ICUG Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Heroes

ICUG Celebrates

Hispanic Heritage

Heroes & Heroines

ICUG continues it's Celebration of Cultural Diversity, to promote Heritage Preservation, Cultural Exchange, Enrichment and Appreciation toward International Understanding, Unity and Goodwill. With a Spotlight on Hispanic Heritage ~ A Breath and Richness, the Scope of which is difficult to cover here in such a limited space, but hoping to give but a small peek to spark the fires of Inspiration for Readers to Seek to learn and know more. Knowledge is Power. In honor of All People of Hispanic descent, across the USA, Mexico, Central and South America, we would like to present a Tribute Past and Present toward a Brighter Future for Us All. As We consider Ourselves One Extended Family Circle, here we Celebrate Hispanic Heritage!


ICUG salutes "Latino Link", an Online Community designed to meet the needs of the Hispanic User. From it's beginnings in 1995, as a Free Membership Website, until it sadly closed it's doors in 2001, due to financial considerations. Latino Link set the standard in it's Professional Presentation of Forums, News, Culture and Entertainment, and answered the call, helping to bridge The Digital Divide. As a tribute to Latino Link, and a Celebration of Heritage, we would like to Preserve and Present the fruits of their fine efforts, in an Online Gallery of The 20 Most Influential Hispanic Personalities of the Century. Latino Link (which later changed it's name to Latino.com), polled it's online User Community and tallied 500 votes and nominations, to let the Membes decide who they felt were the most influential Hispanic Persons of the last 100 years. Here, we preserve their words, and present them for All to Read.

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As first presented by LatinoLink.com - for Hispanic Heritage Month October 2000 - Credit to Lavonne Luquis, Editor and the Latino.com Crew

o name all of the Latinos who influenced the 20th century would be an unmanageable task. To name 20 would be even harder. So we left the task up to our loyal online members. More than 500 Latino.com members responded to our poll on the most influential Hispanics of the last 100 years. We thank you for a job well done.

We tabulated the nominations and came up with a list of the top 20. We will countdown the list until we get to number one on Oct. 15, the closing day of Hispanic Heritage Month.

The final list included a number of entertainers, including several recent performers who collectively bridged Latino and mainstream U.S. cultures through their music, videos and films as others like Desi Arnaz and Carmen Miranda had done in years before them.

There were many excellent nominations that did not make the final list. Women such as astronaut Ellen Ochoa and men like actor Raúl Juliá earned several votes as well as unsung heroes like local high school educators and community leaders. They will be represented in Latino.com's own look back at past profiles of Hispanics making a difference.

Most noteworthy was the large number of users who nominated mamá y papá, not to mention los abuelitos, tÌas y tÌos.

So we are recognizing family as honorable mention in our list of the most influential Latinos of the 20th century.

Latino.com salutes our Hispanic Heritage Heroes and encourages our community's youth to strive for becoming heroes of the 21st century.

- The Latino.com Staff