By: Pamela Stern
National Hispanic Heritage Month is annually celebrated from September 15th through October 15th in the United States and recognizes the contributions and influences of Hispanic Americans (whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America) for their history, culture, and achievements in the United States.
Initially, the observance began as Hispanic Heritage Week in 1968 under President Lyndon Johnson and later was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover an entire 30-day period.
National Hispanic Heritage Month begins in the middle of the month because on September 15th five Latin American countries all declared their independence from Spain. The countries that celebrate their anniversary of independence on September 15th are: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Mexico’s independence is celebrated on September 16th and Chile celebrates its independence on September 18th.
The Spring Creek Sun has complied a list of some influential Hispanic Sports Figures to spotlight for National Hispanic Heritage Month:
Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker was born on August 18, 1934and was a Puerto Rican professional baseball player who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittasurgh Pirates primarily as a right fielder. He was a 15-time All-star who led his team to two World Series (1960 and 1971). He’s also one of 31 players to get 3,000 hits. Clemente tragically died on December 31, 1972 in a plane crash that was delivering aid to the victims of an earthquake in Nicaragua. After his early and sudden death, the National Baseball Hall of Fame changed its rules so that a player who has been dead for at least six months will be eligible for entry. In 1973 Clemente was inducted, becoming the first Caribbean and the first Latin-American player to be honored in the Hall of Fame.
Oscar De La Hoya– born on February 4, 1973 and is an American boxing promoter and former professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2008. He has won 11 world titles in six different weight classes, including the lineal championship in three weight classes. De La Hoya was nicknamed “The Golden Boy of boxing” by the media when he represented the United States at the 1992 Summer Olympics, he won a gold medal in the lightweight division, and reportedly “set a sport back on its feet. His parents immigrated from Mexico to the United States prior to his birth. He was born in East Los Angeles, California into a boxing family; his grandfather, Vicente, was an amateur fighter during the 1940s, and his father, Joel Sr., had been a professional boxer during the 1960s. His brother, Joel Jr., was also a boxer.
Laurie Hernandez wasborn on June 9, 2000 in Old Bridge Township, New Jersey. She is of Puerto Rican descent. Hernandez won a gold medal as part of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team at the 2016 Rio Olympics and a silver medal at the individual balance beam event. Hernandez, also won the 23rd season of “Dancing with the Stars.” Not bad for a 17-year-old.
Rebecca Rose Lobo-Rushin was born on October 6th, 1973 and 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. She isone of the early stars of the WNBA, the Cuban-American basketball player won a national championship with Connecticut (1995), a gold medal at the 1996 Olympics, and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.
Nancy Lopez wasborn on January 6, 1957 in Torrance, California, to Mexican American parents. When she was eight, her father, Domingo, who ran an auto-body repair shop, gave Lopez her first set of clubs. She is an American former professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1977 and won 48 LPGA Tour events, including three major championships. During her first full season on the LPGA Tour in 1978, Lopez won nine tournaments, including five consecutive. She appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated in July, won the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average, LPGA Rookie of the Year, and LPGA Player of the Year. She also won another eight times in 1979, and won multiple times in each subsequent year from 1980 to 1984. In 1985, Lopez posted five wins, five seconds, five thirds, won the money title, the scoring title, the Player of the Year Award, and was named Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year for a second time. She again won Player of the Year honors in 1988. Lopez was considered to be one of the greats of women’s golf, and the game’s best player from the late 1970s to late 1980s. Lopez was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1987 and retired from regular tournament play in 2002. Lopez is the only woman to win LPGA Rookie of the Year, Player of the Year, and the Vare Trophy in the same season (1978). Her company, Nancy Lopez Golf, makes a full line of women’s clubs and accessories. She also does occasional television commentary.
Lionel Messi was born on June, 24th 1987,and is also known as Leo Messi. He is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward and captains in both Major League Soccer club Inter Miami and the Argentina national team. He is regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. In 2020, he was named to the Ballon d’Or Dream Team. Until departing the club in 2021, he had spent his entire professional career with Barcelona, where he won 34 trophies, including ten La Liga titles, seven Copa del Rey and the UEFA Champions League four times. Messi holds the records for most goals La Liga (474), and the most international goals by a South American male (104). Messi has scored over 800 senior career goals for the club and country, and has the most goals by a player for a single club (672).
Mariano Rivera was born on November 29, 1969 and is a Panamanian-American former professional baseball pitcher who played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, from 1995 to 2013. He was nicknamed “Mo” and “Sandman“,he spent most of his career as a relief pitcher and served as the Yankees’ closer for 17 seasons. He is a thirteen-time All-Star and five-time World Series champion, he is MLB’s career leader in saves (652) and games finished (952). Rivera won five American League (AL) Rolaids Relief Man Awards and three Delivery Man of the Year awards. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as part of its class of 2019 in his first year of eligibility.
Alberto Salazar was born on August 7, 1958 and is an American former track coach and long distance runner. He was born in Cuba, and immigrated to the United States as a child with his family, living in Connecticut and then in Wayland, Massachusetts, where Salazar competed in track and field in high school. Salazar won the New York City Marathon three times in the early 1980s, and won the 1982 Boston Marathon in a race known as the “Duel in the Sun”. He set American track records for 5,000 m and 10,000 m in 1982. Salazar was later the head coach of the Nike Oregon Project. He won the IAAF Coaching Achievement Award in 2013.
Dara Torres was born was born on April 15, 1967in Los Angeles to Cuban parents, She is one of the most successful female Olympians of all time, winning 12 total medals throughout her career. In 2008, she became the oldest swimmer to make a U.S. Olympic team. She is the daughter of Edward Torres, and Marylu Kauder. Her father was a real estate developer and casino owner, originally from Cuba and her mother Marylu was a former American model. As a seven-year-old, she joined the community YMCA for swimming practice; afterward, she signed up for the swimming club in Culver City to train. At 14, she won the national open championship in the 50-yard freestyle by defeating the then-current champion.
She attended the Westlake School for Girls and competed for the school’s swim team from the seventh grade through her sophomore year in high school. She was also a member of the school’s basketball, gymnastics, and volleyball teams. During her junior year in high school, she left home to swim for the Mission Viejo Nadadores in Mission Viejo, California while training for her first Olympics. After the 1984 Olympics, she returned to her high school to graduate in 1985. Torres accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, where she swam for the Florida Gators swimming and diving teams in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
