American Latino Heritage

Dolores Huerta was born Dolores Clara Fernández on April 10, 1930, in the mining town of Dawson, New Mexico. She was the daughter of Juan Fernández and Alicia Chávez. Her father was a farm worker, miner, and union activist elected to the New Mexico legislature in 1938. When she was three, her parents divorced. Huerta moved with her two brothers and mother to Stockton, California, where she spent most of her childhood and early adult life.

Meet Evelyn Moreno, a Communications Specialist at the Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program (RTCA) in Washington, DC. She started as a fellow in the office before becoming a full-time employee. Learn more about her journey to the National Park Service and her passion for making the outdoors accessible for all.

Ynes Mexia was a botanist, conservationist, and early pioneer in fighting to preserve the redwood forest of Northern California. Even after starting her career at 55, Ynes Mexia became one of the most successful female botanists of her time. She was a part of the evolving environmental movement in the Bay Area and was an early member of Save the Redwood League. Ynes Mexia helped pave the way for future women of color in the fields of science and conservation.

Among the earliest non-indigenous residents of California were hundreds of people of African background who descended from slaves taken to Mexico during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. These Afro-Latinos, as they have come to be called, helped shape the character of California by blazing trails and establishing towns and ranches that grew into major cities like Los Angeles, San Diego, Monterey, and San Jose.

Use this lesson to learn about Ybor City, a section of Tampa, Florida.

Emma Tenayuca was a Mexican American labor organizer and civil rights activist. She led a wave of strikes by women workers in Texas in the 1930s. Her actions empowered her community and inspired workers across the country.

Three lessons allow students to explore the challenges for education equality during World War II and study the people who fought to improve access for their communities. In support of the Entangled Inequalities: Japanese Incarceration and Mendez et al. v Westminster School District of Orange County et al. article series.

The Manhattan Project at Hanford and the Tri-Cities looked like many areas of the American South during the 1940s. Practices of segregation, discrimination, and racism were embedded into the fabric of workplace and community. Latinos/as who were recruited to Hanford for the Manhattan Project experienced prejudice and segregation. Their presence in the workforce and community demonstrates how race, ethnicity, and gender impact demographics across the Tri-Cities then and now.

Meet Cristóbal López. During the summer of 2021, he worked as a Cultural Resource Management Intern for the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park in San Antonio, Texas, under the Latino Heritage Internship Program. He researched the origins of the cemetery located in front of the church at Mission San José, one of the four missions of the park.

Meet Cristóbal López who spent his summer researching the origins of the cemetery located in front of the church at Mission San Jose, one of the four missions of the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. Learn about his work as an intern, and why he has dedicated his academic and professional career to preserving the rich history and heritage of people whose history tends to be lost or left out of certain narratives.