participate in the conquest of that island under the command of Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar. He led expeditions to the eastern end of the island in the company of Bartolomé de las Casas and Juan de Grijalva. As reported by de las Casas, who was an eyewitness, Narváez presided over the infamous massacre of Caonao, where Spanish troopers put to the sword a village full of Indians who had come to meet them with offerings of food. Following the massacre, Narváez asked de las Casas, "What do you think about what our Spaniards have done?" to which de las Casas replied, "I send both you and them to the Devil!"

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Raquel Welch
Jo Raquel Tejada (born September 5, 1940), better known as Raquel Welch, is an American actress, author and sex symbol. Welch came to attention as a "new-star" on the 20th Century-Fox lot in the mid-1960s. She posed iconically in an animal skin bikini for the British-release One Million Years B.C. (1966), for which she may be best known. She later starred in Bedazzled (1967), Bandolero! (1968), 100 Rifles (1969) and Myra Breckinridge (1970). Today, Welch is a noticeable face of television commercials for Foster Grant sunglasses and reading glasses.
Welch was born Jo Raquel Tejada in Chicago, Illinois, the older sister to brother James and sister Gayle. She is the daughter of Josephine Sarah (née Hall; 1909–2000), of English ancestry, and Armando Carlos Tejada Urquizo (1911–1976), of Bolivian descent. Her father, an aeronautical engineer, emigrated from La Paz, Bolivia at age 17; her mother was American, the daughter of architect Emery Stanford Hall and wife Clara Louise Adams.
As a young girl, she wanted to be a performer. Her first love and ambition was ballet, which she studied from ages seven to seventeen. She gave up ballet after her instructor told her that she did not have the proper body. While a student at La Jolla High School in 1958, she won the Fairest of the Fair beauty pageant at the San Diego County Fair.

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Rebecca Lobo
Rebecca Rose Lobo-Rushin (born October 6, 1973) is an American television basketball analyst and former women's basketball player in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) from 1997 to 2003. Lobo, at 6' 4", played the center position for much of her career.
Lobo was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the youngest daughter of RuthAnn (née Hardy) and Dennis Joseph Lobo. Her father is of Cuban and Polish descent and her mother is of German and Irish heritage; Lobo was raised a Catholic. Her brother Jason played basketball at Dartmouth College and her sister Rachel played basketball at Salem State College. Both her parents were teachers; in addition, her father was a basketball coach. Raised in Southwick, Massachusetts, Lobo was the state scoring record-holder with 2,740 points in her high school career for Southwick-Tolland Regional High School in Massachusetts. She held this record for 18 years until it was eclipsed by Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir of the new Leadership Charter School in Springfield on January 26, 2009.

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Ricardo Montalbán
Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino, KSG ( /ˌmɒntəlˈbɑːn/; Spanish pronunciation: [montalˈβan]; November 25, 1920 – January 14, 2009) was a Mexican radio, television, theatre and film actor. He had a career spanning six decades (motion pictures from 1943 to 2006) and many notable roles. During the mid-1970s, Montalbán was notable as the spokesman in automobile advertisements for the Chrysler Cordoba, in which he famously extolled the "soft Corinthian leather" used for its interior. He also advertised the Chrysler New Yorker. From 1977 to 1984, he became famous as Mr. Roarke the main star in the television series Fantasy Island. He played Khan Noonien Singh in both the 1967 episode "Space Seed" of the first season of the original Star Trek series, and the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. He won an Emmy Award in 1978 for his role in the miniseries How the West Was Won and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild in 1993. Into his 80s, he continued to perform, often providing voices for animated films and commercials, and appearing in several Spy Kids films as "Grandfather Valentin".

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Ricardo Sanchez
Ricardo Sanchez (born September 9, 1953) is a retired United States Army Lieutenant General and was a candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for the Senate election in 2012 for the seat of retiring Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Sanchez was born into a poor Mexican American family in Rio Grande City, Texas. During the Vietnam War (1969–73), Sanchez was in college. He spent one year at the University of Texas at Austin on an ROTC scholarship, eventually transferring to Texas A&I University in Kingsville, Texas, where he graduated in 1973 with a double major in mathematics and history. Sanchez was named a Distinguished Military Graduate (DMG), meaning he was in the top 10% of all ROTC cadets in the nation. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army.
Sanchez became a platoon leader in the 82nd Airborne Division, stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. By 1977, he had transferred from the infantry to armor. He received promotions regularly and was stationed at posts in the United States, Korea, Panama and Germany.

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Ricco Rodriguez
Ricco Rodriguez (born August 19, 1977) is an American mixed martial artist. Ricco is a former Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight champion, Mundials World Champion and also an ADCC World Champion. He has competed in the biggest organizations in the world such as Pride Fighting Championship, EliteXC, International Fight League, BAMMA, World Extreme Cagefighting and Bellator Fighting Championships.
Rodriguez grew up in the projects in Paterson, New Jersey. He got into a lot of street fights as a half Puerto Rican/half Mexican in a primarily Italian neighborhood. Rodriguez wrestled at Tottenville High School while living in Staten Island, New York. He later moved to California and began training in the art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with Rigan and Jean Jacques Machado. He competed and won many Jiu Jitsu tournaments before moving on to MMA.
In 1997, Ricco Rodriguez became one of the small group of Americans to win a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Championship, taking the Blue Belt Absolute title. He took gold in +99 kg in the first ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship in 1998, bronze in the Absolute (open weight) division in 1999 and Silver in the +99 kg category in 2000. That same year Rodriguez began his MMA career with a win against Rocky Batastini. He won several of his first matches before losing to Bobby Hoffman at the Superbrawl 13 event in Hawaii. He later fought in the PRIDE Fighting Championship before moving on to the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

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Richard Carmona
Richard Henry Carmona (born November 22, 1949) is an American physician, police officer, public health administrator, and politician. He was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as the seventeenth Surgeon General of the United States. Appointed by President George W. Bush in 2002, Carmona left office at the end of July 2006 upon the expiration of his term. After leaving office, Carmona was highly critical of the Bush administration for suppressing scientific findings which conflicted with the Administration's ideological agenda.
In August 2006, Carmona returned home to Tucson, Arizona. In November 2011, he announced he would seek the Democratic Party's nomination for United States Senate in the hopes of succeeding outgoing Republican Senator Jon Kyl, despite being registered as a political Independent.
Carmona was born in New York City of Puerto Rican descent, and raised in Harlem. After dropping out of DeWitt Clinton High School at age 16, he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1967. While enlisted, he received his General Educational Development (GED), joined the United States Army Special Forces, became a combat-decorated Vietnam veteran, and began his career in medicine as a Special Forces medic.

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Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961.
Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California. After completing his undergraduate work at Whittier College, he graduated from Duke University School of Law in 1937, and returned to California to practice law. He and his wife, Pat Nixon, moved to Washington to work for the federal government in 1942. He subsequently served in the United States Navy during World War II. Nixon was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946 and to the Senate in 1950. His pursuit of the Hiss Case established his reputation as a leading anti-communist, and elevated him to national prominence. He was the running mate of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican Party presidential nominee in the 1952 election. Nixon served for eight years as vice president. He waged an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1960, narrowly losing to John F. Kennedy, and lost a race for Governor of California in 1962. In 1968, he ran again for the presidency and was elected.

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Richard Rodriguez
Richard Rodriguez (born July 31, 1944) is an American writer who became famous as the author of Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez (1982), a narrative about his intellectual development.
Richard Rodriguez was born on July 31, 1944, into a Mexican immigrant family in San Francisco, California. (Sources also say Sacramento, California.) Rodriguez spoke Spanish until he went to a Catholic school at age six. As a youth in Sacramento, California, he delivered newspapers and worked as a gardener. He graduated from Sacramento's Christian Brothers High School.
Rodriguez received a B.A. from Stanford University, an M.A. from Columbia University, was a Ph.D. candidate in English Renaissance literature at the University of California, Berkeley, and attended the Warburg Institute in London on a Fulbright fellowship. A noted prose stylist, Rodriguez has worked as a teacher, international journalist, and educational consultant and has appeared regularly^{[citation needed]} on PBS's show, NewsHour. A television documentary about Rodriguez's works earned Jim Lehrer a Peabody Award in 1997. Rodriguez’s books include Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez (1981), a collection of autobiographical essays; Mexico’s Children (1990); Days of Obligation: An Argument With My Mexican Father (1992), which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize; and Brown: The Last Discovery of America. Rodriguez's works have also been published in Harper's Magazine, Mother Jones, and Time.

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Ricky Martin
Enrique "Ricky" Martín Morales (born December 24, 1971), better known as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican pop singer and actor who achieved prominence, first as a member of the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, then as a solo artist since 1991. Throughout his career, he has sold more than 60 million albums worldwide. He is the founder of the Ricky Martin Foundation (in Spanish Fundación Ricky Martin), a non-profit charity organization aimed at human trafficking.
Martin got his start at age twelve with the all-boy pop group Menudo; after five years with the group, he released his Spanish-language solo album, Ricky Martin, in 1991. He also acted on stage and on TV in Mexico, becoming a modest star in the country. In 1994 he starred on the American TV soap opera General Hospital, playing a Puerto Rican singer. In 1999, after several albums in Spanish, he released his first English-language album (also titled Ricky Martin), which included "Livin' la Vida Loca". The album sold 22 million copies and brought Martin international fame. His other studio albums include: Me Amarás (1993), A Medio Vivir (1995), Vuelve (1998), Sound Loaded (2000), Almas del Silencio (2003), Life (2005), and Música + Alma + Sexo (2011).

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Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino; October 17, 1918 – May 14, 1987) was an American dancer and film actress who garnered fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars. Appearing first as Rita Cansino, she agreed to change her name to Rita Hayworth and her hair color to dark red to attract a greater range in roles. Her appeal led to her being featured on the cover of Life magazine five times, beginning in 1940.
The first dancer featured on film as a partner of both the stars Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, Hayworth appeared in a total of 61 films over 37 years. She is listed by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 Greatest Stars of All Time.
Hayworth was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1918 as Margarita Carmen Cansino, the oldest child of two dancers, Eduardo Cansino, Sr., from Castilleja de la Cuesta, a little town near Seville, Spain, and Volga Hayworth, an American of Irish-English descent who had performed with the Ziegfeld Follies. The Catholic couple had married in 1917. They also had two sons: Eduardo, Jr. and Vernon.

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Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno (born December 11, 1931) is a Puerto Rican singer, dancer and actress. She is the only Hispanic and one of the few performers who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony, and was the second Puerto Rican to win an Academy Award.
Moreno was born Rosa Dolores Alverío in Humacao, Puerto Rico, to Rosa María, a seamstress, and Paco Alverío, a farmer. She moved with her mother to New York City at the age of five, and took the surname of her stepfather, Edward Moreno.
She began her first dancing lessons soon after arriving in New York from a friend of her mother, a Spanish dancer called Paco Cansino, who was the uncle of Rita Hayworth. When she was 11 years old, she lent her voice to Spanish language versions of American films.
She had her first Broadway role — as "Angelina" in Skydrift — by the time she was 13, which caught the attention of Hollywood talent scouts. She appeared in small roles in The Toast of New Orleans and Singin' in the Rain, in which she played Zelda Zanners.

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Ritchie Valens
Ritchie Valens (born Richard Steven Valenzuela; May 13, 1941 – February 3, 1959) was a Mexican-American singer, songwriter and guitarist.
A rock and roll pioneer and a forefather of the Chicano rock movement, Valens' recording career lasted only eight months. During this time, however, he scored several hits, most notably "La Bamba", which was originally a Mexican folk song that Valens transformed with a rock rhythm and beat that became a hit in 1958, making Valens a pioneer of the Spanish-speaking rock and roll movement.
On February 3, 1959, on what has become known as The Day the Music Died, Valens was killed in a small-plane crash in Iowa, a tragedy that also claimed the lives of fellow musicians Buddy Holly and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. Valens was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.
Ritchie Valens was born in Pacoima, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, on May 13, 1941. His parents were Joseph Steven Valenzuela and Concepcion Reyes. Brought up hearing traditional Mexican mariachi music, as well as flamenco guitar, R&B and jump blues, he expressed an interest in making music of his own by the age of 5. He was encouraged by his father to take up guitar and trumpet, and later taught himself the drums. One day, a neighbor came across Ritchie trying to play a guitar that had only two strings. He re-strung the instrument, and taught Ritchie the fingerings of some chords. While Ritchie was left-handed, he was so eager to learn the guitar that he mastered the traditionally right-handed version of the instrument.^{[citation needed]} Valens had attended Pacoima Junior High School (now Pacoima Middle School). By the time he was attending junior high school, his proficiency on the guitar was such that he brought the instrument to school and would sing and play songs to his friends on the bleachers.^{[citation needed]}

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Robert Rodriguez
Robert Anthony Rodríguez (born June 20, 1968) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor and musician. He shoots and produces many of his films in his native Texas and Mexico. He has directed such films as Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, The Faculty, Spy Kids, Sin City, Planet Terror, and Machete. He is a friend and frequent collaborator of filmmaker Quentin Tarantino.

Rodríguez was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Mexican-American parents Rebecca (née Villegas), a nurse, and Cecilio G. Rodríguez, a salesman. He began his interest in film at age 11 when his father bought one of the first VCRs, which came with a camera.
While attending St. Anthony High School, he was commissioned to videotape the school's football games. According to his sister he was fired soon after for shooting them with a cinematic style, getting shots of parents' reactions and the ball traveling through the air instead of shooting the whole play. There he met Carlos Gallardo; they both shot films on video throughout high school and college. After graduating Rodriguez went to the College of Communication at the University of Texas where he also developed a love of cartooning. His grades were not high enough to get into the school's film program, so he invented a daily comic strip entitled Los Hooligans with many of the characters based on his siblings – in particular, one of his sisters, Maricarmen. The comic proved to be quite successful, running for three years in the student newspaper The Daily Texan while Rodríguez continued to make short films.^{[citation needed]}

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Robert Trujillo
Roberto Agustín Miguel Santiago Samuel Trujillo Veracruz, (born October 23, 1964) is an American bassist who currently plays bass in Metallica. He has also played in Suicidal Tendencies, Infectious Grooves, Black Label Society, and with Jerry Cantrell and Ozzy Osbourne.
Robert Trujillo was born in Santa Monica, California.
He was a member of Ozzy Osbourne's band for a number of years starting in the late 90s. Trujillo was the subject of controversy for re-recording Bob Daisley's bass tracks for reissued versions of Osbourne's albums Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman because of Daisley's claim of not receiving proper royalties.^{[citation needed]} During this time, Trujillo formed an experimental supergroup, Mass Mental, with then Dub War singer Benji Webbe, whose "ragga-punk-metal" outfit had just disbanded. The band released one studio album (exclusively in Japan) and one live album of their performance in Tokyo before disbanding. Zakk Wylde, a personal friend and bandmate from the Ozzy days, also recruited him to play with Black Label Society for a few shows.

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Roberto Clemente
Roberto Clemente Walker (August 18, 1934 – December 31, 1972) was a Puerto Rican baseball right fielder who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1955 through 1972. Clemente was awarded the National League (NL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award in 1966. He was on the NL All-Star team 15 times, received 12 Gold Glove Awards, and led the NL in batting average four times. In 1972, Clemente got his 3,000th major league hit.
Off the field, Clemente was involved in charity work in Puerto Rico and other Latin American countries, often delivering baseball equipment and food to those in need. He died in an aviation accident on December 31, 1972, while en route to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. Clemente was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame posthumously in 1973, becoming the first Latin American to be selected and the only current Hall of Fame member for whom the mandatory five-year waiting period had been waived. Clemente is also the first Hispanic player to win a World Series as a starter (1960), receive an MVP Award (1966), and receive a World Series MVP Award (1971).

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Roberto Goizueta
Roberto Críspulo Goizueta (November 18, 1931 – October 18, 1997) was Chairman, Director, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Coca-Cola Company from August 1980 until his death in October 1997.
Under the direction of Goizueta, the Coca-Cola Company became a top US corporation. He is credited with invigorating the company with a global vision.
Roberto Goizueta was born into a prominent family in Havana, Cuba. He was the only son of Críspulo and Aída Goizueta. His grandparents on both sides of his family had emigrated from the Spanish Basque Country to Cuba in the late 19th century. His mother's father, Marcelo Cantera, owned a profitable portion of a local sugar mill. His father, Crispulo, was an architect and a real estate investor who inherited Cantera's sugar interests.
In Havana, Goizueta attended Colegio de Belén, a Jesuit secondary school and later studied for a year in the United States at the Cheshire Academy, a preparatory school in Connecticut. At Cheshire, Goizueta bettered his English skills by watching American movies.

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Rolando Blackman
Rolando Antonio Blackman (born February 26, 1959 in Panama City, Panama) is a retired professional basketball player. He was an All-Star who spent most of his career with the Dallas Mavericks. He is now an assistant coach with the Turkey national basketball team.
After being raised in Brooklyn, New York, Blackman attended Kansas State University where he played basketball under coach Jack Hartman. At Kansas State, Blackman had a number of noteworthy achievements:
Finally, prior to his senior season, Blackman also was a starter for the 1980 Summer Olympics basketball team that did not participate because of the U.S. Olympic boycott by President Jimmy Carter.
Long after his departure from school, in 1996, when the Big Eight Conference expanded to the Big 12, Blackman was named to the AP all-time All-Big Eight basketball team.
Blackman's number 25 jersey was retired by Kansas State in a ceremony at halftime of a game against Iowa State on February 17, 2007.
Rolando Blackman was drafted by the Mavericks in the first round (9th overall) of the 1981 NBA Draft. In eleven seasons with the Mavericks, Blackman was named to the NBA All-Star Team four times and played on six Maverick playoff teams. Blackman scored 16,643 points (which was a franchise record he held for 18 years until being broken by Dirk Nowitzki on March 8, 2008)and 6,487 field goals with the Mavericks. In his 865 games with the Mavericks, Blackman never fouled out of a game.

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Romualdo Pacheco
José Antonio Romualdo Pacheco, Jr. (October 31, 1831 – January 23, 1899) was an American politician and diplomat. Involved in California state and federal politics, Pacheco was elected and appointed to various posts and offices throughout his more than thirty-year career, including the California State Senate, the 12th governor of California, and three terms in the United States House of Representatives. Pacheco remains the only Hispanic or Latino governor in the state's history as part of the U.S. He was also the state's first California-born governor. Pacheco represented California in the United States House of Representatives from March 4, 1877 to February 7, 1878, and from March 4, 1879 to March 3, 1883. He was the first Hispanic Representative from a U.S. state; several others had previously served as delegates for U.S. territories and as such did not have full voting privileges.
José Antonio Romualdo Pacheco, Jr. was born in Santa Barbara, California to a prominent Alta California family. His father, Captain José Antonio Romualdo Pacheco, had moved to California from Guanajuato, Mexico in 1825, and served as an aide to Governor José María de Echeandía. Captain Pacheco was killed at the Battle of Cahuenga Pass in 1831, when the young Romualdo was just five weeks old. His mother, Maria Ramona Carrillo de Pacheco, was a sister-in-law of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, and a daughter of Maria Ygnacia Lopez de Carrillo, the grantee of Rancho Cabeza de Santa Rosa. After the death of his father, Romualdo's mother married Captain John D. Wilson, a Scotsman, who sent Pacheco to Honolulu, Hawaii for his education.

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Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( /ˈrɒnəld ˈwɪlsən ˈreɪɡən/; February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States, serving from 1981 to 1989. Prior to that, he was the 33rd Governor of California from 1967 to 1975 and a radio, film and television actor.
Born in Tampico, Illinois and raised in Dixon, Reagan was educated at Eureka College, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and sociology. After his graduation, Reagan moved first to Iowa to work as a radio broadcaster and then in to Los Angeles in 1937 where he began a career as an actor, first in films and later television. Some of his most notable films include Knute Rockne, All American, Kings Row, and Bedtime for Bonzo. Reagan served as president of the Screen Actors Guild, and later as a spokesman for General Electric (GE); his start in politics occurred during his work for GE. Originally a member of the Democratic Party, his positions began shifting rightward in the late 1950s, and he switched to the Republican Party in 1962. After delivering a rousing speech in support of Barry Goldwater's presidential candidacy in 1964, he was persuaded to seek the California governorship, winning two years later and again in 1970. He was defeated in his run for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 as well as 1976, but won both the nomination and general election in 1980, defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter.

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Rosario Dawson
Rosario Isabel Dawson (born May 9, 1979) is an American actress, singer, and writer. She has appeared in films such as Kids, Men in Black II, 25th Hour, Sin City, Clerks II, Rent, Death Proof, The Rundown, Eagle Eye, Alexander, Seven Pounds, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, and Unstoppable.
Dawson was born in New York City. Her mother, Isabel Celeste, is a writer and singer who is of Puerto Rican and Afro-Cuban descent. Isabel was seventeen years old when Rosario was born; she never married Rosario's biological father, Patrick C. Harris. When Isabel was eighteen, she married Greg Dawson, a construction worker, who "loved and raised Rosario as his own daughter" (Dawson has stated that "He's always been my dad"). Dawson has a brother, Clay, who is four years younger. Her parents divorced in 2006.
At the age of 21, Isabel moved the family into an abandoned building squat on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, where she and her husband renovated an apartment and installed the plumbing and electrical wiring for the building, creating affordable housing where Rosario and Clay would grow up. Dawson has cited this part of her history when explaining how she learned that "If you wanted something better, you had to do it yourself."

