According to the celebration’s official website, National Hispanic Heritage Month is an American celebration honoring the cultures and contributions of people with ancestors from Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, South America, and Spain. There are numerous ways to celebrate Hispanic heritage. One excellent option is to tell the incredible stories of famous Latinos who have helped shape our country’s rich history.

Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated annually from September 15 to October 15. It is an opportunity to honor American citizens’ histories, cultures, and contributions with ancestors from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. Check out our list of 7 Hispanic Americans who have made an impact on the world.

Ellen Ochoa

RD.COM/ Pinterest | The beauty and strength of America lie in its diversity

On April 8, 1993, Ellen Ochoa became the first Hispanic woman in the world to go into space. Ochoa was aboard the Discovery shuttle for a total of nine days while conducting important research into the Earth’s ozone layer. Since that groundbreaking moment, Ochoa has gone on a further three space flights, logging 1,000 hours in space in total.

And, as if her first pioneering mission wasn’t enough, in 2013, Ochoa became the first Hispanic director, and second female director, of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Lin-Manuel Miranda is a well-known songwriter, writer, singer, and actor. He is of Puerto Rican descent and rose to prominence as the author of the Broadway musical Hamilton. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton won numerous awards, including the Tony Award for best musical. When accepting his Tony Award, he stated that love is love and that it cannot be killed by sweeping people aside.

Miranda has won numerous Tony Awards, as well as a Pulitzer Prize, an Oscar, and a Kennedy Center Honor. Lin-Manuel Miranda is a gay rights activist who helped raise millions of dollars to help Puerto Rico recover from Hurricane Maria.

Lin-Manuel Miranda/ Wikimedia Commons | He is known for creating the Broadway musicals Hamilton and In the Heights

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has had a career of firsts: she was the first Latina to serve in the Florida House; the first Latina in the Florida senate; the first Latina to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives; the first Latina, and the first Cuban-American in Congress; and the first woman to ever be chair of a regular standing committee of the House. A true political pioneer in every sense, the Republican representative announced her retirement this year after forty years of service to her constituents and the local community.

Cesar Chavez

Cesar Chavez, a labor leader and civil rights activist, was born to a Mexican-American family in Arizona in 1927. Because he had worked as a farmhand, he was concerned about the rights of farmworkers. After serving in the Navy, he became associated with the Community Service Group (CSO) in California, an important civil rights organization for Latinx people.

Together with Dolores Huerta, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) and led peaceful protests and marches to advocate for Latinx civil rights. Chavez was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously, and his legacy lives on in modern labor movements.

César Chávez/ Wikimedia Commons | César Chávez was an American labor leader and civil rights activist

Ana Mendieta

At the age of 12, Ana Mendieta fled the government change in her home Cuba for Dubuque, Iowa, and became a refugee. This emotion of displacement and loss would subsequently be reflected in Mendieta’s extraordinary works of art. The majority of her 200 artworks employ the earth as their medium, relying on indigenous sources of knowledge, spiritualism, and magic, and are radically feminist in approach and subject matter. Ana Mendieta is just now receiving the acclaim she deserves in the art world after being disregarded in art history books in favor of her husband Carl Andre, who was controversially absolved of Mendieta’s 1985 murder.

James Wiley