The Latinx culture is an important aspect of our country today.
The first Hispanic-American in the Coast Guard was Juan Andreu,
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19th century lighthouse in St. Augustine[/caption]
America Comes Alive has profiled several Latino leaders during the past few weeks as part of Hispanic Heritage Month. Today I would like to point out a few of the impressive people we’ve highlighted:
movement in New Mexico. She became a government official and held several school- and health-related offices. Later was state director of the federal Civilian Conservation Corps. In 1922 she made an unsuccessful run for Congress. To read more about her life, click here.
Photograph by Bill Stafford[/caption]
Ellen Ochoa (1958- ) is a veteran astronaut who was chosen for four space flights and has almost one thousand flight hours to her credit. She was the first Latina to be chosen as an astronaut, and she is now director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, the second woman to hold the title and the first Latina. She also holds three patents on optical systems that can applied in multiple uses, including space.
The cause of yellow fever was identified by Dr. Carlos Finlay (1833-1915), a Cuban physician who was instrumental in reducing the incidence of yellow fever in tropical climates throughout the world. In the United States, this was important in the southern states where the weather was often subtropical. The discovery was also crucial in Panama where the U.S. invested heavily to build a canal to reduce the shipping time of goods from the East to California and the West.
Pedro Guerrero was born in Casa Grande, Arizona on September 5, 1917. His family had been in Arizona for several generations before the territory achieved statehood. His great-grandfather had settled in a little town known as Florence in 1876, and he went on to serve as justice of the peace.
Born into a well-to-do family that traced its heritage to eleventh-century Spain, Adelina “Nina” Maria Isabel Emilia Otero was born in 1881 in Las Lunas, New Mexico.