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Rosie Perez
Rosa María "Rosie" Pérez (born September 6, 1964, in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York) is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, director and community activist.
Pérez was born in the Brooklyn, New York, neighborhood of Bushwick to Afro-Puerto Rican parents. Her mother, Lydia Pérez (née Fontañez), a singer, was married to Ventura Pérez at the time of Rosie's birth. However, Rosie's biological father is Ismael Serrano, a merchant seaman with whom her mother had an affair. Much of her young life was spent in foster care. She attended Grover Cleveland High School, which is located in Ridgewood, in the New York City borough of Queens, and Los Angeles City College in Los Angeles, California.
Pérez was first noticed in a dance club by Spike Lee in 1988, who hired her for her first major acting role in Do the Right Thing. Pérez started her career in the late 1980s as a dancer on Soul Train and later choreographed music videos by Janet Jackson, Bobby Brown, Diana Ross, LL Cool J and The Boys.^{[citation needed]} She was the choreographer for the dancing group the Fly Girls who were featured on the Fox television comedy program In Living Color.

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Rubén Hinojosa
Rubén E. Hinojosa (born August 20, 1940) is the U.S. House of Representative for Texas's 15th congressional district, serving since 1997. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district stretches from the Rio Grande Valley to historic Goliad County and the Coastal Bend region. Much of the region is rural, although Hidalgo and Cameron Counties are part of the third fastest growing metropolitan statistical area in the country. He serves on the Financial Services and Education committees.
Hinojosa was born in Edcouch, Texas. He earned his bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Texas at Austin and his MBA from the University of Texas-Pan American. He served as President and Chief Financial Officer of his family's food processing company, H&H Foods, for twenty years.
In 1974, he was elected to the Texas State Board of Education, serving for ten years.
After 32-year incumbent Kika de la Garza announced his retirement, Hinojosa won a five-way primary for the seat by only 588 votes. This practically assured him of being only the sixth person to represent this heavily Democratic, Latino-majority district. He defeated Republican Tom Haughey with 62% of the vote. He defeated Haughey again in 1998, winning 59% of the vote. In 2000 he took 89% of the vote, facing only independent Frank L. Jones III. In 2002, he was reelected unopposed. In 2004, Hinojosa faced Republican Michael Thamm in the redrawn district 15 and defeated the former major, winning with 59 percent of the vote. In the 2006 mid-term election he faced both Paul Haring and Eddie Zamora, both Republicans. Hinojosa won 61 percent of the vote in the once-again redrawn district.

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Rubén Salazar
Rubén Salazar (March 3, 1928 – August 29, 1970) was a Mexican-American journalist killed by a Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy during the National Chicano Moratorium March against the Vietnam War on August 29, 1970 in East Los Angeles, California. During the 1970s, his killing was often cited as a symbol of unjust treatment of Chicanos by law enforcement. Salazar was the first Mexican-American journalist to cover the Chicano community from the mainstream media.
Salazar was born in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico in 1928. He later moved across the river to El Paso, Texas. After high school, he served in the U.S. Army for two years. Salazar attended the Texas Western College, graduating in 1954 with a degree in journalism. He then obtained a job as an investigative journalist at the now-defunct El Paso Herald-Post; at one point he posed as a vagrant to get arrested while he investigated the poor treatment of prisoners in the El Paso jail. After his tenure at the Herald-Post he worked at several California newspapers including the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

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Rudolfo Anaya
Rudolfo Anaya (born October 30, 1937) is a Mexican-American author. Best known for his 1972 novel Bless Me, Ultima, Anaya is considered one of the founders of the canon of contemporary Chicano literature.
Rudolfo Alfonso Anaya was born in the rural village of Pastura, New Mexico, to Martin and Rafaelita Anaya. His father came from a family of cattle workers and sheepherders, and his mother’s family were farmers. Anaya was the fifth of their seven children together; he also had three half-siblings from his parents’ previous marriages. When Anaya was a small child, his family moved to Santa Rosa, New Mexico. In 1952, they relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where they lived in the Barelas neighborhood. Spanish was spoken at home, and Anaya did not learn English until he started school.

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Rudy Galindo
Val Joe "Rudy" Galindo (born September 7, 1969 in San Jose, California) is an American figure skater who competed in both single skating and pair skating. As a single skater, he is the 1996 U.S. national champion and 1987 World Junior Champion. As a pairs skater, he competed with Kristi Yamaguchi and was the 1988 World Junior Champion and the 1989 and 1990 U.S. National Champion.
Rudy Galindo is the third child of Jess and Margaret Galindo, having a brother, George, who was ten years older and sister, Laura, five years older. He began skating with his sister. Although the sport was expensive, his parents were supportive and forewent a chance to buy a house, settling instead for a larger trailer.
As a singles career, Galindo won the 1987 World Junior title.
Galindo was paired with Kristi Yamaguchi by his coach, Jim Hulick. They placed 5th on the junior level at the 1985 U.S. Championships and won the junior title in 1986. Hulick died of AIDS-related cancer in 1989. Galindo did not compete in singles in the 1988-89 and 1989-90 seasons in order to concentrate on pairs. Galindo and Yamaguchi won the 1988 World Junior title and the U.S. senior championships in 1989 and 1990. However, in April 1990, their partnership came to an end when Yamaguchi decided to focus on her singles career. As there was no one of her caliber available, Galindo returned to singles competition.

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Salma Hayek
Salma Valgarma Hayek Jiménez de Pinault (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈsalma ˈxaʝek]; born September 2, 1966) is a Mexican and American film actress, director and producer. She received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her role as Frida Kahlo in the film Frida.
Hayek was born in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico, the daughter of Diana Jiménez Medina, an opera singer and talent scout, and Sami Hayek Dominguez, an oil company executive who once ran for mayor of Coatzacoalcos. Hayek's father is of Lebanese ancestry, while her mother's ancestry is Spanish. Her first given name, Salma, is Arabic for "safe". Raised in a wealthy, devoutly Roman Catholic family, she was sent to the Academy of the Sacred Heart in Grand Coteau, Louisiana, at the age of twelve. While there, she was diagnosed with dyslexia. She attended college in Mexico City, where she studied International Relations at the Universidad Iberoamericana.
At the age of 23, Hayek landed the title role in Teresa (1989), a successful Mexican telenovela that made her a star in Mexico. In 1994, Hayek starred in the film El Callejón de los Milagros (Miracle Alley), which has won more awards than any other movie in the history of Mexican cinema.^{[citation needed]} For her performance, Hayek was nominated for an Ariel Award.

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Salvadoran American
Salvadoran Americans are citizens or residents of the United States of Salvadoran descent. As of 2010 there are 1.6 million Salvadoran Americans in the United States, the fourth-largest Hispanic community by nation of ancestry.
One of the largest populations of Salvadoran Americans resides in the Greater Los Angeles area, including Orange County, California, the Inland Empire, as well as in San Diego. Other metropolitan areas with a major Salvadoran American presence include other California regions outside of Los Angeles such as the San Francisco Bay Area; the Washington Metropolitan Area, with most concentrated in the suburbs in Northern Virginia and Maryland; Central Florida and South Florida; Texas, especially in Houston, Austin, Dallas and Fort Worth; the New York City area such as Northern New Jersey, Flushing, Queens and Long Island; Atlanta; northern Georgia; New Orleans; and the Chicago metro area.
Salvadoran immigration to the United States is a fairly recent phenomenon historically, with the movement small in comparison to some of the great immigration waves of the past, but it has had a profound significance for both El Salvador and the United States.

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Samoan American
Samoan Americans are American citizens of Samoan origin, including those who migrated from the Independent State of Samoa and America Samoa to the United States. Samoan Americans are considered Pacific Islanders in the United States Census, and are the second largest Pacific Islander group in the U.S., after Native Hawaiians.
America Samoa has been an unincorporated territory of the United States since 1900, and Samoa, officially known as the Independent State of Samoa, is an independent nation that gained its independence from New Zealand in 1962. America Samoa and Samoa are both what make up the Samoan Islands, an archipelago that covers 1,170 sq mi (3,030 km2). Like Hawaiian Americans, the Samoans arrived in the mainland in the 20th century as agricultural laborers and factory workers.
There are more than 180,000 people of Samoan descent living stateside, which is roughly the population of the Independent State of Samoa, which had an estimated population of 179,000 in 2009. Honolulu, Hawaii has the largest Samoan population, while Long Beach, California has the largest Samoan population in the mainland United States, where people of Samoan ancestry make up one percent of the city's population, or 4,513 people, as of 2010. There are also significant Samoan communities throughout the state of California, and in Washington, Utah, and Alaska.

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Sandra Cisneros
Sandra Cisneros (born December 20, 1954) is an American writer best known for her acclaimed first novel The House on Mango Street (1984) and her subsequent short story collection Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991). Her work experiments with literary forms and investigates emerging subject positions, which Cisneros herself attributes to growing up in a context of cultural hybridity and economic inequality that endowed her with unique stories to tell. She is the recipient of numerous awards including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and is regarded as a key figure in Chicana literature.
Cisneros's early life provided many experiences she would later draw on as a writer: she grew up as the only daughter in a family of six brothers, which often made her feel isolated, and the constant migration of her family between Mexico and the USA instilled in her the sense of "always straddling two countries ... but not belonging to either culture." Cisneros's work deals with the formation of Chicana identity, exploring the challenges of being caught between Mexican and Anglo-American cultures, facing the misogynist attitudes present in both these cultures, and experiencing poverty. For her insightful social critique and powerful prose style, Cisneros has achieved recognition far beyond Chicano and Latino communities, to the extent that The House on Mango Street has been translated worldwide and is taught in American classrooms as a coming-of-age novel.

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Santos Benavides
Santos Benavides (November 1, 1823 – November 9, 1891) was a Confederate colonel during the American Civil War. Benavides was the highest-ranking Tejano soldier in the Confederate military.
Benavides was born in Laredo, the seat of Webb County, a descendant of Don Tomas Sanchez de la Barrera y Garza, the founder of Laredo. Benavides also served as county judge in Webb County in 1859. He was the captain of the 33rd Texas Cavalry, also called Benavides' Regiment, until he was promoted to colonel in November 1863.
On May 22, 1861, at the Battle of Carrizo (also called Battle of Zapata), Benavides engaged the local Tejano leader Juan Cortina (who had invaded Zapata County, an event usually referred as the Second Cortina War), and drove him back into Mexico. Probably his greatest contribution to the Confederacy was securing passage of Confederate cotton to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, in 1863. On March 18, 1864, Major Alfred Holt led a force of about two hundred men from the command of Col. Davis near Brownsville, Texas to destroy five thousand bales of cotton stacked at the San Agustín Plaza in Laredo. The next day, Benavidez defended Laredo against the Union's First Texas Cavalry, whose commander was Colonel Edmund J. Davis, a Florida native who had previously offered Benavides a Union generalship, and defeated the Union forces. Colonel Santos Benavides commanded forty-two men and repelled three Union attacks at the Zacate Creek in what is known as the Battle of Laredo. Davis was elected in 1869 as the first ever Republican governor of Texas. In May 1865 Benavides regiment was in the last battle of the Civil war-Battle of Palmito Ranch

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Scott Gomez
Scott Carlos Gomez (born December 23, 1979) is an American ice hockey center of both Mexican and Colombian descent, currently playing for the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League (NHL). He has also played with the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers.
In the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, Scott Gomez was selected with the 27th pick of the first round by the New Jersey Devils. His father is Carlos, a Mexican-American, and his mother is Dalia, a Colombian-American. At the time, he was playing for the Tri-City Americans of the WHL, and had just been named to the WHL's All-Rookie Team. In the season after he was drafted, he justified the Devils' decision by scoring 108 points in 58 games for the Americans. This earned him a spot on the WHL West First All-Star Team. The year before, Gomez (while living in the U.S. and going to Blaine High School) led the South Surrey Eagles of the Tier II Junior "A" British Columbia Hockey League to the Gold medal game of the 1997 Royal Bank Cup against the hometown Summerside Western Capitals, but Gomez and his South Surrey Eagles were defeated 4-3.

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Sebastián Vizcaíno
Sebastián Vizcaíno (1548 – 1624) was a Spanish soldier, entrepreneur, explorer, and diplomat whose varied roles took him to New Spain, the Philippines, the Baja California peninsula, the California coast and Japan.
Sebastian was born in Extremadura, Spain. He saw military service in the Spanish invasion of Portugal during 1580–1583. He was going to New Spain in 1583, he sailed as a merchant on the Manila galleon to the Philippines in 1586–1589. In 1587 he was on board the Santa Ana when it was captured by Thomas Cavendish.
In 1593 the disputed concession for pearl fishing on the western shores of the Gulf of California was transferred to Vizcaíno. He succeeded in sailing with three ships to La Paz, Baja California Sur in 1596. He gave this site (known to Hernándo Cortés as Santa Cruz) its modern name and attempted to establish a settlement. However, problems of resupply, declining morale, and a fire soon forced its abandonment. He also became a diplomat.

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Selena
Selena Quintanilla-Pérez (April 16, 1971 – March 31, 1995), known simply as Selena, was an American singer-songwriter. She was named the "top Latin artist of the '90s" and "Best selling Latin artist of the decade" by Billboard for her fourteen top-ten singles in the Top Latin Songs chart, including seven number-one hits. The singer had the most successful singles of 1994 and 1995, "Amor Prohibido" and "No Me Queda Más". She was called "The Queen of Tejano music" and the Mexican equivalent of Madonna. Selena released her first album, Selena y Los Dinos, at the age of twelve. She won Female Vocalist of the Year at the 1987 Tejano Music Awards and landed a recording contract with EMI a few years later. Her fame grew throughout the early 1990s, especially in Spanish-speaking countries.
Selena was murdered at the age of 23 by Yolanda Saldívar, the president of her fan club. On April 12, 1995, two weeks after her death, George W. Bush, governor of Texas at the time, declared her birthday "Selena Day" in Texas.Warner Bros. produced Selena, a film based on her life starring Jennifer Lopez, in 1997. Selena's life was also the basis of the musical Selena Forever starring Veronica Vazquez as Selena. In June 2006 Selena was commemorated with a life-sized bronze statue (Mirador de la Flor in Corpus Christi, Texas) and a Selena museum opened there. She has sold over 60 million albums worldwide.

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Selena Gomez
Selena Marie Gomez (born July 22, 1992) is an American actress and singer best known for portraying Alex Russo in the Emmy Award-winning Disney Channel television series Wizards of Waverly Place. She subsequently ventured into feature films and has starred in the television movies Another Cinderella Story, Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie, and Princess Protection Program. She made her starring theatrical film debut in Ramona and Beezus.
Her career has expanded into the music industry; Gomez is the lead singer and founder of the pop band Selena Gomez & the Scene, which has released three RIAA Gold certified studio albums, Kiss & Tell, A Year Without Rain, and When the Sun Goes Down, spawned three RIAA Platinum certified singles, "Naturally", "Who Says" and "Love You Like a Love Song" and charted four No. 1 Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs. Gomez has also contributed to the soundtracks of Tinker Bell, Another Cinderella Story, Wizards of Waverly Place, and Shake It Up after signing a record deal with Hollywood Records.

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Severo Ochoa
Severo Ochoa de Albornoz (Luarca, September 24, 1905 – Madrid, November 1, 1993) was a Spanish-American doctor and biochemist, and joint winner of the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Arthur Kornberg.
Severo Ochoa was born in Luarca (Asturias), Spain. His father was Severo Manuel Ochoa, a lawyer and businessman, and his mother was Carmen de Albornoz. Ochoa was the nephew of Alvaro de Albornoz (President of the Second Spanish Republic in exile, 1947–1951), and a cousin of the poet and literary poet and critic Aurora de Albornoz. His father died when Ochoa was seven, and he and his mother moved to Málaga, where he attended elementary school through high school. His interest in biology was stimulated by the publications of the Spanish neurologist and Nobel laureate Santiago Ramón y Cajal. In 1923, he went to the University of Madrid Medical School, where he hoped to work with Cajal, but Cajal retired. He studied with father Pedro Arrupe, and Juan Negrín was his teacher.
Negrín encouraged Ochoa and another student, José Valdecasas, to isolate creatinine from urine. The two students succeeded and also developed a method to measure small levels of muscle creatinine. Ochoa spent the summer of 1927 in Glasgow working with D. Noel Paton on creatine metabolism improving his English skills. During the summer he refined the assay procedure further and upon returning to Spain he and Valdecasas submitted a paper describing the work to the Journal of Biological Chemistry, where it was rapidly accepted [Ochoa, S., and Valdecasas, J. G. (1929) A micromethod for the estimation of total creatinine in muscle. J. Biol. Chem. 81: 351–357], marking the beginning of Ochoa's biochemistry career.

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Silvestre Reyes
Silvestre "Silver" Reyes (born November 10, 1944) is the U.S. Representative for Texas's 16th congressional district, serving since 1997. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He was Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence between 2007 and 2011. In the Democratic Primary election on May 29, 2012, Reyes lost by a fairly wide margin, averting a runoff election to former El Paso city councilman Beto O'Rourke.
Reyes was born in Canutillo, Texas, in 1944 and is the first of 10 children. He graduated from Canutillo High School and received his Associate's Degree from El Paso Community College. He attended the University of Texas at Austin before serving in the United States Army in 1966. In 1967, Reyes served as a helicopter crew chief in the Vietnam War. In 1968, Reyes suffered complete hearing loss to his right ear when mortar landed near his foxhole during combat.

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Sonia Sotomayor
Sonia Maria Sotomayor (English pronunciation: /ˈsoʊnjə ˌsoʊtoʊmaɪˈjɔr/, Spanish: [ˈsonja sotomaˈʝor]; born June 25, 1954) is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving since August 2009. Sotomayor is the Court's 111th justice, its first Hispanic justice, and its third female justice.
Sotomayor was born in The Bronx, New York City and is of Puerto Rican descent. Her father died when she was nine, and she was subsequently raised by her mother. Sotomayor graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1976 and received her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1979, where she was an editor at the Yale Law Journal. She was an advocate for the hiring of Latino faculty at both schools. She worked as an assistant district attorney in New York for four and a half years before entering private practice in 1984. She played an active role on the boards of directors for the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, the State of New York Mortgage Agency, and the New York City Campaign Finance Board.

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Spanish American
A Spanish American is a citizen or resident of the United States whose ancestors originate from the southwestern European nation of Spain. Spanish Americans are the earliest European American group, with a continuous presence since 1565.
In colonial times there were a number of Spanish populations in the present–day U.S. with governments answerable to Madrid. The first settlement was in St. Augustine, Florida, followed by others in New Mexico, California, Arizona, Texas, and Louisiana. In 1598, San Juan de los Caballeros was established, near present day Santa Fe, New Mexico, by Juan de Oñate and about 1,000 other Spaniards. After the establishment of the American colonies, an additional 250,000 immigrants arrived either directly from Spain, the Canary Islands or, after a relatively short sojourn, from present-day central Mexico. The Canary Islanders settled San Antonio de Bejar, San Antonio, Texas, in 1731.^{[citation needed]} Most of the Spanish settlers in present-day Texas, California, New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona were of ethnically-mixed ancestry, or mestizo. Most self-identified Spanish-Americans in the Southwest differentiate themselves nominally from the population of Mexican-Americans who came after the Mexican Revolution.

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Spanish people
The term Spanish people (or Spaniards) has two distinct meanings: Traditionally, it applies to people native to any part of Spain. More recently, it has also come to have a legal meaning, referring to people who hold Spanish citizenship.
Within Spain there are a number of nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history. The official language of Spain is Spanish (also known as Castilian), a standard language based on the mediaeval dialect of the Castilians of north-central Spain. There are several commonly spoken regional languages. With the exception of Basque, the languages native to Spain are Romance languages.
There are substantial populations outside Spain with ancestors who emigrated from Spain; most notably in Latin America.
The earliest modern humans inhabiting Spain are believed to have been Neolithic peoples who may have arrived in the Iberian Peninsula as early as 35,000–40,000 years ago. In more recent times the Iberians are believed to have arrived or developed in the region between the 4th millennium BC and the 3rd millennium BC, initially settling along the Mediterranean coast. Celts settled in Spain during the Iron Age. Some of those tribes in North-central Spain, which had cultural contact with the Iberians, are called Celtiberians. In addition, a group known as the Tartessians and later Turdetanians inhabited southwestern Spain and who are believed to have developed a separate civilization of Phoenician influence. The seafaring Phoenicians, Greeks, and Carthaginians successively founded trading colonies along the Mediterranean coast over a period of several centuries. The Second Punic War between the Carthaginians and Romans was fought mainly in what is now Spain and Portugal.

