#30men30days

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Roberto Clemente was passionate about two things: baseball and helping others. The Puerto Rican right-fielder was a Pittsburgh Pirates his entire professional career. In 18 seasons he became a 12-time All-Star, Golden Glove winner who took his team to the World Series twice, once as MVP. When not playing he dedicated his time to family and indigent communities throughout Latin America where he regularly provided food donations and sports equipment. He died en route to Nicaragua when the plane he’d filled with supplies for earthquake victims crashed shortly after takeoff. Clemente was the first Latino player to be inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame just after his passing.

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#HispanicHeritageMonth|#30Men30Days| Arturo Alfono Schomberg  

When a teacher told a schoolboy in Puerto Rico that Black people had no history, Arturo Alfonso Schomberg took the statement as a challenge. The self-identified Afro-Borinqueno went on to dedicate his life to chronicling the lives and achievements of Black people across the world and became a founding father of the Black Studies movement. Schomberg was born in 1874 in Santurce, Puerto Rico to a free black midwife from St. Croix and a German merchant. He completed high school and went on to the Virgin Islands to study black literature at St. Thomas College. As a writer, historian and activist he took his skills to New York City in 1891 at just 17 years old and worked as a researcher for a law firm all while writing and documenting the Afro-Latino and African American experience in the U.S. In New York he became part of the Puerto Rican and Cuban independence movements and a leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance. His personal archive of writings, documents and art numbered in the thousands by the time they were bought by the New York Public Library. He was hired to curate his collection and continued accumulating information from across the world. The collection grew to a division which grew to a center and was renamed The Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture in 1940 two years after his death. It’s safe to say Schomberg accomplished his mission.

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#HispanicHeritageMonth|#30Men30Days|Jason De Leon  

 You might just consider Jason De Leon the Latino Indiana Jones. You see, the Ann Arbor native is an anthropologist. But not just any anthropologist. Yes, he spends many of his days teaching at the University of Michigan, but De Leon also documents the toll of migrants who risk their lives to cross from Mexico into the United States. How? By searching and collecting items left behind (such as shoes, backpacks and water bottles). Sometimes his searches lead him to dangerous places where corpses of those who never reached the U.S. are found. The result? De Leon gets to show the human cost of migrants’ travails. The world has noticed. Because today, De Leon joins an elite class, becoming the recipient of MacArthur ‘genius’ grant for his work.

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#HispanicHeritageMonth #30men30days Carlos Santana

Carlos Santana was an unknown guitarist when he and his self-named band opened at Woodstock in 1969. The performance jump-started Santana’s career (his band would get signed to Columbia Records that same year) and his future success (he’s sold over 100 million albums around the world). Influenced by rock and blues pioneers such as Ritchie Valens and John Lee Hooker, he introduced his genre blending sound of rock and with Latin American rhythms, to a global stage essentially creating new genres like fusion and world music. The unassuming, shaggy-haired Mexican American went from washing dishes and performing on street corners to selling sold out world tours. Born in Jalisco, Mexico and raised in Tijuana and San Francisco, Santana’s talent was honed by his mariachi father who taught him to play violin as a child. His first two albums featured iconic songs including “Evil Ways,” “Oye Como Va” and “Black Magic Woman.” Rather than settling for one style he has spent his 40 plus year career experimenting with jazz, Latin, African and American sounds. Santana has worked with everyone from Miles Davis to Shakira to the Isley Brothers, and has found his greatset success when he collaborated with others. In 2000 he released Supernatural, an album of duets, which became his most successful album and won him 9 Grammys.. Aside from making music, he’s an active philanthropist with his Milagro Foundation which provides resources to for children’s education, arts and health. In 1998 he, as well as his band, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. With this honor, as well as 10 Grammy’s and 3 Latin Grammys, Santana will forever be in the history books.

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#HispanicHeritageMonth | #30Men30Days | Alberto Perez 

In 1999, Alberto Perez moved from his native Colombia to Miami, Florida "in search of the American Dream." Besides teaching aerobics classes, he promoted his own fitness and dance routines that were accompanied primarily by Latin music. Success however, was limited. That is until 2003 where with financial and technical assistance from Alberto Perlman he began to distribute his routines as DVDs. They gained momentum creating the following that today is known simply as “Zumba Fitness.” Now when you hear the words Zumba Fitness, you may roll your eyes, perhaps thinking it’s just another trend that will come and go. However, this Latin dance exercise class that incorporates reggaeton, merengue and salsa, has artists such as Don Omar, Pitbull, Daddy Yankee and Wyclef creating custom tracks for it. It has over 200 employees furthering its mission and it over 14 million followers in over 180 countries. Hard to call that a just a trend.

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#HispanicHeritageMonth|#30Men30Days| Victor Espinoza 

Let’s say you’ve won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes three times. Where do you go from there? If you’re Victor Espinoza, you go on to make horse racing history.   You see, in 2014 Espinoza became the regular rider of a then unknown colt named American Pharoah, teaming with the horse in it's second race. It would prove to be the perfect match, as American Pharoah and Espinoza went on to win the 2015 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, the third time Espinoza would win such contests and the perfect set up for Espinoza’s third attempt at the Triple Crown. On June 6, 2015 with American Pharoah, Espinoza won the elusive race. A victory that made the jockey the first Triple Crown winner in over 37 years and the first Latino in history to do so.

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#HispanicHeritageMonth|#30Men30Days| Franklin Chang Diaz

Franklin Chang Diaz shot for the moon and landed among the stars. The first Latino in space was an immigrant child from Costa Rica when he and his family moved from San Jose to Connecticut. He pursued his passion for science at the University of Connecticut and earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering and later a doctorate in physics from MIT where he focused on fusion reactions and rocket propulsion. Diaz was selected to join NASA as an astronaut in 1981. The physicist made seven space missions, the first in 1986, and holds the records for the most missions. The distinction helped him land in NASA’s Astronaut’s Hall of Fame. Aside from running his own rocket technology firm he’s taught physics at Rice University and is actively involved in raising awareness about climate change.

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#HispanicHeritageMonth|#30Men30Days| Arte Moreno  

Latinos playing baseball is nothing new, but a Latino owning a baseball team? That’s definitely news. Arte Moreno made history in 2003 when he married his passion for baseball with his head for business, and became the first Latino owner of MLB’s The Anaheim Angels. The Mexican American billionaire who made his fortune running a billboard company, got his feet wet in the mid 90s as co-owner of the minor league team Salt Lake City Trappers. He made it to the majors when he invested in Arizona’s first baseball team, the Arizona Diamondbacks. Not bad for a kid who grew up in a two room home with 10 siblings. Moreno is proof that you can hit it out of the park.