Severo Ochoa won the Nobel Prize in 1959 for medicine. He received the prize for his discovery of the process that would allow humans to create RNA in a test tube — a vital life substance that makes cells work and grow. This knowledge can be useful in understanding many things about the body, like why some cells stay healthy while tumors grow in others.

César Chávez came from a family of poor migrant workers. Through the experiences of his family, he knew the hard lives led by farm workers who came to work in California from Mexico. They had to live in dirty, cramped places and earned little money. In 1962, with Dolores Huerta, he started a group to change these terrible conditions — the United Farm Workers of America. At first the workers were afraid of the produce growers. But Chávez inspired the group and led peaceful protests and boycotts. These actions convinced the growers to sign contracts with the farm workers and to treat them better.

Corky Gonzales became an important leader for young and poor Mexican Americans in the 1960s. In Denver, he started The Crusade for Justice, a group that pushed for civil rights and equality for Mexican Americans. Gonzales wrote the poem I Am Joaquín, which helped people to understand the struggles faced by Mexican Americans.

Jaime Escalante is a teacher who has changed the lives of Latino students in poor neighborhoods in Los Angeles. When he first came to Garfield High School, many of his students were failing. Escalante fought for better textbooks and inspired his students to succeed by setting high standards and winning over his tough students. The movie Stand and Deliver is about how his students proved they could succeed by passing a very difficult math test before college.

María Irene Fornés has written more than 35 plays, many of them about the lives of Latinos and women. She has won six Obie Awards — the highest award for off-Broadway plays — plus many other honors. She helps young Latinos get started in the theater.

Dolores Huerta has devoted her whole life to better treatment and justice for farm workers. Along with César Chávez, she co-founded the United Farm Workers of America. She negotiated the first labor contract for the migrant farm workers and helped get the growers to agree to stop using dangerous chemicals on grapes. Because of a boycott Huerta led in 1970, urging people not to buy California grapes, the grape industry agreed to treat the workers better.

Proud of his Puerto Rican roots, Roberto Clemente drew attention to the excellence of Latin American players in Major League baseball during the 1960s and early 1970s. A player for the Pittsburgh Pirates, he was the first Puerto Rican to be voted Most Valuable Player. A great fielder and hitter, Clemente was loved by many because of his deep concern for people and work on behalf of his native Puerto Ricans. Clemente was killed in a plane crash on his way to take supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua on New Year's Eve 1972. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973.

Rita Moreno is one of only two female performers ever to be given all four of entertainment's biggest awards. She has won a Tony, for theater; a Grammy, for music; an Emmy, for television; and an Oscar for her role in the musical West Side Story. (Barbara Streisand is the other.) She has acted in more than 25 movies and has performed for the president of the United States.

In 1990, Antonia Novello became the first Hispanic person — and first woman as well — to be appointed as Surgeon General, the chief doctor in the United States. As a child, she had a chronic illness that hurt her digestion, causing her great suffering. She never forgot that experience. As surgeon general, Novello especially campaigned for better care for children. She also paid special attention to the problems of alcoholism, smoking, AIDS, and violence.

Linda Chavez-Thompson is the first person of color ever elected to an executive office of the AFL–CIO and is the highest–ranking woman in the labor movement. She is the Executive Vice–President of the AFL-CIO, the largest labor union in the country. As a union leader, she works to obtain better conditions for workers and to bring more workers into unions.

Federico Peña was the highest-ranking Hispanic member of President Bill Clinton's administration. He worked to improve the safety of jets and planes as Secretary of Transportation from 1993–97. Then Peña became Secretary of Energy, from 1997 to 1998. In that position, Peña focused on improving energy research and supporting schools in getting access to the Internet, among other efforts.