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Steve Van Buren
Stephen W. Van Buren (born December 28, 1920) is a former professional American football halfback who played for the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League from 1944–1951, and is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Van Buren was born in La Ceiba, Honduras but, after he was orphaned as a boy, he was sent to live with relatives in New Orleans. From Easton High School in New Orleans, he received an athletic scholarship to Louisiana State University, where he led the nation in points (110) and touchdowns (16) as a senior.
A first-round draft pick in the 1944 NFL Draft, Van Buren ran for 444 yards in nine games during his first season with the Philadelphia Eagles. He also led the league in returning punts as a rookie. The following season, Van Buren led the NFL in rushing for the first time. He would win three additional rushing crowns in 1947, 1948 and 1949, becoming the first running back in NFL history to achieve three consecutive rushing titles. Jim Brown (1957–1961, 1963–1965) twice, Earl Campbell (1978–1980), and Emmitt Smith (1991–1993) have since managed that feat. All four are in the Pro Football Hall Of Fame.

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Susana Martinez
Susana Martinez (born July 14, 1959) is the 31st and current Governor of New Mexico. Martinez, a Republican since 1995, is the first female governor of New Mexico and the first female Hispanic governor in the United States. Martinez was the Assistant District Attorney for the 3rd Judicial District, serving Doña Ana County, New Mexico from 1986 to 1992. She served as District Attorney from 1997 to 2011.
She is considered a potential pick for Vice President on the Republican presidential ticket in 2012, but has stated numerous times she would not run.
Susana was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. She moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico, in the mid 1980s. Martínez comes from a middle class background. Her father was an amateur boxer who won three straight Golden Gloves titles in the 1950s. He was a deputy sheriff for El Paso County, Texas.
On September 9, 2011, Martinez stated that she did not know whether her paternal grandparents immigrated to the country illegally. On more thorough research it turned out that they appeared to follow the rules at the time and that she is a descendant of Mexican Revolutionary General Toribio Ortega.

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Tab Ramos
Tabaré Ramos Ricciardi, known as Tab Ramos (born September 21, 1966 in Montevideo, Uruguay) is a retired U.S. Olympic Team and National Team soccer midfielder. He played professionally for 13 seasons in Spain, Mexico and the United States. Ramos was the first player to sign with Major League Soccer, where he played seven years with the MetroStars. He is a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame.
Born in Uruguay, Ramos emigrated to the United States with his family when he was 11. His father played professional soccer in Uruguay and instilled a love for the game into Tab from an early age. While living in Uruguay, he played for the Union Vecinal Youth Soccer Club in Montevideo.
When his family arrived in the U.S., they settled in New Jersey where Ramos lived in Harrison and Kearny. He attended Saint Benedict's Preparatory School, the same high school attended by Claudio Reyna a few years later. In 1982, he became U.S. citizen. He also played for local youth club Thistle FC where he played with future Hall of Fame player John Harkes. Ramos and Harkes played together from their youth, through the U.S. National Team. They were both inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005.

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Ted Williams
Theodore Samuel "Ted" Williams (August 30, 1918 – July 5, 2002) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 21-year Major League Baseball career as the left fielder for the Boston Red Sox (1939–1942 and 1946–1960). Williams was a two-time American League Most Valuable Player (MVP) winner, led the league in batting six times, and won the Triple Crown twice. A nineteen-time All-Star, he had a career batting average of .344, with 521 home runs, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966. Williams recorded a hit 34 percent of the time; he reached base an astounding 48 percent of the time.
Williams was the last player in Major League Baseball to bat over .400 in a single season (.406 in 1941). Williams holds the highest career batting average of anyone with 500 or more home runs. His career year was 1941, when he hit .406 with 37 HR, 120 RBI, and 135 runs scored. His .551 on base percentage set a record that stood for 61 years. Nicknamed "The Kid", "The Splendid Splinter", "Teddy Ballgame", "The Thumper" and, because of his hitting prowess, "The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived", Williams's career was twice interrupted by service as a U.S. Marine Corps fighter-bomber pilot. An avid sport fisherman, he hosted a television program about fishing, and he was inducted into the IGFA Fishing Hall of Fame.

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Tejano
Tejano or Texano (Spanish for "Texan") is a term used to identify a Texan of criollo spanish or Mexican heritage.
Historically, the Spanish term Tejano has been used to identify different groups of people. During the Spanish Colonial times and pre-Anglo colonization, the term primarily applied to Spanish settlers of the region now known as Texas (first as part of the New Spain and then in 1821 as part of Mexico). During the times of independent south Texas, the term also applied to Spanish-speaking Texans and Hispanicized Germans and other Europeans. In modern times, the term is more broadly used to identify a Texan of Mexican descent.
Already in 1519, Alonso Alvarez de Pineda claimed Texas for Spain. However, Spain paid little attention to the province until 1685. In this year, Spain received news of the existence of a French colony in Texas that could endanger Spanish mines and shipping routes, so that the king of Spain sent 10 expeditions to the province to look for a French colony, that never came to see. Between 1690 and 1693 several Spanish expeditions took place in Texas, who helped obtain a better understanding of the place for the provincial government and the settlers who come later to Texas.

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Tito Ortiz
Jacob Christopher "Tito" Ortiz (English: /tɪtɵ ɔərtɪs/) (born January 23, 1975) is an American mixed martial artist and former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, having held the title from April 14, 2000 to September 26, 2003. Along with fighters like Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell, he was one of the sport's early stars. Ortiz ultimately became the biggest pay-per-view draw of 2006 for his fights with Liddell, Forrest Griffin, and Ken Shamrock.
Outside of his fighting career, Ortiz is the CEO of the Punishment Athletics MMA equipment and clothing line. He also owns an MMA training gym called Punishment Training Center, which is located in Huntington Beach, CA.
Jacob Christopher Ortiz was born to Samuel and Joyce Ortiz. He received his nickname "Tito," which means tyrant, from his father when he was a year old. He is the fourth child of his mother, Joyce, who had three sons from a previous marriage. His mixed heritage (Mexican father, American mother) has been reflected in his ring entrances as he has borne both Mexican and American flags.

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Tom Araya
Tom Araya (born Tomás Enrique Araya Díaz June 6, 1961 in Viña del Mar, Chile) is a Chilean American musician, best known as the bassist and vocalist of the American thrash metal band Slayer. Araya is ranked fifty-eighth by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Metal Vocalists of All Time.
Araya was employed as a respiratory therapist in the early 1980s and used his earnings to finance Slayer's debut album Show No Mercy. Much of Araya's lyrical content is about serial killers, a subject he finds interesting, first making his lyrical contribution to 1985's Hell Awaits with the track "At Dawn They Sleep".
Araya said that he grew up in "a neighborhood that was pretty gang-oriented."
Araya's older brother, Cisco, played the guitar. This inspired Araya to pick up the bass at age eight. The two played Beatles and Rolling Stones songs, which he would later cite as an influence on his own music.
In the early 1980s, Araya's eldest sister suggested he enroll in a program to become certified as a respiratory therapist. Araya's father insisted he either find a job or enroll in the course. Araya enrolled in a two year technical course, learning about air mixture ratios, drawing blood, and how to intubate.

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Tom Flores
Thomas R. "Tom" Flores (born March 21, 1937) is a retired American football quarterback and coach. Flores and Mike Ditka are the only two people in the National Football League history to win a Championship (1 AFL Championship, Super Bowl XI as an Assistant Coach and Super Bowls XV and XVIII) as a player, as an assistant coach, and as a head coach. Flores was also the first Hispanic starting quarterback and the first minority head coach in professional football history to win a Super Bowl. Flores is currently a radio announcer.
Flores played quarterback for two seasons at Fresno City College beginning in 1955. He was active off the field as well serving on the Student Council as well as President of the Associated Men's Students. He received an academic scholarship to study at the College (now University) of the Pacific. Flores graduated from the University of the Pacific in 1958, but was unable to find a job in professional football. He was cut by the Calgary Stampeders of the CFL in 1958, and then by the Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL) in 1959. In 1960 Flores finally landed a position as a quarterback with the American Football League's Oakland Raiders, who began play in 1960 as a charter member of the league. He was named the Raiders' starting quarterback early in the 1960 season, becoming the first Hispanic starting quarterback in professional football history.

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Tongan American
Tongan Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Tonga, either through descent or emigration. There are approximately 57,000 Tongans and Tongan Americans living in the United States, as of 2012.
San Mateo County, California, which is located south of San Francisco, has one of the largest Tongan populations outside of the country, encompassing a community of an estimated 13,000 people. Other American cities with significant Tongan American populations include Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Anchorage, Alaska; Inland Empire, California; East Palo Alto, California; San Bruno, California; Oakland, California; San Jose, California; Inglewood, California; Los Angeles, California; Salt Lake City, Utah; Kona, Hawaii; Lahaina, Hawaii; Reno, Nevada; St. Petersburg, Florida; and Euless, Texas

wn.com/Tongan_American
Tony Romo
Antonio Ramiro "Tony" Romo (born April 21, 1980) is a professional American football quarterback in the NFL for the Dallas Cowboys. Romo's career passer rating - at 96.9 - ranks second-best all time. Tony Romo didn't play in the regular season in 2003, 2004, or 2005. He replaced the Cowboys' previous starting quarterback Drew Bledsoe during a game against the New York Giants in the 2006 season.
Romo was born in San Diego, California, while his father was serving in the United States Navy. His family returned to its home in Burlington, Wisconsin. Romo's athletic ability was evident even at an early age when he was selected for the Little League All-Star team.
Romo started as quarterback for the Burlington Demons beginning as a junior (1996 season). During his junior season, he led the Demons to a SLC Conference record of 7–2 and the WIAA playoffs. In the 1996 playoffs, Romo and the Demons defeated Greenfield 17-6 before trouncing Badger 41–16. Romo came within one game of the state championship game but fell short in a last-minute 16-15 loss to Cudahy. After the 1996 season, he received Honorable Mention in the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association All-State Team.

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Trevor Ariza
Trevor Anthony Ariza (born June 30, 1985 in Miami, Florida) is an American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association who plays for the New Orleans Hornets.
Ariza played AAU basketball for 4d, a traveling youth basketball team that had numerous All-Americans^[who?] on the roster. Ariza attended Westchester High School in Los Angeles, California, where as a junior he combined with teammates and fellow future NBA players Hassan Adams, Brandon Heath, and Bobby Brown to lead the Comets to the California State championship.
After one season at UCLA Ariza declared for the NBA draft and was a second round choice (43rd overall) of the New York Knicks in 2004.
Ariza started his rookie season coming off the bench; at 19 he was the second-youngest rookie in Knicks history to play in 80 games. As the season progressed he impressed coach Larry Brown enough to start 12 games. In Ariza's second season, he played in 36 games and started in 10. In February 2006, Ariza was traded along with Penny Hardaway to the Orlando Magic in exchange for Steve Francis. After the trade he played in 21 games and averaged 4.7 per game. In the 2006-07 season he played in 57 games and started in 7, averaging a career high 8.9 points and 4.4 rebounds per game.

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Tyler Black
Colby Lopez (born May 28, 1986) is an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Tyler Black. He is signed to a contract with WWE, where he competes in their developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling as Seth Rollins, where he is the reigning FCW Florida Heavyweight Champion. He is a former FCW 15 Champion and FCW Florida Tag Team Champion with Richie Steamboat. He is best known for his time in Ring of Honor (ROH), where he is a former ROH World Champion.
He has competed in Scott County Wrestling, AAW: Professional Wrestling Redefined, Independent Wrestling Association Mid-South, the National Wrestling Alliance, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, and Wrestling Society X. In several promotions, Black was the tag team partner of Jimmy Jacobs, with the team known as Doin' It For Her. He was once a member of The Age of the Fall along with Jacobs, and several other wrestlers. Black is also a three-time world champion having won the MCPW World Heavyweight Championship once, the FIP World Heavyweight Championship on one occasion, and the ROH World Championship once.

wn.com/Tyler_Black
Uruguayan American
A Uruguayan American is any person of Uruguayan ancestry or birth who is a citizen or resident of the United States. Similar to neighboring country Argentina, Uruguay took in many immigrants from Europe beginning in the late 19th century and lasting until the mid 20th century. As it stands, approximately 93% of Uruguay's population is of European descent with Italians, Spaniards, French, and Germans being among the most populous groups to have settled in the country. Because of this, many Uruguayan Americans identify both with their nationality and their family's country of origin.

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Venezuelan American
Venezuelan Americans are U.S. citizens who trace their heritage, or part of their heritage, to the nation of Venezuela.
Venezuelan Americans are one of 20 Latin American groups in the U.S. While other U.S. citizens or residents with national origins in any of the Hispanic American countries may be closely related to Spaniards in language and culture, Venezuelan Americans also reflect their diversified culture, which includes influences from Italians, Spanish, Portuguese, Germans, and the French, along with influences from African and indigenous Amerindian elements. Venezuelan Spanish is the group's spoken form of the Spanish language.
Until the 20th century, there was no clear record of the number of Venezuelans who emigrated to United States. If known, however, that between the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, there were many European immigrants in Venezuela, who came to this country, only to then migrate from there to the United States, considering European Immigrants from South America. While it is also known that there were migrations. From 1910 to 1930, emigrate to United States entering the United States over 4,000 South Americans each year. However, there are not many specific figures that indicate the number of Venezuelans who emigrated to this country. In this moments, many Venezuelans settled in the United States for get a better schooling, remaining in the country also after of graduation. They are frequently joined by his relatives. However, since the early 1980s the reasons of the Venezuelan emigration have a change: The most of the Venezuelans emigrate for earn higher salaries. In addition, the economic fluctuations in Venezuela also promoted an important migration of Venezuelan professionals to the United States. In recent years, more Venezuelans opposing the economic and political policies of president Hugo Chávez are migrating to the U.S. (mostly to Florida, but New York City and Houston are other destinations).

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Vickie Guerrero
Vickie Lynn Guerrero (née Lara, born April 16, 1968) is an American professional wrestling personality, manager, shifting authority figure and occasional wrestler, currently signed to WWE on its Raw brand. She is also the wife of the late professional wrestler Eddie Guerrero.
In 2005, Vickie Guerrero began to make cameo appearances during the feud between her husband Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio, which had escalated when Eddie promised to reveal a secret concerning Mysterio's son, Dominick. Vickie was on the July 14 episode of SmackDown! with two of Eddie's three daughters to stop Eddie from revealing Mysterio's secret. Eddie promised not to reveal the secret should he lose to Mysterio at The Great American Bash, though that turned out to be another one of his character's trademark lies, as Eddie revealed that Dominick was really his biological son. Vickie later reappeared at SummerSlam to convince Eddie to put a stop to his war with Mysterio and not to go through with the "Custody of Dominick" ladder match that night. When that failed, she cost him the match by pushing over the ladder he was on as he was about to win. On November 13, 2005, Eddie Guerrero died of heart failure in his Minneapolis hotel room and was found by his nephew Chavo. On-screen, this led to Rey Mysterio, Eddie's real-life friend, getting more screen time and higher profile matches, including defeating Kurt Angle and Randy Orton at WrestleMania 22 for the World Heavyweight Championship.

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Victor Villaseñor
Victor Villaseñor is an acclaimed Mexican-American writer, best known for the New York Times bestseller novel Rain of Gold. Villaseñor's works are often taught in American schools. He went on to write Thirteen Senses: A Memoir (2001), a continuation of Rain of Gold. His book Burro Genius: A Memoir (2004) describes his life. The author has received awards and endorsements, including an appointment to serve as the founding Steinbeck Chair at Hartnell College and the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, from February 2003 to March 2004. Lion Eyes, published in 2008, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
Villaseñor is also a public speaker, giving lectures with his candid perspective on a number of universal themes, including pride in heritage, strength of family, the power of the written word, dedication to education and personal achievement, and world peace.
He founded the non-profit organization Snowgoose Global Thanksgiving to help promote peace and harmony throughout the world. Villaseñor's self-published book, Snow Goose: Global Thanksgiving, describes his philosophy toward that eventuality.

wn.com/Victor_Villaseñor
Vietnamese American
A Vietnamese American (Vietnamese: Người Mỹ gốc Việt) is an American of Vietnamese descent. They make up about half of all overseas Vietnamese (Người Việt Hải Ngoại) and are the fourth-largest Asian American group.
Mass Vietnamese immigration to the United States started after 1975, after the end of the Vietnam War. Early immigrants were refugee boat people fleeing persecution or poverty. Forced to flee from their homeland and often thrust into poor urban neighborhoods, these newcomers have nevertheless managed to establish strong communities in a short amount of time. More than sixty percent of Vietnamese Americans reside in the states of California, Texas, Washington, Florida, and Virginia.
As a relatively recent immigrant group, most Vietnamese Americans are either first- or second-generation Americans. They have the lowest distribution of people with more than one race among the major Asian American groups. As many as one million people who are five years and older speak Vietnamese at home—making it the seventh-most spoken language in the United States. As refugees, Vietnamese Americans have some of the highest rates of naturalization. In the 2006 American Community Survey, 72% of foreign-born Vietnamese are naturalized US citizens; this combined with the 36% who are born in the United States makes 82% of them United States citizen in total. Of those born outside the United States, 46.5% entered before 1990, 38.8% between 1990 and 2000, and 14.6% entered after 2000.

wn.com/Vietnamese_American
Walter Alvarez
Walter Alvarez (born October 3, 1940) is a professor in the Earth and Planetary Science department at the University of California, Berkeley. He is most widely known for the theory that dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid impact, developed in collaboration with his father, Nobel Prize winning physicist Luis Alvarez.
Born in Berkeley, California, Alvarez was the son of Luis Walter Alvarez, a Nobel prize-winner in physics. His grandfather was the famed physician Walter C. Alvarez and his great-grandfather, Spanish-born Luis F. Alvarez, worked as a doctor in Hawaii and developed a method for the better diagnosis of macular leprosy. His great-aunt Mabel Alvarez was a noted California artist and oil painter.
Alvarez earned his B.A. in geology in 1962 from Carleton College in Minnesota and Ph.D. in geology from Princeton University in 1967. He worked for American Overseas Petroleum Limited in the Netherlands, and in Libya at the time of Colonel Gadaffi’s revolution. Having developed a side interest in archaeological geology, he left the oil company and spent some time in Italy, studying the Roman volcanics and their influence on patterns of settlement in early Roman times.

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World War I
World War I (WWI), which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939 (World War II), and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918. It involved all the world's great powers, which were assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (based on the Triple Entente of the United Kingdom, France and Russia) and the Central Powers (originally centred around the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy; but, as Austria–Hungary had taken the offensive against the agreement, Italy did not enter into the war). These alliances both reorganised (Italy fought for the Allies), and expanded as more nations entered the war. Ultimately more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history. More than 9 million combatants were killed, largely because of enormous increases in lethality of weapons, thanks to new technology, without corresponding improvements in protection or mobility. It was the sixth-deadliest conflict in world history, subsequently paving the way for various political changes such as revolutions in the nations involved.

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Zack de la Rocha
Zacarías Manuel "Zack" de la Rocha (born January 12, 1970) is an American rapper, musician, poet, and activist best known as the vocalist and lyricist of Rage Against the Machine.
Zack de la Rocha's father, Roberto "Beto" de la Rocha, played an integral part in his son's cultural upbringing. Beto (of Spanish-Jewish descent, and born to Mexican-American parents) was a muralist and a member of Los Four — the first Chicano art collective to be exhibited at a museum (LACMA, 1973). De la Rocha's grandfather was a Sinaloan revolutionary born in Cananea, Sonora, Mexico, who fought in the Mexican Revolution and worked as an agricultural labourer in the US. Later, de la Rocha would see the hardships his grandfather endured reflected in the struggles of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
When de la Rocha was a year old, his parents separated. He and his German-Irish mother, Olivia de la Rocha, moved from East Los Angeles to Irvine, California, where Olivia attended the University of California at Irvine and earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology. Zack described Irvine as "one of the most racist cities imaginable. If you were a Mexican in Irvine, you were there because you had a broom or a hammer in your hand." It was also at an Irvine grade school, where young Zack met his friend and future Rage Against the Machine bandmate, Tim Commerford.

