Celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month: Oscar De La Hoya, Mexican-American boxer extraordinaire

Oscar De La Hoya, born February 4, 1973 in East Los Angeles, California, is the first boxer in history to win world titles in six different weight divisions: Super featherweight, Lightweight, Light Welterweight, Welterweight, Light Middleweight, and Middleweight.

Over his career of 45 professional boxing fights, he won 39 times, with only 6 losses. 

De La Hoya took home the gold medal in the 1992 Olympic games, and he was named The Ring magazine Fighter of the Year in 1995.  In 2008, he was inducted into the US Olympic Hall of Fame.

Celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month: Richie Valens, Chicano rock and roll pioneer

Ritchie Valens, born Richard Valenquela May 13, 1941 in Los Angeles, California, was a pioneer in rock and roll and a forefather of Chicano rock.  He scored several hits over his short career including La Bamba, which he adapted from a Mexican folk song.  He died February 3, 1959, in a plane crash when he was just 17 years old.  It was the same crash that killed Buddy Holly, J. P. Richardson, and pilot Roger Peterson.  

He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Native American Music Awards Hall of Fame and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

Celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month: Eleuterio Marquez, first Hispanic American recipient of the Navy Cross

 

I had to do some checking on this one, because I was confused.  Eleuterio "Joe" Marquez is the first Hispanic recipient of the Navy Cross.  Frederick Riefkohl is the first Puerto Rican recipient of the Navy Cross.  

Marquez was born in Los Angeles and was just 19.  He had been in the navy for just a year before he was part of the force that landed on the island of Peleliu during WWII, in September 1944.  At the time, he was Pharmacist's Mate Third Class.  The force took heavy casualties and 59 corpsmen were kill in action.  Marquez established a station where he could administer first aid and plasma, and send wounded troops back to the ships.

In October 1944, Marquez and his unit climbed Bloody Nose Ridge to oust the Japanese from their fortifications.  One night, they came under heavy fire and Marquez was severely wounded, but he managed to start tending wounded. He worked through the night to tend to all of wounded.  

There is apparently a paranormal slant to this story but I won't expand on it.  Yet.

Marquez was awarded the Navy Cross, the first American of Mexican descent to receive the honor.  He passed away in 2015.

https://www.military.com/history/first-hispanic-navy-cross-recipient-was-corpsman-peleliu.html#:~:text=Marquez%20was%20awarded%20the%20Navy,in%202015%20at%20age%2090.

Celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month: Patrick Flores, first Mexican-American Catholic bishop

Patricio (Patrick) Flores, born July 26, 1929 in Ganado, Texas, became the first Mexican-American Catholic bishop.  After graduating from high school in Galveston, he studied at St. Mary's Seminary in La Porte, TX and St. Mary's Seminary in Houston.

He was ordained as a priest for the Diocese of Galveston-Houston May 26, 1956. Pope Paul VI appointed Flores as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of San Antonio in March 1970, and then as bishop of the Dioceses of El Paso in May 1978. 

In August 1979, Pope John Paul II appointed Flores as archbishop of the Archdiocese of San Antonio.  He retired at the age of 75 in December 2004.  He passed away in January 2017 of congestive heart failure and pneumonia.  

Celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month: George Ramos, three-time Pulitzer Prize winner

George Ramos, born October 1, 1947, won the Pulitzer Prize three times.  He participated in a 27-part newspaper series in the Los Angeles Times, Latinos, which focused on southern California's Latino community and culture of the early 1980s.  He was among a Mexican-American team of two editors and eleven reporters and photographers.  They won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for the series.

Ramos won his second Pulitzer in 1993 for his on-the-spot reporting of the Rodney King riots.  His third Pulitzer for reporting of the Northridge earthquake.  

In 2007, he was inducted into the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Hall of Fame.

Celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month: Anthony Quinn, first Mexican-American actor to win an Oscar

Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (Anthony Quinn), born April 21, 1915 in Chihuahua, Mexico, was an actor and is the first Mexican-American actor to win an Academy Award.  He won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor first in 1952 for his role in Viva Zapata! and the second in 1956 for Lust for Life. 

He was nominated for Best Actor twice, and won the Cecil B. DeMille Award Golden Globe in 1987.  

Quinn passed away from respiratory failure in June 2001 in Boston.