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Zoe Saldana
Zoe Saldana ( /sælˈdænə/ sal-DAN-ə; born June 19, 1978), sometimes stylized Zoë Saldaña, is an American actress. She had her breakthrough role in the 2000 film Center Stage and later gained prominence for her roles as Anamaria in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Uhura in the 2009 film Star Trek, and a starring role as Neytiri in James Cameron's Avatar. She also had a lead role in the action film Colombiana and the 2002 film Crossroads.
Saldana was born Zoe Yadira Saldaña Nazario or Zoe Yadira Saldana Nazario in Passaic, New Jersey. Her father, Aridio Saldaña, was Dominican, and her mother, Asalia Nazario, is a Dominican of half Dominican and half Puerto Rican descent. Her first languages are Spanish and English. She spent the majority of her early childhood growing up in Queens, New York. After her father died in a car accident when she was only nine years old, Saldaña moved to the Dominican Republic with her mother. There, Saldana discovered her love of dance and soon enrolled in the ECOS Espacio de Danza Academy; she studied ballet, jazz, and modern Latin dance. The family returned to Queens after her sophomore year in high school.

wn.com/Zoe_Saldana

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Not to be confused with the inhabitants of Hispanic America.

Not to be confused with Latin Americans.

Hispanic or Latino Americans
Total population
John Leguizamo
César Chávez • Raquel Welch • David Farragut Sonia Sotomayor • Franklin Chang-Diaz • Romana Acosta Bañuelos Alex Rodriguez • Hilda Solis • Isabel Allende John Leguizamo • Juan Bandini • Gloria Estefan
Hispanic or Latino Americans 50,477,594^[1] 16.3% of the U.S. population (2010)
Regions with significant populations
All areas of the United States
Languages
Spanish • American English
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholic; large minority of Protestants
Related ethnic groups
Latin Americans, Spaniards, Haitian Americans, Belizean Americans, Brazilian Americans, White Latin Americans and others

Hispanic or Latino Americans are Americans with origins in the countries of Latin America and Spain and in general all persons in the United States who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6] Reflecting especially the Latin American population, which has origins in all the continents and many ancestries,^[7] Hispanic/Latino Americans are very racially diverse, and as a result form an ethnic category, rather than a race.^[5]^[8]^[9]^[10] While the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably, "Hispanic" is a narrower term which only refers to persons of Spanish-speaking origin or ancestry, while "Latino" is more frequently used to refer more generally to anyone of Latin American origin or ancestry, including Brazilians.^[11]^[12]^[13]^[14] ^[15] ^[16] Hispanic thus includes persons from Spain and Spanish-speaking Latin Americans but excludes Brazilians while Latino excludes persons from Spain but includes Spanish-speaking Latin Americans and Brazilians. Because Brazil's population of 191,000,000^[17] is several times larger than Spain's population of 47,000,000^[18] and also because there are more Brazilian Americans ( between 360,000^[19] and 1,100,000^[20]^[21] as of 2010) than Spanish Americans (about 85,000 as of 2010)^[22] in the United States, Latino is a broader term encompassing more people. The choice between the terms Latino and Hispanic among those of Spanish-speaking origin is also associated with location: persons of Spanish-speaking origins residing in the eastern United States tend to prefer the term Hispanic, whereas those in the west tend to prefer Latino.^[4]

Hispanics or Latinos constitute 16.3% of the total United States population, or 50.5 million people,^[1] forming the second largest ethnic group, after non-Hispanic White Americans (a group composed of dozens of sub-groups, as is Hispanic and Latino Americans).^[23] Hispanic and Latino Americans are the largest of all the minority groups, but Black Americans are the largest minority among the races, after White Americans in general (non-Hispanic and Hispanic).^[24] Mexican Americans, Cuban Americans, Colombian Americans, Dominican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Spanish Americans, and Salvadoran Americans are some of the Hispanic and Latino American national origin groups.^[25]

There have been people of Hispanic or Latino heritage in the territory of the present-day United States continuously^[26]^[27]^[28]^[29] since the 1565 founding of St. Augustine, Florida, by the Spanish, the longest among European American ethnic groups and second-longest of all U.S. ethnic groups, after Native Americans. Hispanics have also lived continuously in the Southwest since near the end of the 16th century, with settlements in New Mexico that began in 1598, and which were transferred to the area of El Paso, Texas, in 1680.^[30] Spanish settlement of New Mexico resumed in 1692, and new ones were established in Arizona and California in the 18th century.^[31]^[32] The Hispanic presence can even be said to date from half a century earlier than St. Augustine, if San Juan, Puerto Rico is considered to be the oldest Spanish settlement, and the oldest city, in the U.S.^[33]

Terminology [link]

Part of a series of articles on Hispanic and Latino Americans
National origin groups
Argentine Americans Brazilian Americans Bolivian Americans Chilean Americans Colombian Americans Costa Rican Americans Cuban Americans Dominican Americans Ecuadorian Americans Guatemalan Americans Honduran Americans Mexican Americans Nicaraguan Americans Panamanian Americans Paraguayan Americans Peruvian Americans Puerto Ricans (stateside) Salvadoran Americans Spanish Americans Uruguayan Americans Venezuelan Americans
History
History of Hispanic and Latino Americans History of Mexican-Americans
Colonial Casta System
Caboclo · Castizo · Cholo · Mestizo · Pardo · Zambo
Political movements
Hispanic and Latino American politics Chicano Movement
Organizations
National Hispanic Institute NALEO · RNHA Congressional Hispanic Caucus Congressional Hispanic Conference LULAC · MALDEF · NALFO · SHPE National Council of La Raza Association of Hispanic Arts · MEChA · UFW
Culture
Hispanic culture Literature · Music · Religion · Studies ·
Languages
English · Spanish in the United States Spanish · Spanglish
Ethnic Groups
Afro-Brazilian · Afro-Cuban · Afro-Dominican · Cubans · Dominican · Garifuna · Puerto Rican
Lists
Communities with Hispanic majority Puerto Rico-related topics Notable Hispanics Related topics
Portals
Hispanic and Latino Portal
This box: view talk edit

Main article: Hispanic/Latino naming dispute

The term Hispanic was first adopted by the United States government in the early 1970s, during the administration of Richard Nixon,^[34] and has since been used in local and federal employment, mass media, academia, and business market research. It has been used in the U.S. Census since 1980.^[35] Because of the popularity of "Latino" in the western portion of the United States, the government adopted this term as well in 1997, and used it in the 2000 census.^[4]^[5]

Previously, Hispanic and Latino Americans were categorized as "Spanish-Americans", "Spanish-speaking Americans", and "Spanish-surnamed Americans". However:

Although a large majority of Hispanic and Latino Americans have Spanish ancestry, most are not of direct, 'from-Spain-to-the-U.S.' Spanish descent; many are not primarily of Spanish descent; and some are not of Spanish descent at all. People whose ancestors or who themselves arrived in the United States directly from Spain are a tiny minority of the Hispanic or Latino population (see figures in this article), and there are Hispanic/Latino Americans who are primarily or entirely of European ancestries other than Spanish (e.g. Italian, French, German, Polish, Portuguese), and of Middle Eastern (e.g. Lebanese), African, Amerindian/Native American, and East or South Asian ancestries;
Most Hispanic and Latino Americans can speak Spanish, not all; and most Spanish-speaking Americans are Hispanic or Latino, not all. E.g., Hispanic/Latino Americans often do not speak Spanish by the third generation, and some Americans who are Spanish-speaking may not identify themselves with Spanish-speaking Americans as an ethnic group;
Not all Hispanic and Latino Americans have Spanish surnames, and most Spanish-surnamed Americans are Hispanic or Latino, not all. For example, non-Spanish surnamed Bill Richardson (former governor, Congressman, etc.) and former National Football League (NFL) star Jim Plunkett have Hispanic or Latino origin. Filipino Americans, and Pacific Islander Americans of Chamorro (Guamanians and Northern Mariana Islanders), Palauan, Micronesian (FSM), and Marshallese origin often have Spanish surnames, but have their own, non-Hispanic/Latino ethnic identities (though there may be exceptions). Likewise, while many Louisiana Creole people have Spanish surnames, they identify with the mostly French – though partially Spanish – culture of their region.

Neither term refers to race, as a person of Latino or Hispanic origin can be of any race.^[5]^[36]

The U.S. Government has defined Hispanic or Latino persons as being "persons who trace their origin [to] . . . Central and South America, and other Spanish cultures."^[4]. The Census Bureau's 2010 census form did not provide a definition of the terms Latino or Hispanic, instead allowing respondents to self-define whether they were Latino or Hispanic and then identify their specific country or place of origin. ^[37]. On its website, the Census Bureau defines "Hispanic" or "Latino" persons as being "persons who trace their origin [to]... Spanish-speaking Central and South America countries, and other Spanish cultures";^[4]^[5]^[38]. These definitions thus arguably does not include Brazilian Americans,^[4]^[5]^[39] especially since the Census Bureau classifies Brazilian Americans as a separate ancestry group from Hispanic or Latino.^[40] The 28 Hispanic or Latino American groups in the Census Bureau's reports are the following:^[5]^[25]^[41] Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican Republic; Central American: Costa Rican, Guatemalan, Honduran, Nicaraguan, Panamanian, Salvadoran, Other Central American; South American: Argentinian, Bolivian, Chilean, Colombian, Ecuadorian, Paraguayan, Peruvian, Uruguayan, Venezuelan, Other South American; Other Hispanic or Latino: Spaniard, Spanish, Spanish American, All other Hispanic.

Some authorities of American English maintain a distinction between the terms "Hispanic" and "Latino":

"Though often used interchangeably in American English, Hispanic and Latino are not identical terms, and in certain contexts the choice between them can be significant. Hispanic, from the Latin word for "Spain," . . . potentially encompass[es] all Spanish-speaking peoples in both hemispheres and emphasiz[es] the common denominator of language among communities that sometimes have little else in common. Latino—which in Spanish means "Latin" but which as an English word is probably a shortening of the Spanish word latinoamericano—refers . . . to persons or communities of Latin American origin. Of the two, only Hispanic can be used in referring to Spain and its history and culture; a native of Spain residing in the United States is a Hispanic, not a Latino, and one cannot substitute Latino in the phrase the Hispanic influence on native Mexican cultures without garbling the meaning. In practice, however, this distinction is of little significance when referring to residents of the United States, most of whom are of Latin American origin and can theoretically be called by either word."^[42]

The AP Stylebook also distinguishes between the terms Hispanic and Latino. The Stylebook limits the term "Hispanic" to persons "from - or whose ancestors were from - a Spanish-speaking land or culture."^[14] ^[15] It provides a more expansive definition, however, of the term "Latino." The Stylebook definition of Latino includes not only persons of Spanish-speaking ancestry, but also more generally includes persons "from -- or whose ancestors were from -- . . . Latin America." ^[16] The Stylebook specifically lists "Brazilian" as an example of a group which can be considered Latino.^[16]

Other federal and local government agencies and non-profit organizations also include Brazilians and Portuguese in their definition of Hispanic. The U.S. Department of Transportation defines Hispanic as, "persons of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican, Central or South American, or others Spanish or Portuguese culture or origin, regardless of race."^[43] This definition has been adopted by the Small Business Administration as well as by many federal, state, and municipal agencies for the purposes of awarding government contracts to minority owned businesses. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Conference include representatives of Spanish and Portuguese descent. The Hispanic Society of America is dedicated to the study of the arts and cultures of Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, which proclaims itself the champion of Hispanic success in higher education, has member institutions in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Latin America, Spain, and Portugal.

History [link]

This section requires expansion with:
more about the 19th and 20th centuries.

Main article: History of Hispanic and Latino Americans

File:Hispanic Flag2.png

One of the flags representing Hispanicity.

A continuous Hispanic/Latino presence in the territory of the United States has existed since the 16th century,^[26]^[27]^[28]^[29] earlier than any other group after the Native Americans. Spaniards pioneered the present-day United States. The first confirmed European landing in the continental U.S. was by Juan Ponce de León, who landed in 1513 at a lush shore he christened La Florida. Within three decades of Ponce de León's landing, the Spanish became the first Europeans to reach the Appalachian Mountains, the Mississippi River, the Grand Canyon and the Great Plains. Spanish ships sailed along the East Coast, penetrating to present-day Bangor, Maine, and up the Pacific Coast as far as Oregon. From 1528 to 1536, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and three other castaways from a Spanish expedition (including an African named Estevanico) journeyed all the way from Florida to the Gulf of California, 267 years before the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

In 1540 Hernando de Soto undertook an extensive exploration of the present U.S., and in the same year Francisco Vázquez de Coronado led 2,000 Spaniards and Mexican Indians across today's Arizona–Mexico border and traveled as far as central Kansas, close to the exact geographic center of what is now the continental United States. Other Spanish explorers of the US make up a long list that includes, among others: Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón, Pánfilo de Narváez, Sebastián Vizcaíno, Gaspar de Portolà, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Tristán de Luna y Arellano and Juan de Oñate, but also non-Spanish explorers working for the Spanish Crown like Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo. In all, Spaniards probed half of today's lower 48 states before the first English colonization attempt at Roanoke Island in 1585.

The Spanish created the first permanent European settlement in the continental United States, at St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565. Santa Fe, New Mexico also predates Jamestown, Virginia (founded in 1607) and Plymouth Colony (of Mayflower and Pilgrims fame; founded in 1620). Later came Spanish settlements in San Antonio, Texas, Tucson, Arizona, San Diego, California, Los Angeles, California and San Francisco, California, to name just a few.

Two iconic American stories have Spanish antecedents, too. Almost 80 years before John Smith's alleged rescue by Pocahontas, a man by the name of Juan Ortiz told of his remarkably similar rescue from execution by an Indian girl. Spaniards also held a thanksgiving — 56 years before the famous Pilgrims festival — when they feasted near St. Augustine with Florida Indians, probably on stewed pork and garbanzo beans. As late as 1783, at the end of the American Revolutionary War (a conflict in which Spain aided and fought alongside the United States), Spain held claim to roughly half of today's continental United States; in 1775, Spanish ships even reached Alaska. From 1819 to 1848, the United States (through treaties, purchase, diplomacy, and the Mexican-American War) increased its area by roughly a third at Spanish and Mexican expense, acquiring three of today's four most populous states — California, Texas and Florida — and several smaller ones. Hispanics became the first American citizens in these new territories, and remained a majority in several Southwestern states until the 20th century. (See also Viceroyalty of New Spain.)

The Hispanic and Latino role in the history and present of the United States is addressed in more detail below (See Notables and their contributions). On September 17, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson designated a week in mid-September as National Hispanic Heritage Week, with Congress's authorization. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan extended the observance to a month, designated Hispanic Heritage Month.^[44]

Demographics [link]

**Population by national origin (2010 US Census)**
(self-identified ethnicity, rather than birthplace)^[45]
Hispanic Group	Population	%
Mexican	31,798,258	63.0
Puerto Rican	4,623,716	9.2
Cuban	1,785,547	3.5
Salvadoran	1,648,968	3.3
Dominican	1,414,703	2.8
Guatemalan	1,044,209	2.1
Colombian	908,734	1.8
Honduran	633,401	1.3
Ecuadorian	564,631	1.1
Peruvian	531,358	1.0
Nicaraguan	348,202	0.7
Argentine	224,952	0.4
Venezuelan	215,023	0.4
Panamanian	165,456	0.3
Chilean	126,810	0.3
Costa Rican	126,418	0.3
Bolivian	99,210	0.2
Uruguayan	56,884	0.1
Paraguayan	20,023	-
All other	3,505,838	6.9
Total	50,477,594	100

As of 2010, Hispanics accounted for 16.3% of the national population, or around 50.5 million people. The Hispanic growth rate over the April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2007 period was 28.7% — about four times the rate of the nation's total population (at 7.2%).^[46] The growth rate from July 1, 2005 to July 1, 2006 alone was 3.4%^[47] — about three and a half times the rate of the nation's total population (at 1.0%).^[46] The projected Hispanic population of the United States for July 1, 2050 is 132.8 million people, or 30.2% of the nation's total projected population on that date.^[48]

Of the nation's total Hispanic or Latino population, 49% (21.5 million) lives in California or Texas. Not counting Puerto Rico — which is a Commonwealth of the United States — New Mexico is the state with the highest ratio of Hispanics, 44.7%. Next are California and Texas, with 35.9% and 35.6%, respectively.^[49]

Population change of Hispanic or Latino residents by county (2010 Census data)

Percentage of Hispanic or Latino residents by county (2010 Census data)

The overwhelming majority of Mexican Americans are concentrated in the Southwest and the West Coast/West, primarily in California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. The majority of the Hispanic population in the Southeast, concentrated in Florida, are of Cuban origin. The Hispanic population in the Northeast, concentrated in New York, New Jersey, and Eastern Pennsylvania, is composed mostly of Puerto Ricans; however, the Dominican and Mexican population has risen considerably since the mid-1990s. The remainder of Hispanics and Latinos may be found throughout the country, though South Americans tend to concentrate on the East Coast and Central Americans on the West Coast. Nevertheless, since the 1990s, several cities on the East Coast have seen often impressive increases in their Mexican population, namely Miami and Philadelphia.

The Hispanic population of Los Angeles County, California, numbering 4.7 million, is the largest of any county in the nation,^[50] comprising 47 percent of the county's ten million residents.^[51]

As of 2000, the ten most populous places with Hispanic majorities were East Los Angeles (97% Hispanic), Laredo, Texas (94%), Brownsville, Texas (91%) Hialeah, Florida (90%), McAllen, Texas (80%), El Paso, Texas (77%), Santa Ana, California (76%), El Monte, California (72%) Oxnard, California (66%), and Miami (66%).^[52]

Some 64% of the nation's Hispanic population are of Mexican origin (see table). Another 9% are of Puerto Rican origin, with about 3% each of Cuban, Salvadoran and Dominican origins. The remainder are of other Central American or South American origin, or of origin directly from Spain. About 7% are of unspecified national origins. It should be noted that these figures pertain to ethnic self-identification; the same dataset (abstracted from the 2007 American Community Survey) indicates that 60.2% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans were born in the United States.^[53]

There are few recent immigrants directly from Spain. In the 2000 Census, 299,948 Americans, of whom 83% were native-born,^[54] specifically reported their ancestry as Spaniard.^[55]^[56]

In northern New Mexico and southern Colorado live peoples who trace their ancestry to Spanish settlers of the late 16th century through the 17th century. People from this background often self-identify as "Hispanos", "Spanish", or "Hispanic". Many of these settlers also intermarried with local Amerindians, creating a Mestizo population.^[57] Likewise, southern Louisiana is home to communities of people of Canary Islands descent, known as Isleños, in addition to other people of Spanish ancestry.

Hispanics are almost uniformly Christian, with Catholicism the majority confession and an increasing Protestant community.

Race [link]

**Hispanic and Latino Americans, by race (2010)**^[1]
Race	Population	% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans
White	26,735,713	53.0
Some other race (Mestize, Mulatto, etc.)	18,503,103	36.7
Two or more races	3,042,592	6.0
Black	1,243,471	2.5
American Indian and Alaska Native	685,150	1.4
Asian	209,128	0.4
Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander	58,437	0.1
Total	50,477,594	100.0

**Race of Major Hispanic groups (2010 US Census)**
(self-identified race)^[58]
Hispanic Group	Total	White	Black	Indigenous or Amerindian	Asian	Other
Mexican	31,798,258 - 100%	16,794,111 - 52.8%	296,778 - 0.9%	460,098 - 1.4%	101,654 - 0.3%	14,145,617 - 44.6%
Puerto Rican	4,623,716 - 100%	2,455,534 - 53.1%	403,372 - 8.7%	42,504 - 0.9%	24,312 - 0.5%	1,697,681 - 36.7%
Cuban	1,785,547 - 100%	1,525,521 - 85.4%	82,398 - 4.6%	3,002 - 0.2%	4,391 - 0.2%	170,235 - 9.5%
Salvadoran	1,648,968 - 100%	663,224 - 40.2%	16,150 - 1.0%	17,682 - 1.1%	4,737 - 0.3%	947,175 - 57.5
Dominican	1,414,703 - 100%	419,016 - 29.6%	182,005 - 12.9%	19,183 - 1.4%	4,056 - 0.3%	790,443 - 55.8%
Guatemalan	1,044,209 - 100%	401,763 - 38.5%	11,471 - 1.1%	31,171 - 3.0%	2,386 - 0.2%	597,392 - 57.3%
All other	4,087,656 - 100%	2,018,397 - 49.4%	112,521 - 2.8%	75,976 - 1.9%	50,299 - 1.2%	1,830,463 - 44.9%
Total	50,477,594 - 100%	26,735,713 - 53.0%	1,243,471 - 2.5%	685,150 - 1.4%	209,128 - 0.4%	21,604,132 - 42.8%

As shown above, the largest number of White Hispanics come from within the Mexican community, the highest percentage of White Hispanics among major Hispanic groups come from the Cuban community and the highest percentages of White Hispanics among all Hispanic groups come from within the Argentine and Spaniardcommunities. Also, the largest number of Black Hispanics come from within the Puerto Rican community, the highest percentage of Black Hispanics among major Hispanic groups come from the Dominican community and the highest percentage of Black Hispanics among all Hispanic groups come from the relatively small Panamanian community. The largest number of Asian Hispanics come from within the Mexican community, while the highest percentage of Asian Hispanics among major Hispanic groups come from within the Puerto Rican community and the highest percentage of Asian Hispanics among all Hispanic groups come from the Peruvian community. The largest population of Native American Hispanic come from within the Mexican community and the highest percentage of Native American Hispanics among major Hispanic groups come from within the Guatemalan community. Most of the Multiracial population in the Mexican, Salvadoran, and Guatemalan communities are of Mestizo descent(European and Native American), while most of the multiracial population in the Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Dominican communities are of Mulatto descent(European and African). Although, about half of the U.S. Hispanic population self-identifies as "white", Hispanics are mostly of Multi-racial origin, and are largely viewed as such in the United States.

Hispanic or Latino origin is independent of race and is termed "ethnicity" by the United States Census Bureau. The racial categories are: American Indian and Alaska Native, White, Black or African American, Asian, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, Some other race, and Two or more races. The distinction made by government agencies for those within the population of each race category is between those of Hispanic or Latino origin, and all others of Non-Hispanic or Latino origin.^[5]

The majority of Hispanic and Latino Americans are white, in both sets of government estimates: 54% are white per the American Community Survey,^[9] while the ratio rises to 92% in the Population Estimates Program, which are the official estimates.^[8] The much larger official figure is due to the absence of the Some other race category from these estimates, which instead reallocate that category among the five standard, minimum, single-race categories, mostly the white category.^[59] The complete 2007 Hispanic or Latino racial breakdown is as follows:^[8]^[9] White 92% (official) or 54% (ACS); Black or African American 3.8% (official) or 1.5% (ACS); American Indian and Alaska Native 1.4% (official) or 0.8% (ACS); Asian 0.6% (official) or 0.3% (ACS); Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 0.3% (official) or 0.07% (ACS); Some other race 40% (ACS only; not an official race); Two or more races 0.6% (official) or 3.8% (ACS).

Though comprising very small percentages of the Hispanic and Latino American population, and even smaller percentages of the total U.S. population, some of the preceding racial subgroups make up large minorities among the respective racial groups, overall. For instance, Hispanics and Latinos who are American Indian or Alaska Native compose 15% of all American Indians and Alaska Natives (per the ACS estimates). Meanwhile, the 120,000 Hispanics and Latinos who are of Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander race compose 22% of this entire race nationally (per the Population Estimates). Again, nearly a third of the overall 'Two or more race' population is Hispanic or Latino (ACS).^[8]^[9]

Population by state or territory [link]

**Hispanic and Latino Population by state or territory (2000–2010)**^[60]^[61]
State/Territory	Pop 2000	% pop 2000	Pop 2010	% pop 2010	% growth 2000-2010
Alabama	75,830	1.7%	185,602	3.9%	+144.8%
Alaska	25,852	4.1%	39,250	5.5%	+51.8%
Arizona	1,295,617	25.3%	1,895,149	29.6%	+46.3%
Arkansas	86,866	3.2%	186,050	6.4%	+114.2%
California	10,966,556	32.4%	14,013,719	37.6%	+27.8%
Colorado	735,801	17.1%	1,038,687	20.7%	+41.2%
Connecticut	320,323	9.4%	479,087	13.4%	+49.6%
Delaware	37,277	4.8%	73,221	8.2%	+96.4%
District of Columbia	44,953	7.9%	54,749	9.1%	+21.8%
Florida	2,682,715	16.8%	4,223,806	22.5%	+57.4%
Georgia	435,227	5.3%	853,689	8.8%	+96.1%
Hawaii	87,699	7.2%	120,842	8.9%	+37.8%
Idaho	101,690	7.9%	175,901	11.2%	+73.0%
Illinois	1,530,262	12.3%	2,027,578	15.8%	+32.5%
Indiana	214,536	3.5%	389,707	6.0%	+81.7%
Iowa	82,473	2.8%	151,544	5.0%	+83.7%
Kansas	188,252	7.0%	300,042	10.5%	+59.4%
Kentucky	59,939	1.5%	132,836	3.1%	+121.6%
Louisiana	107,738	2.4%	192,560	4.2%	+78.7%
Maine	9,360	0.7%	16,935	1.3%	+80.9%
Maryland	227,916	4.3%	470,632	8.2%	+106.5%
Massachusetts	428,729	6.8%	627,654	9.6%	+46.4%
Michigan	323,877	3.3%	436,358	4.4%	+34.7%
Minnesota	143,382	2.9%	250,258	4.7%	+74.5%
Mississippi	39,569	1.4%	81,481	2.7%	+105.9%
Missouri	118,592	2.1%	212,470	3.5%	+79.2%
Montana	18,081	2.0%	28,565	2.9%	+58.0%
Nebraska	94,425	5.5%	167,405	9.2%	+77.3%
New Hampshire	20,489	1.7%	36,704	2.8%	+79.1%
New Jersey	1,117,191	13.3%	1,555,144	17.7%	+39.2%
New Mexico	765,386	42.1%	953,403	46.3%	+24.6%
New York	2,867,583	15.1%	3,416,922	17.6%	+19.2%
Nevada	393,970	19.7%	716,501	26.5%	+81.9%
North Carolina	378,963	4.7%	800,120	8.4%	+111.1%
North Dakota	7,786	1.2%	13,467	2.0%	+73.0%
Ohio	217,123	1.9%	354,674	3.1%	+63.4%
Oklahoma	179,304	5.2%	332,007	8.9%	+85.2%
Oregon	275,314	8.0%	450,062	11.7%	+63.5%
Pennsylvania	394,088	3.2%	719,660	5.7%	+82.6%
Rhode Island	90,820	8.7%	130,655	12.4%	+43.9%
South Carolina	95,076	2.4%	235,682	5.1%	+147.9%
South Dakota	10,903	1.4%	22,119	2.7%	+102.9%
Tennessee	123,838	2.2%	290,059	4.6%	+134.2%
Texas	6,669,666	32.0%	9,460,921	37.6%	+41.8%
Utah	201,559	9.0%	358,340	13.0%	+77.8%
Vermont	5,504	0.9%	9,208	1.5%	+67.3%
Virginia	329,540	4.7%	631,825	7.9%	+91.7%
Washington	441,509	7.5%	755,790	11.2%	+71.2%
West Virginia	12,279	0.7%	22,268	1.2%	+81.4%
Wisconsin	192,921	3.6%	336,056	5.9%	+74.2%
Wyoming	31,669	6.4%	50,231	8.9%	+58.6%
American Samoa
Guam
Northern Mariana Islands
Puerto Rico	3,762,746	98.8%	3,688,455	99.0%	-2.0%
U.S. Virgin Islands	15,196	14.0%
United States of America	35,305,818	12.5%	50,477,594	16.3%	+43.0%

Notables and their contributions [link]

Hispanic and Latino Americans have made distinguished contributions to the United States in all major fields, such as politics, the military, music, literature, philosophy, sports, business and economy, and science.

Business [link]

Government and politics [link]

Main article: List of Hispanic Americans in the United States Congress

Governor and former Congressman, Cabinet member, Ambassador, and U.S. Presidential candidate Bill Richardson

As of 2007 there were more than five thousand elected officeholders in the United States who were of Latino origin.^[68]

In the House of Representatives, Hispanic and Latino representatives have included Ladislas Lazaro, Antonio M. Fernández, Henry B. Gonzalez, Kika de la Garza, Herman Badillo, Romualdo Pacheco, and Manuel Lujan, Jr., out of almost two dozen former Representatives. Current Representatives include Luis Gutiérrez, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Nydia Velázquez, Joe Baca, Loretta Sanchez, Silvestre Reyes, Rubén Hinojosa, Linda Sánchez, and John Salazar – in all, they number twenty-three. Former senators are Octaviano Ambrosio Larrazolo, Mel Martinez, Dennis Chavez, Joseph Montoya, and Ken Salazar. As of January 2011, the U.S. Senate includes Hispanic members Bob Menendez, a Democrat, and Marco Rubio, a Republican.^[69]

Numerous Hispanics and Latinos hold elective and appointed office in state and local government throughout the United States.^[70] Current Hispanic Governors include Republican Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval and Republican New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez; upon taking office in 2011, Martinez became the first Latina governor in the history of the United States.^[71] Former Hispanic governors include Democrats Jerry Apodaca, Raul Hector Castro, and Bill Richardson, as well as Republicans Octaviano Ambrosio Larrazolo, Romualdo Pacheco, and Bob Martinez.

Since 1988,^[72] when Ronald Reagan appointed Lauro Cavazos the Secretary of Education, the first Hispanic United States Cabinet member, Hispanic Americans have had an increasing presence in presidential administrations. Hispanics serving in subsequent cabinets include Ken Salazar, current Secretary of the Interior; Hilda Solis, current United States Secretary of Labor; Alberto Gonzales, former United States Attorney General; Carlos Gutierrez, Secretary of Commerce; Federico Peña, former Secretary of Energy; Henry Cisneros, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; Manuel Lujan, Jr., former Secretary of the Interior; and Bill Richardson, former Secretary of Energy and Ambassador to the United Nations. Six of the last ten US Treasurers, including the latest three, are Hispanic women.

In 2009, Sonia Sotomayor became the first Supreme Court Associate Justice of Hispanic or Latino origin.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), founded in December 1976, and the Congressional Hispanic Conference (CHC), founded on March 19, 2003, are two organizations that promote policy of importance to Americans of Hispanic descent. They are divided into the two major American political parties: The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is composed entirely of Democratic representatives, whereas the Congressional Hispanic Conference is composed entirely of Republican representatives.

Literature and journalism [link]

Among the distinguished Hispanic and Latino authors and their works may be noted:

George Santayana

Isabel Allende (The House of the Spirits and City of the Beasts)
Sandra Cisneros (The House on Mango Street and Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories)
Jorge Majfud Crisis
Rudolfo Anaya (Bless Me, Ultima and Heart of Aztlan)
Giannina Braschi (Empire of Dreams and Yo-Yo Boing!)
Junot Díaz (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao)
Jovita González de Mireles (Caballero, cowritten with Eve Raleigh, and Dew On The Thorn)
Oscar Hijuelos (The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love)
Micol Ostow ("Mind Your Manners, Dick and Jane", "Emily Goldberg Learns to Salsa")^[73]
Tomas Rivera (...And the Earth did Not Devour Him)
Richard Rodriguez (Hunger of Memory)
Rubén Salazar (journalist)
George Santayana (novelist and philosopher: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it")
Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez (Haters)
Victor Villaseñor (Rain of Gold)
Oscar Zeta Acosta (The Revolt of the Cockroach People)

Military and intelligence [link]

Admiral David G Farragut, first Hispanic Admiral

Captain Marion Frederic Ramírez de Arellano the first Hispanic submarine commander.

File:EstevesWP.jpg

Major General Luis R. Esteves, the first Hispanic to graduate from the United States Military Academy ("West Point").

Richard E. Cavazos, the Army's first Hispanic four-star general

Antonia Novello is the first woman and first Hispanic to serve as Surgeon General.

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez at a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq

Rear Admiral Ronald J. Rábago, the first Hispanic to be promoted to Rear Admiral (lower half) in the United States Coast Guard

Hispanics and Latinos have participated in the military of the United States and in every major military conflict from the American Revolution onward.^[74] Tens of thousands of Latinos are deployed in the Iraq War, the Afghanistan War, and U.S. military missions and bases elsewhere. Hispanics and Latinos have not only distinguished themselves in the battlefields, but have also reached the high echelons of the military, serving their country in sensitive leadership positions on domestic and foreign posts. As of date, 43 Hispanics and Latinos have been awarded the nation's highest military distinction, the Medal of Honor (also known as the Congressional Medal of Honor). The following is a list of some notable Hispanics/Latinos in the military:

American Revolution

Lieutenant Jorge Farragut Mesquida (1755–1817)-Participated in the American Revolution as a lieutenant in the South Carolina Navy.

American Civil War

Main article: Hispanics in the American Civil War

Admiral David Farragut- Farragut was promoted to vice admiral on December 21, 1864, and to full admiral on July 25, 1866, after the war, thereby becoming the first person to be named full admiral in the Navy's history.^[75]
Colonel Ambrosio José Gonzales - Gonzales was active during the bombardment of Fort Sumter and because of his actions was appointed Colonel of artillery and assigned to duty as Chief of Artillery in the department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

Brigadier General Diego Archuleta (1814–1884) - was a member of the Mexican Army who fought against the United States in the Mexican American War. During the American Civil War he joined the Union Army (US Army) and became the first Hispanic to reach the military rank of Brigadier General. He commanded The First New Mexico Volunteer Infantry in the Battle of Valverde.He was later appointed an Indian (Native Americans) Agent by Abraham Lincoln.^[76]

Colonel Carlos de la Mesa - Grandfather of Major General Terry de la Mesa Allen, Sr. commanding general of the First Infantry Division in North Africa and Sicily, and later the commander of the 104th Infantry Division during World War II. Colonel Carlos de la Mesa was a Spanish national who fought at Gettysburg for the Union Army in the Spanish Company of the "Garibaldi Guard" of the 39th New York State Volunteers.^[77]
Colonel Federico Fernández Cavada - Commanded the 114th Pennsylvania Volunteer infantry regiment when it took the field in the Peach Orchard at Gettysburg.^[78]
Colonel Miguel E. Pino - Commanded the 2nd Regiment of New Mexico Volunteers, which fought at the Battle of Valverde in February and the Battle of Glorieta Pass and helped defeat the attempted invasion of New Mexico by the Confederate Army.^[79]
Colonel Santos Benavides - Commanded his own regiment, the "Benavides Regiment." He was the highest ranking Mexican-American in the Confederate Army.^[78]
Major Salvador Vallejo- Officer in one of the California units which served with the Union Army in the West.^[79]
Captain Adolfo Fernández Cavada - Cavada served in the 114th Pennsylvania Volunteers at Gettysburg with his brother, Colonel Federico Fernandez Cavada. He served with distinction in the Army of the Potomac from Fredericksburg to Gettysburg and was a "special aide-de-camp" to General Andrew A. Humphreys.^[78]^[80]
Captain Roman Anthony Baca - Member of the Union forces in the New Mexico Volunteers. He also served as a spy for the Union Army in Texas.^[79]
Lieutenant Augusto Rodriguez - A Puerto Rican native who served as an officer in the 15th Connecticut Regiment, Connecticut Volunteer Infantry, of the Union Army. Rodríguez served in the defenses of Washington, D.C. and led his men in the Battles of Fredericksburg and Wyse Fork.^[81]
Lola Sánchez - Sánchez was a Cuban born woman who became a Confederate spy who helped the Confederates obtain a victory against the Union Forces in the "Battle of Horse Landing".
Loreta Janeta Velazquez a.k.a. "Lieutenant Harry Buford"- She was a Cuban woman who donned Confederate garb and served as a Confederate officer and spy during the American Civil War.

World War I

Major General Luis R. Esteves, U.S. Army- In 1915, Esteves became the first Hispanic to graduate from the United States Military Academy ("West Point"). Esteves also organized the Puerto Rican National Guard.
First Lieutenant Félix Rigau Carrera, known as "El Aguila de Sabana Grande" (The Eagle from Sabana Grande)-Was the first Hispanic fighter pilot in the United States Marine Corps.^[82]
Private Marcelino Serna- Was an undocumented Mexican immigrant who joined the United States Army and became the most decorated soldier from Texas in World War I. Serna was the first Hispanic to be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

World War II

Lieutenant General Pedro del Valle- the first Hispanic to reach the rank of Lieutenant General. He played an instrumental role in the seizure of Guadalcanal and Okinawa as Commanding General of the U.S. 1st Marine Division during World War II.
Lieutenant General Elwood R. Quesada (1904–1993) - Commanding general of the 9th Fighter Command, where he established advanced headquarters on the Normandy beachhead on D-Day plus one, and directed his planes in aerial cover and air support for the Allied invasion of the European continent during World War II. He was the foremost proponent of "the inherent flexibility of air power", a principle he helped prove during the war.
Major General Terry de la Mesa Allen, Sr. (1888–1969) - was the commanding general of the 1st Infantry Division in North Africa and Sicily during World War II, and was made commander of the 104th Infantry Division.
Colonel Virgil R. Miller - was the Regimental Commander of the 442d Regimental Combat Team, a unit which was composed of "Nisei" (second generation Americans of Japanese descent), during World War II. He led the 442nd in its rescue of the Lost Texas Battalion of the 36th Infantry Division, in the forests of the Vosges Mountains in northeastern France.^[83]^[84]
Captain Marion Frederic Ramírez de Arellano (1913–1980) - served in World War II and was the first Hispanic submarine commander.
First Lieutenant Oscar Francis Perdomo, of the 464th Fighter Squadron, 507th Fighter Group was the last "Ace in a Day" for the United States in World War II.
CWO2 Joseph B. Aviles, Sr.- a member of the United States Coast Guard and the first Hispanic-American to be promoted to Chief Petty Officer, received a war-time promotion to Chief Warrant Officer (November 27, 1944), thus becoming the first Hispanic American to reach that level as well.^[85]
Sergeant First Class Agustín Ramos Calero- was the most decorated soldier in the European Theatre of World War II.
PFC Guy Gabaldon, USMC - captured over a thousand prisoners during the World War II Battle of Saipan.
Tech4 Carmen Contreras-Bozak - the first Hispanic to serve in the U.S. Women's Army Corps where she served as an interpreter and in numerous administrative positions.^[86]

Korean War

Major General Salvador E. Felices, U.S. Air Force - In 1953, Felices flew in 19 combat missions over North Korea, during the Korean War. In 1957, he participated in "Operation Power Flite", a historic project that was given to the Fifteenth Air Force by the Strategic Air Command headquarters. Operation Power Flite was the first around the world non-stop flight by an all-jet aircraft.
First Lieutenant Baldomero Lopez- is the only Hispanic graduate of the United States Naval Academy ("Annapolis") to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
Sergeant First Class Modesto Cartagena- was a member of the 65th Infantry Regiment, an all-Puerto Rican regiment also known as "The Borinqueneers", during World War II and the Korean War. He was the most decorated Puerto Rican soldier in history.^[87]

Cuban Missile Crisis

Admiral Horacio Rivero, Jr.- second Hispanic four-star Admiral, was the commander of the American fleet sent by President John F. Kennedy to set up a quarantine (blockade) of the Soviet ships during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Vietnam War

Sergeant First Class Jorge Otero Barreto a.k.a. "The Puerto Rican Rambo"- was the most decorated soldier in the Vietnam War^[88]

Post-Vietnam

Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez- top commander of the Coalition forces during the first year of the occupation of Iraq, 2003–2004, during the Iraq War
Lieutenant General Edward D. Baca- In 1994, Baca became the first Hispanic Chief of the National Guard Bureau.
Vice Admiral Antonia Novello, M.D., Public Health Service Commissioned Corps- In 1990, Novello became the first Hispanic (and first female) U.S. Surgeon General.
Vice Admiral Richard Carmona, M.D., Public Health Service Commissioned Corps- Carmona served as the 17th Surgeon General of the United States, under President George W. Bush.
Brigadier General Joseph V. Medina, USMC -made history by becoming the first Marine Corps officer to take command of a Naval flotilla.
Rear Admiral Ronald J. Rábago is the first person of Hispanic American descent to be promoted to Rear Admiral (lower half) in the United States Coast Guard.^[89]
Captain Linda Garcia Cubero, United States Air Force- in 1990 became the first Hispanic woman graduate of the United States Air Force, and of any military academy.
Major General Erneido Oliva. He was appointed to the position of Deputy Commanding General of the D.C. National Guard.
Brigadier General Carmelita Vigil-Schimmenti, United States Air Force- in 1985 became the first Hispanic female to attain the rank of Brigadier General in the Air Force.^[90]^[91]
On August 2, 2006, Brigadier General Angela Salinas, made history when she became the first Hispanic female to obtain a general rank in the Marines.^[92]
Chief Master Sergeant Ramón Colón-López is pararescueman who in 2007, was the only Hispanic among the first six airmen to be awarded the newly created Air Force Combat Action Medal.

Medal of Honor [link]

Main article: List of Hispanic Medal of Honor recipients

The following 43 Hispanics were awarded the Medal of Honor:

Philip Bazaar, Joseph H. De Castro, John Ortega, France Silva, David B. Barkley, Lucian Adams, Rudolph B. Davila, Marcario Garcia, Harold Gonsalves, David M. Gonzales, Silvestre S. Herrera, Jose M. Lopez, Joe P. Martinez, Manuel Perez Jr., Cleto L. Rodriguez, Alejandro R. Ruiz, Jose F. Valdez, Ysmael R. Villegas, Fernando Luis García, Edward Gomez, Ambrosio Guillen, Rodolfo P. Hernandez, Baldomero Lopez, Benito Martinez, Eugene Arnold Obregon, Joseph C. Rodriguez, John P. Baca, Roy P. Benavidez, Emilio A. De La Garza, Ralph E. Dias, Daniel Fernandez, Alfredo Cantu "Freddy" Gonzalez, Jose Francisco Jimenez, Miguel Keith, Carlos James Lozada, Alfred V. Rascon, Louis R. Rocco, Euripides Rubio, Hector Santiago-Colon, Elmelindo Rodrigues Smith, Jay R. Vargas, Humbert Roque Versace, and Maximo Yabes.

National intelligence [link]

In the spy arena, Jose Rodriguez, a native of Puerto Rico, was the Deputy Director of Operations and subsequently Director of the National Clandestine Service (D/NCS), two senior positions in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), between 2004 and 2007.^[93]

Lieutenant Colonel Mercedes O. Cubria (1903–1980), a.k.a. La Tia (The Aunt), was the first Cuban-born female officer in the U.S. Army. She served in the Women's Army Corps during World War II, in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, and was recalled into service during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In 1988, she was posthumously inducted into the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.^[94]

Performing arts [link]

In 1995, the American Latino Media Arts Award, or ALMA Award was created. It's a distinction given to Latino performers (actors, film and television directors, and musicians) by the National Council of La Raza.

Music [link]

Main article: Latin music in the United States

Christina Aguilera

There are many Hispanic American musicians that have achieved international fame, such as Jennifer Lopez, Joan Baez, Linda Ronstadt, Zack de la Rocha, Fergie, Gloria Estefan, Kat DeLuna, Selena, Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony, Carlos Santana, Christina Aguilera, Enrique Iglesias, Los Lonely Boys, Frankie J, Jerry Garcia, Robert Trujillo, and Tom Araya.

Among the Hispanic American musicians who were pioneers in the early stages of rock and roll were Ritchie Valens, who scored several hits, most notably "La Bamba" and Herman Santiago wrote the lyrics to the iconic rock and roll song "Why Do Fools Fall in Love". Another song which became popular in the United States and which is heard during the Holiday/Christmas season is "Feliz Navidad" by José Feliciano.

The most prestigious Latin music awards are the Latin Grammy Awards, launched in 2000. Billboard Magazine also honors these artists, with the Billboard Latin Music Awards. The latter's nominees and winners are a result of performance on Billboard's sales and radio charts, while the Latin Grammy Awards nominees and winners are selected by the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (LARAS).

Film, radio, stage, and television [link]

Myrtle Gonzalez is considered the first female Latin star in Hollywood.^[95]

Anita Page, who is of Salvadoran ancestry, was referred to as "the girl with the most beautiful face in Hollywood" in the 1920s.

Hispanics and Latinos have also contributed some prominent actors and others in the film industry, a few of whom includes actors José Ferrer, the first Hispanic actor to win an Academy Award for his role in Cyrano de Bergerac, Anthony Quinn, Cameron Diaz, Martin Sheen, Cheech Marin, Salma Hayek, Dolores del Río, Anita Page, Rita Hayworth, Antonio Banderas, Raquel Welch, Benicio del Toro, Eva Mendes, Zoe Saldana, Edward James Olmos, Maria Montez, Ramón Novarro, Ricardo Montalbán, Cesar Romero, Rosie Perez, Katy Jurado, Rita Moreno, Lupe Vélez, Esai Morales, Andy García, Rosario Dawson, John Leguizamo, and, behind the camera, directors Robert Rodriguez, Guillermo del Toro and Brett Ratner (also producers and cinematographers) and Luis Valdez.

Charlie Sheen was the highest-paid actor on television as of 2010, earning nearly $2 million per episode. He won an ALMA Award in 2008.^[96]^[97]

In 2010, Forbes Magazine ranked Cameron Diaz as the richest Hispanic female celebrity, ranking number 60 among the top 100.^[98]^[99]

In standup comedy, Paul Rodriguez, Greg Giraldo, Cheech Marin, George Lopez, Freddie Prinze, Carlos Mencia, John Mendoza, and others are prominent.

Some of the Hispanic or Latino actors who achieved notable success in U.S. television include Desi Arnaz, Lynda Carter, Jimmy Smits, Selena Gomez, Carlos Pena, Jr., Eva Longoria, George Lopez, Benjamin Bratt, Ricardo Montalbán, America Ferrera, Erik Estrada, Cote de Pablo, Freddie Prinze, Lauren Vélez, and Charlie Sheen. Kenny Ortega is an Emmy Award-winning producer, director, and choreographer who has choreographed many major television events such as Super Bowl XXX, the 72nd Academy Awards, and Michael Jacksons memorial service.

Hispanics and Latinos are underrepresented in U.S. television, radio, and film. This is combatted by organizations such as the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC), founded in 1986.^[100] Together with numerous Latino civil rights organizations, the NHMC led a "brownout" of the national television networks in 1999, after discovering that there were no Latinos in any of their new prime time shows that year.^[101] This resulted in the signing of historic diversity agreements with ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC that have since increased the hiring of Hispanic and Latino talent and other staff in all of the networks.

Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) funds programs of educational and cultural significance to Hispanic Americans. These programs are distributed to various public television stations throughout the United States.

Fashion [link]

Christy Turlington is best known for representing Calvin Klein from 1987 to 2007. She was born to a Salvadoran mother.

In the world of fashion, notable Hispanic and Latino designers include Oscar de la Renta, Carolina Herrera, and Narciso Rodriguez among others. Christy Turlington and Lea T achieved international fame as models.

Science and technology [link]

File:LWA with Walt.JPG

Luis and Walter Alvarez (L-R) at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary in Gubbio, Italy 1981 (Photo: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

Among Hispanic Americans who have excelled in science are Luis Walter Alvarez, Nobel Prize-winning physicist, and his son Walter Alvarez, a geologist. They first proposed that an asteroid impact on the Yucatán Peninsula caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. Dr. Victor Manuel Blanco is an astronomer who in 1959 discovered "Blanco 1", a galactic cluster.^[102] F. J. Duarte is a laser physicist and author; he received the Engineering Excellence Award from the prestigious Optical Society of America for the invention of the N-slit laser interferometer.^[103] Francisco J. Ayala is a biologist and philosopher, former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has been awarded the National Medal of Science and the Templeton Prize.

Laser physicist F. J. Duarte

Dr. Fernando E. Rodríguez Vargas discovered the bacteria which cause dental cavity. Dr. Gualberto Ruaño is a biotechnology pioneer in the field of personalized medicine and the inventor of molecular diagnostic systems, Coupled Amplification and Sequencing (CAS) System, used worldwide for the management of viral diseases.^[104] Fermín Tangüis was an agriculturist and scientist who developed the Tangüis Cotton in Peru and saved that nation's cotton industry.^[105] Severo Ochoa, born in Spain, was a co-winner of the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Some Hispanics and Latinos have made their names in astronautics, including several NASA astronauts:^[106] Franklin Chang-Diaz, the first Latin American NASA astronaut, is co-recordholder for the most flights in outer space, and is the leading researcher on the plasma engine for rockets; France A. Córdova, former NASA chief scientist; Juan R. Cruz, NASA aerospace engineer; Lieutenant Carlos I. Noriega, NASA mission specialist and computer scientist; Dr. Orlando Figueroa, mechanical engineer and Director of Mars Exploration in NASA; Amri Hernandez-Pellerano, engineer who designs, builds and tests the electronics that will regulate the solar array power in order to charge the spacecraft battery and distribute power to the different loads or users inside various spacecraft at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center; Mercedes Reaves, research engineer and scientist who is responsible for the design of a viable full-scale solar sail and the development and testing of a scale model solar sail at NASA Langley Research Center. Dr. Pedro Rodríguez, inventor and mechanical engineer who is the director of a test laboratory at NASA and of a portable, battery-operated lift seat for people suffering from knee arthritis. Dr. Felix Soto Toro, electrical engineer and astronaut applicant who developed the Advanced Payload Transfer Measurement System (ASPTMS) (Electronic 3D measuring system); Ellen Ochoa, a pioneer of spacecraft technology and astronaut; Joseph Acaba, Fernando Caldeiro, Sidney Gutierrez, Jose Hernández, Michael Lopez-Alegria, John Olivas, and George Zamka, who are current or former astronauts.

Sports [link]

Manny Ramirez is a professional baseball player.

The large number of Hispanic and Latino American stars in Major League Baseball (MLB) includes players like Ted Williams(considered by many to be the greatest hitter of all time), Manny Ramirez, Lefty Gomez, Ivan Rodriguez, Alex Rodriguez, Roberto Clemente, José Canseco, David Ortiz, Fernando Valenzuela, Nomar Garciaparra, Albert Pujols, Omar Vizquel, managers Al Lopez, Ozzie Guillén, and Felipe Alou, and General Manager Omar Minaya.

There have been far fewer football and basketball players, let alone star players, but Tom Flores was the first Hispanic head coach and the first Hispanic quarterback in American professional football, and won Super Bowls as a player, as assistant coach and as head coach for the Oakland Raiders. Anthony Muñoz is enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, ranked #17 on Sporting News's 1999 list of the 100 greatest football players, and was the highest-ranked offensive lineman. Jim Plunkett won the Heisman Trophy and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, and Joe Kapp is inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and College Football Hall of Fame. Steve Van Buren, Martin Gramatica, Tony Gonzalez, Marc Bulger, Tony Romo and Mark Sanchez can also be cited among successful Hispanics and Latinos in the National Football League (NFL).

Trevor Ariza, Mark Aguirre, Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Arroyo, Gilbert Arenas, Rolando Blackman, Pau Gasol, Jose Calderon, José Juan Barea and Charlie Villanueva can be cited in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Dick Versace made history when he became the first person of Hispanic heritage to coach an NBA team. Rebecca Lobo was a major star and champion of collegiate (National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)) and Olympic basketball and played professionally in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Diana Taurasi became just the seventh player ever to win an NCAA title, a WNBA title, and as well an Olympic gold medal. Orlando Antigua became in 1995 the first Hispanic and the first non-black in 52 years to play for the Harlem Globetrotters.

Oscar De La Hoya has generated more money than any other boxer in the history of boxing.

Boxing's first Hispanic world champion was Panama Al Brown. Some other champions include Oscar De La Hoya, Miguel Cotto, Bobby Chacon, Joel Casamayor, Michael Carbajal, John Ruiz, and Carlos Ortiz.

In the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) promotion of mixed martial arts (MMA) we find Ricco Rodriguez, Tito Ortiz, Diego Sanchez, Nathan Diaz, and Cain Velasquez.

In 1999 Scott Gomez became the first Hispanic player in the National Hockey League (NHL) and won the NHL Rookie of the Year Award.^[107]

Tennis legend Pancho Gonzales and Olympic tennis champions and professional players Mary Joe Fernandez and Gigi Fernández; soccer players in the Major League Soccer (MLS) Tab Ramos, Claudio Reyna, Marcelo Balboa and Carlos Bocanegra; figure skater Rudy Galindo; golfers Chi Chi Rodríguez, Nancy Lopez, and Lee Trevino; softball player Lisa Fernandez; and Paul Rodriguez Jr., X Games professional skateboarder, are all Hispanic or Latino Americans who have distinguished themselves in their sports.

In sports entertainment we find the professional wrestlers Alberto Del Rio, Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, Tyler Black and Melina, and executive Vickie Guerrero.

Socioeconomic circumstances [link]

Education [link]

The high school graduation rate is highest among Cuban Americans (68.7 percent) and lowest among Mexican Americans (48.7 percent). The Puerto Rican rate is 63.2 percent, Central and South American Americans' is 60.4 percent, and the Dominican American is 51.7 percent.

According to the 2000 census, Cuban Americans and Central and South Americans had the highest college graduation rates, with 19.4 percent of Cuban Americans and 16 percent of Central and South Americans 25 years and older possessing a 4-year college degree. On the other hand, only 6.2 percent of Mexican Americans, 9.9 of Puerto Ricans and 10.9 of Dominican Americans had achieved a 4-year degree. Over 21% of all second-generation Dominican Americans have college degrees, slightly below the national average (24%) but significantly higher than U.S.-born Mexican Americans (13%) and U.S.-born Puerto Rican Americans (12%).^[108] In comparison non-Hispanic Asian Americans (43.3 percent) and non-Hispanic White Americans (26.1 percent) had higher rates than any Hispanic American group. Non-Hispanic Black Americans (14.4 percent) had a lower graduation rate than Cuban Americans and Central and South Americans, but had a higher rate than Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Dominican Americans.^{[citation needed]}

Cuban Americans have the highest attainment of graduate degrees among all Hispanic or Latino groups, with 6.7 percent. The Central and South American ratio is 4.2 percent. Both are lower than those of non-Hispanic Asian Americans (15.6 percent) and non-Hispanic White Americans (8.7 percent). Of Hispanics and Latinos 25 years and older, only 3.1 percent of Puerto Ricans, 1.8 percent of Dominican Americans and 1.4 percent of Mexican Americans have attained a graduate-level degree.^{[citation needed]} Non-Hispanic Black Americans (4.1 percent) had a lower graduate-level degree attainment rate than Cuban Americans and Central and South Americans, but had a higher rate than Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Dominican Americans.

Health [link]

Hispanic and Latino Americans are the longest-living Americans, according to official data. Their life expectancy is more than two years longer than for non-Hispanic whites and almost eight years longer than for African Americans.^[109]

Workforce and average income [link]

Personal and household income (US Census 2005)

File:Race 6 figure household and.png

Percent of households with six-figure incomes and individuals with incomes in the top 10%, exceeding $77,500.

In 2002, the average individual income among Hispanic and Latino Americans was highest for Cuban Americans ($38,733), and lowest for Dominican Americans ($28,467) and Mexican Americans ($27,877). For Puerto Ricans it was $33,927, and $30,444 for Central and South Americans. In comparison, the income of the average Hispanic American is lower than the national average.

Among Hispanics, Cuban Americans (28.5 percent) had the highest percentage in professional–managerial occupations. The percentage for Puerto Ricans was 20.7, Central and South Americans' was 16.8 percent, and Mexican Americans' was 13.2 percent. All these are lower than the average for non-Hispanics (36.2 percent).^{[citation needed]}

Poverty [link]

According to the ACS,^[110] among Hispanic groups the poverty rate is highest among Dominican Americans (28.1 percent), Honduran Americans and Puerto Ricans (23.7 percent both), and Mexican Americans (23.6 percent). It is lowest among South Americans, such as Colombian Americans (10.6 percent) and Peruvian Americans (13.6 percent), and relatively low poverty rates are also found among Salvadoran Americans (15.0 percent) and Cuban Americans (15.2 percent). In comparison, the average poverty rates for non-Hispanic White Americans (8.8 percent)^[110] and Asian Americans (7.1 percent) were lower than those of any Hispanic group. African Americans (21.3 percent) had a higher poverty rate than Cuban Americans and Central and South Americans, but had a lower povery rate than Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Dominican Americans.

Hispanophobia [link]

Main articles: Hispanophobia and Anti-Mexican sentiment

Hispanophobia has existed in various degrees throughout U.S. history, based largely on ethnicity, race, culture, Anti-Catholicism, and use of the Spanish language.^[111]^[112]^[113]^[114] In 2006, Time Magazine reported that the number of hate groups in the United States increased by 33 percent since 2000, primarily due to anti-illegal immigrant and anti-Mexican sentiment.^[115] According to Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics, the number of anti-Latino hate crimes increased by 35 percent since 2003 (albeit from a low level). In California, the state with the largest Latino population, the number of hate crimes against Latinos almost doubled^[116]

For the year 2009, the FBI reported that 483 of the 6,604 hate crimes committed in the United States were anti-Hispanic comprising 7.3% of all hate crimes. This compares to 34.6% of hate crimes being anti-Black, 17.9% being anti-Homosexual, 14.1% being anti-Jewish, and 8.3% being anti-White.^[117]

Political trends [link]

Main article: Hispanic and Latino American politics

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, circa 1984

Hispanics and Latinos differ on their political views depending on their location and background, but the majority (57%)^[118] either identify themselves as or support the Democrats, and 23% identify themselves as Republicans.^[118] This 34 point gap as of December, 2007 was an increase from the gap of 21 points 16 months earlier. Cuban Americans and Colombian Americans tend to favor conservative political ideologies and support the Republicans, while Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Dominican Americans tend to favor liberal views and support the Democrats. However, because the latter groups are far more numerous – as, again, Mexican Americans alone are 64% of Hispanics and Latinos – the Democratic Party is considered to be in a far stronger position with the group overall.

The Presidency of George W. Bush had a significant impact on the political leanings of Hispanics and Latinos. As a former Governor of Texas, Bush regarded this growing community as a potential source of growth for the conservative movement and the Republican Party,^{[citation needed]} and he made some gains for the Republicans among the group.

President Bill Clinton and his Hispanic and Latino appointees in 1998

In the 1996 presidential election, 72% of Hispanics and Latinos backed President Bill Clinton, but in 2000 the Democratic total fell to 62%, and went down again in 2004, with Democrat John Kerry winning Hispanics 58–40 against Bush. Hispanics in the West, especially in California, were much stronger for the Democratic Party than in Texas and Florida. California Latinos voted 63–32 for Kerry in 2004, and both Arizona and New Mexico Latinos by a smaller 56–43 margin; but Texas Latinos were split nearly evenly, favoring Kerry 50–49, and Florida Latinos (mostly being Cuban American) backed Bush, by a 54–45 margin.

In the 2006 midterm election, however, due to the unpopularity of the Iraq War, the heated debate concerning illegal immigration, and Republican-related Congressional scandals, Hispanics and Latinos went as strongly Democratic as they have since the Clinton years. Exit polls showed the group voting for Democrats by a lopsided 69–30 margin, with Florida Latinos for the first time split evenly. The runoff election in Texas' 23rd congressional district was seen as a bellwether of Latino politics, and Democrat Ciro Rodriguez's unexpected (and unexpectedly decisive) defeat of Republican incumbent Henry Bonilla was seen as proof of a leftward lurch among Latino voters, as heavily Latino counties overwhelmingly backed Rodriguez, and heavily Anglo counties overwhelmingly backed Bonilla.

Although during 2008 the economy and employment were top concerns for Hispanics and Latinos, immigration was "never far from their minds": almost 90% of Latino voters rated immigration as "somewhat important" or "very important" in a poll taken after the election.^[119] There is "abundant evidence" that the heated Republican opposition to the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007 has done significant damage to the party's appeal to Hispanics and Latinos in the years to come, especially in the swing states such as Florida, Nevada, and New Mexico.^[119] In a Gallup poll of 4,604 registered Hispanic voters taken in the final days of June 2008, only 18% of participants identified themselves as Republicans.^[120]

2008 election [link]

In the 2008 Presidential election's Democratic primary Hispanics and Latinos participated in larger numbers than before, with Hillary Clinton receiving most of the group's support.^[121] Pundits discussed whether a large percentage of Hispanics and Latinos would vote for an African American candidate, in this case Barack Obama, Clinton's opponent.^[122] Hispanics/Latinos voted 2 to 1 for Mrs. Clinton, even among the younger demographic, which in the case of other groups was an Obama stronghold.^[123] Among Hispanics, 28% said race was involved in their decision, as opposed to 13% for (non-Hispanic) whites.^[123]

Obama defeated Clinton. In the matchup between Obama and Republican candidate John McCain for the presidency, Hispanics and Latinos supported Obama with 59% to McCain's 29% in the Gallup tracking poll as of June 30, 2008.^[120] This surprised some analysts, since a higher than expected percentage of Latinos and Hispanics favored Obama over McCain, who had been a leader of the comprehensive immigration reform effort.^[124] However, McCain had retracted during the Republican primary, stating that he would not support the bill if it came up again. Some analysts believed that this move hurt his chances among Hispanics and Latinos.^[125] Obama took advantage of the situation by running ads aimed at the ethnic group, in Spanish, in which he mentioned McCain's about-face.^[126]

In the general election, 67% of Hispanics and Latinos voted for Obama^[127] and 31% voted for McCain,^[128] with a relatively stronger turnout than in previous elections in states such as Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Virginia helping Obama carry those formerly Republican states. Obama won 70% of non-Cuban Hispanics and 35% of the traditionally Republican Cuban Americans that have a strong presence in Florida, while the changing state demographics towards a more non-Cuban Hispanic community also contributed to his carrying Florida's Latinos with 57% of the vote.^[127]^[129] Hispanics and Latinos also supplanted Republican gains in traditional red states, for example Obama carried 63% of Texas Latinos, despite that the overall state voted for McCain by 55%.^[130]

Some political organizations associated with Hispanic and Latino Americans are LULAC, the NCLR, the United Farm Workers, the Cuban American National Foundation, and the National Institute for Latino Policy.

Culture [link]

Main articles: American culture and Hispanic culture

The geographic, political, social, economic, and racial other diversity of Hispanic and Latino Americans extends to culture, as well. Yet several features tend to unite Hispanics and Latinos from these diverse backgrounds.

Language [link]

With 40% of Hispanic and Latino Americans being immigrants,^[131] and with many of the 60% who are U.S.-born being the children or grandchildren of immigrants, bilingualism is the norm in the community at large: at home, at least 69% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans over age five are bilingual in English and Spanish, whereas up to 22% are monolingual English-speakers, and 9% are monolingual Spanish-speakers; another 0.4% speak a language other than English and Spanish at home.^[132] In all, a full 90% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans speak English, and at least 78% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans speak Spanish.^[132] Spanish is the oldest European language in the United States, spoken uninterruptedly for four and a half centuries, since the foundation of St. Augustine.^[26]^[27]^[28]^[29]

The usual pattern is monolingual Spanish use among new migrants or older foreign-born Hispanics, complete bilingualism among long-settled immigrants and the children of immigrants, and the sole use of English, or both English and either Spanglish or colloquial Spanish by the third generation and beyond.

Religion [link]

The most methodologically rigorous study of Hispanic or Latino religious affiliation to date was the Hispanic Churches in American Public Life (HCAPL) National Survey, conducted between August and October 2000. This survey found that 70% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans are Catholic, 20% are Protestant, 3% are "alternative Christians" (such as Mormon or Jehovah's Witnesses), 1% identify with a non-Christian religion (including Muslims), and 6% have no religious preference (with only .37% claiming to be atheist or agnostic). This suggests that Hispanics/Latinos are not only a highly religious, but also a highly Christian constituency. It also suggests that Hispanic/Latino Protestants are a more sizable minority than sometimes realized. Catholic affiliation is much higher among first-generation than second- or third-generation Hispanic or Latino immigrants, who exhibit a fairly high rate of defection to Protestantism. Also Hispanics and Latinos in the Bible Belt, which is mostly located in the South, are more likely to defect to Protestantism than those in other regions. Hispanic and Latino Americans' membership in the Catholic Church continues to grow in absolute numbers, due to the group's high birth and immigration rates. Hispanic or Latino Catholics are also increasingly working to enhance member retention through youth and social programs and through the spread of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.^[133]

Media [link]

The United States is home to thousands of Spanish-language media outlets, which range in size from giant commercial and some non-commercial broadcasting networks and major magazines with circulations numbering in the millions, to low-power AM radio stations with listeners numbering in the hundreds. There are hundreds of Internet media outlets targeting U.S. Hispanic consumers. Some of the outlets are online versions of their printed counterparts and some online exclusively.

Among the most noteworthy Hispanic/Latino-oriented media outlets are:

Univision, the largest Spanish-language television network^{[disambiguation needed ]} in the United States, with affiliates in nearly every major U.S. market, and numerous affiliates internationally;
Telemundo, the second-largest Spanish-language television network in the United States, with affiliates in nearly every major U.S. market, and numerous affiliates internationally;
Azteca America, a Spanish-language television network in the United States, with affiliates in nearly every major U.S. market, and numerous affiliates internationally;
La Opinión, a Spanish-language daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California and distributed throughout the six counties of Southern California. It is the largest Spanish-language newspaper in the United States;
El Nuevo Herald and Diario Las Americas, both Spanish-language daily newspapers serving the greater Miami, Florida market;
La Voz de Indiana, a bilingual (English and Spanish) publication based in Indianapolis, Indiana;
Hispanic Business, an English-language business magazine about Hispanics;
mun2, a cable network that produces content for U.S.-born Hispanic and Latino audiences;
People en Espanol, a Spanish-language magazine counterpart of People;
ConSentido TV, a television, radio, and newspaper network in North Texas;
TBN Enlace USA, a Spanish-language Christian television network based in Tustin, California;
3ABN Latino, a Spanish-language Christian television network based in West Frankfort, Illinois;
V-me, a Spanish-language television network, a sister network of PBS;
CNN en Espanol, a Spanish-language all-news television network based in Atlanta, Georgia;
Vida Latina, a Spanish-language entertainment magazine distributed throughout the Southern United States.

Intermarriage [link]

Hispanic Americans, like immigrant groups before them, are out-marrying at very high rates comprising 17.4% of all existing Hispanic marriages. The rate is higher for newlyweds (which excludes already married immigrants): Among all newlyweds in 2008, 26% of all Hispanics married a non-Hispanic (this compares to out-marriage rates of 9% for non-Hispanic Whites, 16% for non-Hispanic Blacks, and 31% for non-Hispanic Asians). The rate was even more profound for native-born Hispanics with 41.3% of Native-Born Hispanic men out-marrying (compared to 11.3% of Foreign-Born Hispanic men) and 37.4% of Native-Born Hispanic women out-marrying (compared to 12.2% of Foreign-Born Hispanic women). The difference is attributed to the fact that recent immigrants tend to marry within their immediate immigrant community due to commonality of language, proximity, familial connections, and familiarity^[134](see Interracial marriage in the United States for further discussion).

81% of Hispanics who intermarried married non-Hispanic Whites, 9% married non-Hispanic Blacks, 5% non-Hispanic Asians, and the remainder married non-Hispanic, multi-racial partners.

Attitudes amongst non-Hispanics toward intermarriage with Hispanics are mostly favorable with 81% of Whites, 76% of Asians, and 73% of Blacks "being fine" with a member of their family marrying a Hispanic and an additional 13% of Whites, 19% of Asians, and 16% of Blacks "being bothered but accepting of the marriage." Only 2% of Whites, 4% of Asians, and 5% of Blacks would not accept a marriage of their family member to a Hispanic.

Hispanic attitudes toward intermarriage with non-Hispanics are likewise favorable with 71% "being fine" with marriages to Whites and 81% "being fine" with marriages to Blacks. A further 22% admitted to "being bothered but accepting" of a marriage of a family member to a White and 16% admitted to "being bothered but accepting" of a marriage of a family member to a Black. Only 3% of Hispanics objected outright marriage of a family member to an African-American and 3% to a non-hispanic White.^[134]

Footnotes [link]

^ ^a ^b ^c Humes, Karen R.; Jones, Nicholas A.; Ramirez, Roberto R.. "Overview of Race and Hispanic Origin: 2010" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-02.pdf. Retrieved 2011-03-28.
^ Humes, Karen R.; Jones, Nicholas A.; Ramirez, Roberto R.. "Overview of Race and Hispanic Origin: 2010" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-02.pdf. Retrieved 2011-03-28. ""Hispanic or Latino" refers to a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race."
^ "American FactFinder Help: Hispanic or Latino origin". United States Census Bureau. http://factfinder.census.gov/home/en/epss/glossary_h.html#hispanic_or_latino_origin. Retrieved 2008-10-05. "For Census 2000, American Community Survey: People who identify with the terms "Hispanic" or "Latino" are those who classify themselves in one of the specific Hispanic or Latino categories listed on the Census 2000 or ACS questionnaire - "Mexican," "Puerto Rican," or "Cuban" - as well as those who indicate that they are "other Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino." Origin can be viewed as the heritage, nationality group, lineage, or country of birth of the person or the person's parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States. People who identify their origin as Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino may be of any "race".
1990 Census of Population and Housing: A self-designated classification for people whose origins are from Spain, the Spanish-speaking countries of Central or South America, the Caribbean, or those identifying themselves generally as Spanish, Spanish-American, etc. Origin can be viewed as ancestry, nationality, or country of birth of the person or person's parents or ancestors prior to their arrival in the United States."
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Office of Management and Budget. "Revisions to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity. Federal Register Notice October 30, 1997". http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg/1997standards.html. Retrieved 2012-06-01.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Grieco, Elizabeth M.; Rachel C. Cassidy. "Overview of Race and Hispanic Origin: 2000" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/cenbr01-1.pdf. Retrieved 2008-04-27.
^ "B03001. Hispanic or Latino origin by specific origin". 2009 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates. U.S. Census Bureau. http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-ds_name=ACS_2009_1YR_G00_&-_lang=en&-redoLog=true&-mt_name=ACS_2009_1YR_G2000_B03001&-format=&-CONTEXT=dt. Retrieved 2010-10-17.
^ "CIA - The World Factbook -- Field Listing :: Ethnic groups". https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2075.html. Retrieved 2010-11-18.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "T4-2007. Hispanic or Latino By Race [15]". 2007 Population Estimates. United States Census Bureau. http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable?_bm=y&-ds_name=PEP_2007_EST&-mt_name=PEP_2007_EST_G2007_T004_2007&-CONTEXT=dt&-redoLog=true&-currentselections=PEP_2006_EST_G2006_T004_2006&-geo_id=01000US&-format=&-_lang=en.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "B03002. Hispanic or Latino origin by race". 2007 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates. United States Census Bureau. http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable?_bm=y&-ds_name=ACS_2007_1YR_G00_&-mt_name=ACS_2007_1YR_G2000_B03002&-CONTEXT=dt&-redoLog=true&-currentselections=PEP_2006_EST_G2006_T004_2006&-geo_id=01000US&-format=&-_lang=en.
^ Tafoya, Sonya (2004-12-06). "Shades of Belonging" (PDF). Pew Hispanic Center. http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/35.pdf. Retrieved 2008-05-07.
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^ http://etd.auburn.edu/etd/bitstream/handle/10415/88/VITALE_MICHELE_14.pdf?sequence=1
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^ ^a ^b ^c "A Brief History of St. Augustine". City of St. Augustine. http://www.ci.st-augustine.fl.us/visitors/history_fullprint.html. Retrieved 2008-04-28. "Founded in 1565, St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied settlement of European origin in the United States. Forty-two years before the English colonized Jamestown and fifty-five years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, the Spanish established at St. Augustine this nation's first enduring settlement."
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^ http://2010.census.gov/2010census/about/interactive-form.php
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^ Additionally, in the 2000 Census some 2,187,144 Americans reported "Spanish" as their ancestry. For more about this group, see Spanish American.
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^ Cavada Brothers
^ "The Puerto Rican Diaspora: historical perspectives"; By Carmen Teresa Whalen, Víctor Vázquez-Hernandez; page 176; Publisher: Temple University Press; ISBN 978-1-59213-413-7; ISBN 1-59213-413-0
^ "The Puerto Ricans: A Documentary History"; by Kal Wagenheim (Editor), Olga Jimenez de Wagenheim (Editor); page 355- 56; Publisher: Markus Wiener Publishers; Revised edition edition; ISBN 1-55876-476-3; ISBN 978-1-55876-476-7
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^ ^a ^b "B16006. Language spoken at home by ability to speak English for the population 5 years and over (Hispanic or Latino)". 2006 American Community Survey. United States Census Bureau. http://www.factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable?_bm=y&-ds_name=ACS_2006_EST_G00_&-CONTEXT=dt&-mt_name=ACS_2006_EST_G2000_B16006&-redoLog=false&-geo_id=01000US&-format=&-_lang=en&-SubjectID=14829562. Retrieved 2008-06-12. [There were 39.5 million Hispanic and Latino Americans aged 5 or more in 2006. 8.5 million of them, or 22%, spoke only English at home, and another 156,000, or 0.4%, spoke neither English nor Spanish at home. The other 30.8 million, or 78%, spoke Spanish at home. Of these, 3.7 million spoke no English, while the overwhelming majority, 27.2 million, did, at these levels: 15.5 million "very well", 5.8 million "well", and 5.9 million "not well". These 27.2 million bilingual speakers represented 69% of all (39.5 million) Hispanic and Latino Americans aged five or over in 2006, while the 3.7 million monolingual Spanish-speakers represented 9%.]
^ Gaston Espinosa, "Latinos, Religion, and the American Presidency," in Religion, Race, and the American Presidency, ed. Gaston Espinosa (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers), 242-44.
^ ^a ^b Pew Social Trends: "Marrying Out" June 15, 2010

External links [link]

Hispanic Americans in Congress Library of Congress
Hispanic Americans in the U.S. Army
2000 Census
Latino-Americans Become Unofficial Face of Politics Abroad by Josh Miller, PBS, April 27, 2007
Latino in America - CNN
Mexican Roots

v t e Latin American diaspora

Australia · Canada · United Kingdom · United States

v t e Hispanic and Latino American groups

Central American / Caribbean	Costa Rican Cuban Dominican Guatemalan Honduran Nicaraguan Panamanian Puerto Rican Salvadoran

North American	Mexican Chicano Punjabi Californio Nuevomexicano Tejano

South American	Argentine Bolivian Colombian Chilean Ecuadorian Paraguayan Peruvian Uruguayan Venezuelan

Western European	Spanish Basque Catalan Hispano Isleño

Racial groups	All groups American Indians/Native American Asian Black White Multiracial (Mulatto, Mestizo, Zambo, Pardo, "Cholo", Castizo, etc)

related ethnic groups	Belizean Americans Brazilian Americans Haitian Americans Guyanese Americans

v t e Demographics of the United States

Demographic history

Economic and social	Affluence · Educational attainment · Emigration · Homeownership · Household income · Immigration · Income inequality · Language · LGBT · Middle classes · Personal income · Poverty · Social class · Unemployment by state · Wealth

Religion	Prominent examples: Buddhists · Christians (Catholics, Protestants, etc.) · Hindus · Jews · Muslims · Neopagans · Non-religious · Sikhs

Race and ethnicity	People of the United States/Americans · Ethnic groups in the United States · American people by ethnic or national origin · History of the United States by ethnic group · American culture by ethnicity · Race and ethnicity in the Census · Maps of American ancestries · 2010 Census · in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission · Racism White Americans: European Americans (English Americans, German Americans, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Polish Americans, etc.), Non-Hispanic Whites, White Hispanic and Latino Americans, Arab Americans, Jewish Americans,etc. · Black Americans: African Americans, Black Hispanic and Latino Americans, African immigrants and descendants, Afro-Caribbean/West Indian Americans, etc. · Asian Americans (Chinese Americans, Filipino Americans, Asian Hispanic and Latino Americans, Indian Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Japanese Americans, Pakistani Americans, etc.) · Americans from other parts of the Americas: Canadian, Hispanic and Latino Americans (Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans (Stateside), Cuban Americans, Colombian Americans, etc.), Belizean, Brazilian, etc. · Multiracial Americans · Native Americans and Alaska Natives · Oceanic American: Pacific Islands Americans (Chamorro Americans, Native Hawaiians, Samoan Americans, Tongan Americans, etc.), Euro Oceanic American (Australian American, etc)

http://wn.com/Hispanic_and_Latino_Americans

http://fr.wn.com/Hispaniques et Latino-Américains (États-Unis)

http://es.wn.com/Hispano (Estados Unidos)

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For other uses, see American (disambiguation), and American (word) for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts.

Americans

Total population

316.5 million

Regions with significant populations

United States 313,802,000^[1]

Mexico	738,100–1,000,000	^[2]^[3]
Canada	688,000–1,000,000	^[4]^[5]
Philippines	250,000	^[6]
United Kingdom	224,000	^[7]
Brazil	170,000	^[8]
Liberia	160,000	^[9]
France	100,000	^[10]
Israel	100,000	^[11]
Germany	99,600	^[12]
Hong Kong	60,000	^[13]
Australia	56,276	^[14]
Japan	52,684	^[15]
Saudi Arabia	40,000	^[16]
Costa Rica	40,000	^[17]
Norway	33,509	^[18]
South Korea	28,500	^[19]
Lebanon	25,000	^[20]
New Zealand	17,751	^[21]

Languages

Primarily English, but also Spanish and others

Religion

Christian (Protestantism, Catholicism and Mormonism)^[22]
Unaffiliated (Agnosticism and Atheism)^[22]
Various non-christian religions (Judaism, and others)^[22]

Americans, or American people, are the citizens of the United States of America. The country is home to people of different national origins. As a result, Americans do not equate their nationality with ethnicity, but with citizenship. Aside from the Native American population, nearly all Americans or their ancestors immigrated within the past five centuries.^[23]

Despite its multi-ethnic composition,^[24]^[25] the culture held in common by most Americans is referred to as mainstream American culture, a Western culture largely derived from the traditions of Western European immigrants.^[24] It also includes influences of African American culture.^[26] Westward expansion integrated the Creoles and Cajuns of Louisiana and the Hispanos of the Southwest and brought close contact with the culture of Mexico. Large-scale immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries from Southern and Eastern Europe introduced a variety of elements. Immigration from Asia, Africa, and Latin America has also had impact. A cultural melting pot, or pluralistic salad bowl, describes the way in which generations of Americans have celebrated and exchanged distinctive cultural characteristics.^[24]

In addition to the United States, Americans and people of American descent can be found internationally. As many as 4 million Americans are estimated to be living abroad.^[4]

1 Racial and ethnic groups
2 National personification
3 Language
4 Religion
5 Culture
6 See also
7 References

Racial and ethnic groups [link]

White and European Americans [link]

Main articles: European American, White American, White Hispanic and Latino Americans, and Arab American

People of European descent or whites constitute the majority of the 308 million (308,745,538) people living in the United States, with 223,553,265 or 72.4% of the population in the 2010 United States Census, down from 89.5% (17.1% drop in 60 years) in the 1950 Census.^[27] They are people who trace their ancestry to the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. White Americans are the majority in forty-nine of the fifty states, with Hawaii as the exception. Non-Hispanic whites are the majority in forty-six states; the four minority-majority states are California, Texas, New Mexico, and Hawaii. In addition, the District of Columbia has a non-white majority.

The largest continental ancestral group of Americans are Europeans who have origins in any of the original peoples of Europe. This includes people via African, North American, Caribbean, Central American or South American and Oceanian nations which have a large European diaspora.^[28]

The Spanish were the first Europeans to establish a continuous presence in what is now the United States.^[29] Martín de Argüelles born 1566, San Agustín, La Florida, was the first person of European descent born in what is now the United States.^[30] Twenty-one years later, Virginia Dare born 1587 Roanoke Island in present-day North Carolina, was the first child born in the Thirteen Colonies to English parents.

In 2009, German Americans (16.5%), Irish Americans (11.9%), and English Americans (9.0%) were the three largest self-reported ancestry groups in the United States forming 37.4% of the population.^[31]

Sixty million Americans, one fifth of the total United States population, claim British ancestry.^[32]

Overall, as the largest group, European Americans have the lowest poverty rate^[33] and the second highest educational attainment levels, median household income,^[34] and median personal income^[35] of any racial demographic in the nation.

European ancestries^[36]
Rank	Ancestry	Percentage	Pop.	Rank	Ancestry	Percentage	Pop.
1	German	15.2%	42,841,569	11	Swedish	1.4%	3,998,310
2	Irish	10.8%	30,524,799	12	Russian	0.9%	2,652,214
3	English	8.7%	24,509,692	13	Welsh	0.6%	1,753,794
4	Italian	5.6%	15,638,348	14	Danish	0.5%	1,430,897
5	French	3.8%	10,658,000	15	Hungarian	0.5%	1,398,702
6	Polish	3.2%	8,977,235	16	Czech	0.4%	1,258,452
7	Scottish	1.7%	4,890,581	17	Portuguese	0.4%	1,173,691
8	Dutch	1.6%	4,541,770	18	Greek	0.4%	1,153,295
9	Norwegian	1.6%	4,477,725	19	British	0.4%	1,085,718
10	Scotch-Irish	1.5%	4,319,232	20	Swiss	0.3%	911,502
2000 United States Census Bureau *French Americans reported 8,309,908 inclu.French Canadian were 2,349,684 = 10,658,000								Benjamin Franklin (English). Henry Ford (Anglo-Irish, Belgian). Rita Hayworth (Spanish, English, Irish). Jacqueline Bouvier (French, English, Irish). Wright Brothers (English, Dutch, German-Swiss).^[37] Paul Newman (Hungarian & Polish Jew, Slovak).

Black and African Americans [link]

Main articles: African American and Black Hispanic and Latino Americans

African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans or Afro-Americans, and formerly as American Negroes) are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa.^[38] In the United States, the terms are generally used for Americans with at least partial Sub-Saharan African ancestry. According to the 2009 American Community Survey, there were 38,093,725 blacks in the United States, which represented 12.4% of the population. In addition, there were 37,144,530 non-Hispanic blacks, which represented 12.1% of the population.^[39]

Most African Americans are the direct descendants of captive Africans who survived the slavery era within the boundaries of the present United States, although some are—or are descended from—immigrants from African, Caribbean, Central American or South American nations.^[40] As an adjective, the term is usually spelled African-American.^[41] More recent immigrants from Africa may, or may not, self-identify as "African-American";^[42]^[43] and may experience conflict with American-born African-Americans.^[44]^[45]^[46]^[47]

African American history starts in the 17th century with indentured servitude in the American colonies and progresses onto the election of Barack Obama as the 44th and current President of the United States. Between those landmarks there were other events and issues, both resolved and ongoing, that were faced by African Americans. Some of these were slavery, reconstruction, development of the African-American community, participation in the great military conflicts of the United States, racial segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement.

Black Americans make up the single largest racial minority in the United States and form the second largest racial group after whites in the United States.^[48]

African ancestries^[49]
Rank	Ancestry	Percentage	Pop.	Rank	Ancestry	Percentage	Pop.
1	Black or African American alone	88.84%	38,093,725	9	South African	0.13%	55,895
2	Subsaharan African	6.68%	2,866,419	10	Liberian	0.12%	49,428
3	Black Hispanic	2.21%	949,195	11	Kenyan	0.10%	44,467
4	Nigerian	0.59%	254,794	12	Sudanese	0.09%	36,663
5	Ethiopian	0.44%	186,679	13	Sierra Leonean	0.03%	13,281
6	Other Subsaharan African	0.29%	126,463	14	Ugandan	0.03%	11,674
7	Cape Verdean	0.21%	90,828	15	Senegalese alone	0.02%	8,767
8	Ghanaian	0.20%	84,777	16	Zimbabwean	0.01%	6,367
2009 American Community Survey Bureau								Oprah Winfrey of Kpelle^[50] descent (Liberia). Paul Robeson of Igbo descent (Nigeria).

Asian Americans [link]

Main articles: Asian American and Asian Hispanic and Latino Americans

Another significant population is the Asian American population, comprising 17.3 million in 2010, or 5.6% of the U.S. population.^[51]^[52] California is home to 5.6 million Asian Americans, the greatest number in any state;^[53] in Hawaii, Asian Americans make up the highest proportion of the population (57 percent).^[53] Asian Americans live across the country, yet are heavily urbanized, with significant populations in the Greater Los Angeles Area, New York metropolitan area, and the San Francisco Bay Area.^[54]

They are by no means a monolithic group. The largest sub-groups are immigrants or descendants of immigrants from Cambodia, Mainland China, India, Japan, Korea, Laos, Pakistan, the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Asians overall have higher income levels than all other racial groups in the United States, including whites, and the trend appears to be increasing in relation to those groups.^[55] Additionally, Asians have a higher education attainment level than all other racial groups in the United States.^[56]^[57] For better or worse, the group has been called a model minority.^[58]^[59]^[60]

While Asian American have been in what is now the United States since before the Revolutionary War,^[61]^[62]^[63] relatively large waves of Chinese, Filipino and Japanese immigration did not begin until the mid-to-late 19th century.^[63] Immigration and significant population growth continue to this day.^[64] Due to a number of factors, Asian Americans have been stereotyped as "perpetual foreigners".^[65]^[66]

Asian ancestries^[51]
Rank	Ancestry	Percentage	Pop.	Jose Calugas
1	Chinese	1.2%	3,797,379
2	Filipino	1.1%	3,417,285
3	Indian	1.0%	3,188,538
4	Vietnamese	0.5%	1,737,665
5	Korean	0.5%	1,707,027
6	Japanese	0.4%	1,304,599
	Other Asian	0.9%	2,799,448
	Asian American (total)	5.6%	17,320,856
2010 United States Census				Anna May Wong (Chinese), Jose Calugas (Filipino), Kalpana Chawla (Indian) Maggie Q (Vietnamese), Seo Jae-pil (Korean), Ellison Onizuka (Japanese)

Two or more races [link]

Main article: Multiracial American

The U.S. has a growing multiracial identity movement. Multiracial Americans numbered 7.0 million in 2008, or 2.3% of the population.^[52] They can be any combination of races (White, Black or African American, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, "Some other race") and ethnicities.^[67] Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, is biracial with his mother being of English and Irish descent and his father being of Kenyan birth.^[68]^[69]

American Indians and Alaska Natives [link]

Sacagawea was of Shoshone descent

Indigenous peoples of the Americas, such as American Indians and Inuit, made up 0.8% of the population in 2008, numbering 2.4 million.^[52] An additional 2.3 million declared part-American Indian or Alaska Native ancestry.^[70] The legal and official designation of who is Native American by descent aroused controversy by demographers, tribal nations and government officials for many decades. The blood quantum laws are complex and contradictory in admittance of new tribal members, or for census takers to accept any respondent's claims without official documents from the US Bureau of Indian Affairs. Genetic scientists estimated that over 15 million other Americans may be one quarter or less of American Indian descent.

Once thought to face extinction in race or culture, there has been a remarkable revival of Native American identity and tribal sovereignty in the 20th century. The Cherokee are at 800,000 full or part-blood degrees. 70,000 Cherokee live in Oklahoma in the Cherokee Nation, and 15,000 in North Carolina on remnants of their ancestral homelands.

The second largest tribal group is the Navajo, who call themselves "Diné" and live on a 16-million acre (65,000 km²) Indian reservation covering northeast Arizona, northwest New Mexico, and southeast Utah. It is home to half of the 450,000 Navajo Nation members. The third largest group are the Lakota (Sioux) Nation located in the states of Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming; and North and South Dakota.

Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders [link]

Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders numbered 427,810 in 2008, or 0.14% of the population.^[52] Additionally, nearly as many report partial Native Hawaiian ancestry, for a total of 829,949 people of full or part Native Hawaiian ancestry.^[71] This group constitutes the smallest minority race in the United States. Although the numbers show that just more than half are "full-blooded", most Native Hawaiians on the island chain of Hawaii are said to be highly mixed with Asian, European and other ancestries.

Only 1 out of 50 Native Hawaiians can be legally defined as "full blood" and some demographers believe that by the year 2025, the last full-blooded Native Hawaiian will die off, leaving a culturally distinct, but racially-mixed population. However, there is more individual self-designation of Native Hawaiian than before the US annexed the islands in 1898. Native Hawaiians are receiving ancestral land reparations. Throughout Hawaii, the preservation and universal adaptation of Native Hawaiian customs, Hawaiian language, cultural schools solely for legally Native Hawaiian students, and historical awareness has gained momentum for Native Hawaiians.

National personification [link]

"Uncle Sam" is a national personification of the United States. The image bears resemblance to the real Samuel Wilson. The female personification is "Columbia".

A national personification is an anthropomorphization of a nation or its people; it can appear in both editorial cartoons and propaganda.

Uncle Sam is a national personification of the United States and sometimes more specifically of the American government, with the first usage of the term dating from the War of 1812. He is depicted as a stern elderly white man with white hair and a goatee beard, and dressed in clothing that recalls the design elements of flag of the United States – for example, typically a top hat with red and white stripes and white stars on a blue band, and red and white striped trousers.

Columbia is a poetic name for the Americas and the feminine personification of the United States of America, made famous by African-American poet Phillis Wheatley during the American Revolutionary War in 1776. It has inspired the names of many persons, places, objects, institutions, and companies in the Western Hemisphere and beyond.

Language [link]

Main articles: English language, American English, and English-only movement

Languages (2007)^[72]
English (only)	225.5 million
Spanish, incl. Creole	34.5 million
Chinese	2.5 million
French, incl. Creole	2.0 million
Tagalog	1.5 million
Vietnamese	1.2 million
German	1.1 million
Korean	1.1 million

English is the de facto national language. Although there is no official language at the federal level, some laws—such as U.S. naturalization requirements—standardize English. In 2007, about 226 million, or 80% of the population aged five years and older, spoke only English at home. Spanish, spoken by 12% of the population at home, is the second most common language and the most widely taught second language.^[72]^[73] Some Americans advocate making English the country's official language, as it is in at least twenty-eight states.^[74] Both Hawaiian and English are official languages in Hawaii by state law.^[75]

While neither has an official language, New Mexico has laws providing for the use of both English and Spanish, as Louisiana does for English and French.^[76] Other states, such as California, mandate the publication of Spanish versions of certain government documents including court forms.^[77] Several insular territories grant official recognition to their native languages, along with English: Samoan and Chamorro are recognized by American Samoa and Guam, respectively; Carolinian and Chamorro are recognized by the Northern Mariana Islands; Spanish is an official language of Puerto Rico.

Religion [link]

Main article: Religion in the United States

Religion in the United States
Religion			Percent
Protestant			51.3%
Roman Catholic			23.9%
other Christian			3.3%
Jewish			1.7%
other non-Christian religions			2.9%
No religion			16.1%
Agnostic			2.4%
Atheist			1.6%
Pew Research Center, 2008^[22]

First Baptist Church in America in Providence, Rhode Island

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.; the largest Catholic church in the United States.

The Salt Lake Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah; is the largest temple of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Touro Synagogue, built in 1759 in Newport, Rhode Island; America's oldest surviving synagogue

Religion in the United States has a high adherence level, compared to other developed countries, and diversity in beliefs. The First Amendment to the country's Constitution prevents the Federal government from making any "law respecting an establishment of religion", and guarantees the free exercise of religion. The Supreme Court has interpreted this as preventing the government from having any authority in religion. A majority of Americans report that religion plays a "very important" role in their lives, a proportion unusual among developed nations, although similar to the other nations of the Americas.^[78] Many faiths have flourished in the United States, including both later imports spanning the country's multicultural immigrant heritage, as well as those founded within the country; these have led the United States to become the most religiously diverse country in the world.^[79]

The majority of Americans (76%) identify themselves as Christians, mostly within Protestant and Catholic denominations, accounting for 51% and 25% of the population respectively.^[80] Non-Christian religions (including Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism), collectively make up about 4% to 5% of the adult population.^[80]^[81]^[82] Another 15% of the adult population identifies as having no religious belief or no religious affiliation.^[80] According to the American Religious Identification Survey, religious belief varies considerably across the country: 59% of Americans living in Western states (the "Unchurched Belt") report a belief in God, yet in the South (the "Bible Belt") the figure is as high as 86%.^[80]^[83]

Several of the original Thirteen Colonies were established by settlers who wished to practice their own religion without discrimination: the Massachusetts Bay Colony was established by English Puritans, Pennsylvania by Irish and English Quakers, Maryland by English and Irish Catholics, and Virginia by English Anglicans. Although some individual states retained established religious confessions well into the nineteenth century, the United States was the first nation to have no official state-endorsed religion.^[84] Modeling the provisions concerning religion within the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, the framers of the Constitution rejected any religious test for office, and the First Amendment specifically denied the federal government any power to enact any law respecting either an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise, thus protecting any religious organization, institution, or denomination from government interference. The decision was mainly influenced by European Rationalist and Protestant ideals, but was also a consequence of the pragmatic concerns of minority religious groups and small states that did not want to be under the power or influence of a national religion that did not represent them.^[85]

Culture [link]

Main article: Culture of the United States

The development of the culture of the United States of America has been marked by a tension between two strong sources of inspiration: European ideals, especially British; and domestic originality, such as Jeffersonian democracy. Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia was perhaps the first influential domestic cultural critique by an American.

American culture encompasses traditions, ideals, customs, beliefs, values, arts, folklore and innovations developed both domestically and imported via colonization and immigration from the British Isles. Prevalent ideas and ideals which evolved domestically such as important national holidays, uniquely American sports, proud military tradition, and innovations in the arts and entertainment give a strong sense of national pride among the population as a whole.

American Shepherd with his horse and dog.

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^ Meizhu Lui, Barbara Robles, Betsy Leondar-Wright, Rose Brewer, and Rebecca Adamson (2006.). The Color of Wealth.. The New Press..
^ "US Census Bureau report on educational attainment in the United States, 2003". http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/p20-550.pdf. Retrieved July 31, 2006.
^ The American Community-Asians: 2004. U.S. Census Bureau. February 2007. http://www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/acs-05.pdf. Retrieved September 5, 2007.
^ Chou, Rosalind; Joe R. Feagin (2008). The myth of the model minority: Asian Americans facing racism. Paradigm Publishers. p. x. ISBN 978-1-59451-586-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=_HoaAQAAIAAJ&q=Model+Minority+Asians&dq=Model+Minority+Asians. Retrieved February 9, 2011.
^ Tamar Lewin (June 10, 2008). "Report Takes Aim at ‘Model Minority’ Stereotype of Asian-American Students". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/education/10asians.html. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
^ Tojo Thatchenkery (March 31, 2000). "Asian Americans Under the Model Minority Gaze". International Association of Business Disciplines National Conference. modelminority.com. http://www.modelminority.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=230:asian-americans-under-the-model-minority-gaze-&catid=36:coolies&Itemid=56. Retrieved February 26, 2012.
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^ "California Declares Filipino American History Month". San Francisco Business Times. September 10, 2009. http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/09/07/daily59.html. Retrieved February 14, 2011.
^ ^a ^b Shirley Hune; David T. Takeuchi, Third Andresen, Seunghye Hong, Julie Kang, Mavae'Aho Redmond, Jeomja Yeo (April 2009). "Asian Americans in Washington State: Closing Their Hidden Achievement Gaps". Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs. State of Washington. http://www.capaa.wa.gov/documents/AchievementGapReport.pdf. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
^ Nicole Duran (November 3, 2011). "Asian-Americans Are Fastest-Growing Minority Population". National Journal. http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/asian-americans-are-fastest-growing-minority-population-20111101. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
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^ Wu, Frank H. (2003). Yellow: race in America beyond black and white. Basic Books. p. 79. ISBN 978-0-465-00640-3. http://books.google.com/books?id=JkPvf5Cs-DgC&lpg=PA77&dq=%22asian%20americans%22%20perpetual%20foreigners&pg=PA79#v=onepage&q=%22asian%20americans%22%20perpetual%20foreigners&f=false. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
^ Jones, Nicholas A.; Amy Symens Smith. "The Two or More Races Population: 2000. Census 2000 Brief" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/c2kbr01-6.pdf. Retrieved May 8, 2008.
^ Ewen MacAskill in Washington and Nicholas Watt (May 20, 2011). "Obama looks forward to rediscovering his Irish roots on European tour". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/20/obama-irish-roots-european-tour. Retrieved August 3, 2011.
^ Mason, Jeff (May 23, 2011). "Obama visits family roots in Ireland". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/23/us-obama-ireland-idUSTRE74M09F20110523. Retrieved August 3, 2011.
^ "B02010. AMERICAN INDIAN AND ALASKA NATIVE ALONE OR IN COMBINATION WITH ONE OR MORE OTHER RACES". 2008 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates. United States Census Bureau. http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable?_bm=y&-context=dt&-ds_name=ACS_2008_1YR_G00_&-mt_name=ACS_2008_1YR_G2000_B02010&-CONTEXT=dt&-tree_id=306&-redoLog=true&-currentselections=ACS_2006_EST_G2000_B02001&-geo_id=01000US&-geo_id=02000US1&-geo_id=02000US2&-geo_id=02000US3&-geo_id=02000US4&-search_results=01000US&-format=&-_lang=en. Retrieved May 11, 2010.
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v t e Demographics of the United States

Demographic history

Economic and social	Affluence · Educational attainment · Emigration · Homeownership · Household income · Immigration · Income inequality · Language · LGBT · Middle classes · Personal income · Poverty · Social class · Unemployment by state · Wealth

Religion	Prominent examples: Buddhists · Christians (Catholics, Protestants, etc.) · Hindus · Jews · Muslims · Neopagans · Non-religious · Sikhs

Race and ethnicity	People of the United States/Americans · Ethnic groups in the United States · American people by ethnic or national origin · History of the United States by ethnic group · American culture by ethnicity · Race and ethnicity in the Census · Maps of American ancestries · 2010 Census · in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission · Racism White Americans: European Americans (English Americans, German Americans, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Polish Americans, etc.), Non-Hispanic Whites, White Hispanic and Latino Americans, Arab Americans, Jewish Americans,etc. · Black Americans: African Americans, Black Hispanic and Latino Americans, African immigrants and descendants, Afro-Caribbean/West Indian Americans, etc. · Asian Americans (Chinese Americans, Filipino Americans, Asian Hispanic and Latino Americans, Indian Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Japanese Americans, Pakistani Americans, etc.) · Americans from other parts of the Americas: Canadian, Hispanic and Latino Americans (Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans (Stateside), Cuban Americans, Colombian Americans, etc.), Belizean, Brazilian, etc. · Multiracial Americans · Native Americans and Alaska Natives · Oceanic American: Pacific Islands Americans (Chamorro Americans, Native Hawaiians, Samoan Americans, Tongan Americans, etc.), Euro Oceanic American (Australian American, etc)

v t e Race in the 2010 United States Census

"American Indian and Alaskan Native" "Asian" "Black or African American" "Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander" "White" Two or more races

v t e European Americans

Central Europe	Austrian Czech German Frisian Pennsylvania Dutch Hungarian Jewish¹ Polish Rusyn Slovak Slovene

Eastern Europe	Armenian Azeri⁴ Belarusian Georgian Russian² Ukrainian

Northern Europe	British English Scots-Irish Scottish Welsh Cornish Estonian Irish Latvian Lithuanian Scandinavian Danish Finnish Icelandic Norwegian Swedish

Southeast Europe	Albanian Bosnian Bulgarian Croatian Macedonian Montenegrin Romanian Moldovan Serbian

Southern Europe	Basque Catalan Cypriot Greek Italian Sicilian Maltese Portuguese Spanish Isleño Turkish³

Western Europe	Belgian Dutch Frisian French Acadian Cajun Louisiana Creole Luxembourg Swiss

¹ Most Jewish Americans came from Central and Eastern Europe ² Most Russian Americans came from European Russia ³ European part of Turkey ⁴ European part of Azerbaijan

v t e African American topics

African American history	Atlantic slave trade Maafa Slavery in the United States Reconstruction Era Military history of African Americans Jim Crow laws Redlining Great Migration Civil Rights Movements 1896–1954 and 1955–1968 Second Great Migration Afrocentrism Post-Civil Rights era Inauguration of Barack Obama

African American culture	African American studies Neighborhoods Juneteenth Black colleges and universities Kwanzaa Art Museums Dance Literature Music sexual orientation

Religion	Black church Black liberation theology Black theology Doctrine of Father Divine American Society of Muslims Nation of Islam Black Hebrew Israelites

Political movements	Pan-Africanism Nationalism Black Power Black fist Capitalism Conservatism Populism Leftism Black Panther Party Garveyism

Civic and economic groups	National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) National Urban League (NUL) Rights organizations Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) Thurgood Marshall College Fund United Negro College Fund (UNCF) National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC) National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) The Links National Council of Negro Women (NCNW)

Sports	Negro league baseball (Baseball color line) Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) African Americans in the NFL African Americans in the CFL

Ethnic sub-divisions	Black Indians Gullah Igbo

Languages	English Gullah Louisiana Creole French African American Vernacular English

Diaspora	Caribbean Liberia Nova Scotia Sierra Leone France Haiti

Lists	African Americans African-American firsts First mayors U.S. state firsts List of African-American Republicans Landmark African-American legislation African-American-related articles Topics related to the Black Diaspora African-American visual artists

Category Portal

v t e Asian Americans

East Asian	Chinese (Tibetan¹) Japanese Korean Mongolian Taiwanese

South Asian²	Bangladeshi Indian Indo-Caribbean Nepalese Pakistani Sri Lankan Tamil

Southeast Asian	Burmese Cambodian Filipino Hmong Indonesian Laotian Mien Singaporean Thai Vietnamese

Other	Afro-Asian Amerasian Asian Hispanic and Latino Americans Eurasian Multiracial American Punjabi Mexican

History	General Immigration Military

Topics	Arts and Entertainment Demographics Politics Stereotypes

¹ The US Census Bureau reclassifies anyone identifying as "Tibetan American" as "Chinese American".^[1] ² The US Census Bureau considers Afghanistan a South Asian country, but does not classify Afghan Americans as Asian.^[2]

v t e Rights of Native Americans in the United States

Cases	Cherokee Nation v. Georgia Worcester v. Georgia Standing Bear v. Crook Talton v. Mayes Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock Menominee Tribe v. United States McClanahan v. Arizona State Tax Comm'n Bryan v. Itasca County Hodel v. Irving Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians v. Holyfield Cobell v. Salazar

Acts	Nonintercourse Act Civilization Act Indian Removal Act Dawes Act Curtis Act Burke Act Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 Indian Reorganization Act Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act Indian Civil Rights Act Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act American Indian Religious Freedom Act Indian Child Welfare Act Indian Gaming Regulatory Act Native American Languages Act Indian Arts and Crafts Act Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act

Related	Aboriginal title Public Law 280 National Indian Gaming Commission Native American gambling enterprises Cherokee Commission Dawes Rolls Bureau of Indian Affairs Eagle feather law

v t e Middle Eastern Americans

Afghan • Arab (Emirati • Iraqi • Jordanian • Lebanese • Palestinian • Saudi • Syrian • Yemeni) • Armenian • Assyrian • Azerbaijani • Cypriot • Iranian • Israeli • Kurdish • North African (Algerian • Egyptian • Moroccan • Sudanese • Tunisian) • Turkish

v t e Pacific Islands Americans

Micronesian	Chamorros · Marshallese American

Polynesian	Native Hawaiians · Samoan American · Tongan American

Melanesian	Fijian

v t e Hispanic and Latino American groups

Central American / Caribbean	Costa Rican Cuban Dominican Guatemalan Honduran Nicaraguan Panamanian Puerto Rican Salvadoran

North American	Mexican Chicano Punjabi Californio Nuevomexicano Tejano

South American	Argentine Bolivian Colombian Chilean Ecuadorian Paraguayan Peruvian Uruguayan Venezuelan

Western European	Spanish Basque Catalan Hispano Isleño

Racial groups	All groups American Indians/Native American Asian Black White Multiracial (Mulatto, Mestizo, Zambo, Pardo, "Cholo", Castizo, etc)

related ethnic groups	Belizean Americans Brazilian Americans Haitian Americans Guyanese Americans

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