HOLA! LA Hispanic Heritage Month Spotlight

Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrating in the U.S. from September 15th to October 15th. The notable accomplishment by Latinos are impressive and numerous, however little or no attention is paid to them. HOLA! LA takes this opportunity to give you an overview of historical contributions and the latest movers and shakers Latinos making America great!

We have a Latino president of the United States, Esai Morales on HBO's Brink.

A Golden Glove Winner Gina Rodriguez of the CW's Jane the Virgin

And three Imagen awards one for the show, one for Gina and one for Andrea Navedo

Alejandro González Iñárritu - Earlier this year Iñárritu took home an Oscar for Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Director for his film Birman: Or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance and giving his good friend since his day in Mexico Emmanuel Lubezki, the opportunity to also take home an Oscar for Best Achievement in Cinematography.

Congrats to first time Emmy nominated actor Richard Cabral of ABC's American Crime.

The hit series East Los High on Hulu just got picked up for a 3rd season. A big congrats to all the writers' room which includes Carlos Portugal (creator), Charo Toledo, Evelina Fernandez, Cris Franco, Rick Najera and Luisa Leschin and actors.

Los Angeles Theater critically acclaimed productions MacArthur "Genius" Foundation Fellow LUIS ALFARO's MOJADA: A Medea in Los Angeles AT GETTY VILLA. At the Pasadena Playhouse,

Josefina Lopez's REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES. Both production played to pack houses for weeks and recently closed.

Alfonso Gomez-Rejon sold his film Me and Earl and the Dying Girl at Sundance for $12 million. And that is just the beginning. With a winning TV directing career directing episodes of American Horror Story and Glee, Gomez-Rejon just made his life a lot busier.

Here the HOLA! LA hosts share a few more of their favorites Latinos whose contributions have changed the world and some who are just getting started!

Bel Hernandez - Faves

Lin Manuel Miranda's Broadway Hit
Tony winning writer/actor/lyricist/Composer Lin Manuel Miranda on his hit play Hamilton, the hottest ticket on Broadway sold out for over a year. Andrew Lloyd Weber twitted about the production "Just seen #Hamilton; it raises & changes the bar for musicals. Brilliant lyrics, staging, cast. Creator/lead @Lin_Manuel is special. ALW."

Building King Kong

Marcel Delgado a sculptor by trade originally from Coahuila, Mexico. He was discovered in the Otis College of Art & Design by Hollywood special effect man Willis O'Brien. Delgado, model making technique revolutionized the stop motion film industry. He is best known for his work on the 1933 film King Kong.

The Alvarez Theory
Luis Walter Alvarez, born in San Francisco was an American experimental physicist, inventor, and professor who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1968. He and his son, geologist Walter Alvarez in 1980 proposed a theory that an asteroid impact in Yucatan, Mexico caused extinction level event of cretaceous (dinosaur) era. The "uncovered a calamity that literally shook the Earth and is one of the great discoveries about Earth's history" (American Journal of Physics). This is now known as the Alvarez Theory.

Western Vernacular
Many of the words in the western vernacular in the U.S. is rooted in the culture and Spanish words. Here are but a few

Lariat - From the Spanish phase "La Riata"
Buckaroo - From the Spanish word "Vaquero"
Chaps - From the Spanish Word "Chaparreras"
Mustag - From the Spanish words "Mesteno"
DollyWelter - from the Spanish phrase "Dale Vuelta"

Naibe Reynoso

Becky G - The Next Big Music Star
At only 17, Becky G hails from Inglewood, CA and she first got the attention of Grammy-winning producer Dr. Luke by doing covers of Jay Z and Kanye West songs and making them her own. Her music is a mix between pop-rap and Latin pop music genres. On June 26, 2015, Becky G debuted a song titled "We Are Mexico" in solidarity with the Hispanic community in response to Donald Trump's controversial remarks against immigration from Mexico and Latin America

Pulitzer Prize Writer
Born in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and raised in New Jersey Junot Diaz received a Pulitzer prize for his novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, in 2008. He is a 2012 MacArthur Fellow and has numerous other prestigious writing awards. He currently teaches creative writing writing at MIT, and is fiction editor at Boston Review.

Sylvia Mendez the Mexican/Puerto Rican Rosa Parks of the West
Nine years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person, Sylvia Mendez was the catalyst that resulted in the Mendez v. Westminster case, the landmark desegregation case of 1946, paved the way for integration and the American civil rights movement. When Mendez was refused enrollment in the "Whites only" school, her parented sued and won. That would eventually bring an end the era of segregated education. Mendez was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor, on February 15, 2011.

Kikey Castillo

Isabella Rose Taylor
Mexican American fashion designer prodigy Isabella Rose Taylor is only 14 and her juniors clothing line has already made it to a rack in Nordstrom. The Austin, Texas girl was eight years old when she attended a sewing camp. Soon after, she started making her own clothes. Her designs drew compliments, and then her friends started asking her to sew clothes for them, and just a few months later she held her first trunk show in a local boutique.

Inventing Color TV
Mexican inventor Guillermo González Camarena received the patent for the first color TV in 1940 by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), when he was just 23 years old! He paved the way for the color screens on our tablets, TVs, computers, tablets, and more.

Desi Arnaz - TV Entrepreneur and Producer
Cuban-born American musician, actor, television producer, writer and director Desi Arnaz created the sitcom, along with his then wife Lucille Ball I Love Lucy, in which they both starred. He is credited with coming up with the multiple-camera setup production shoot for sitcoms. Deci and Lucille Ball co-founded DesiLu Productions which also produced some of TV's most iconic TV series The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Lucy Show, Mission: Impossible, and Star Trek.

Dyana Ortelli

SOFIA VERGARA
Was named the highest Paid Actress on TV for four consecutive years at $28.5. Her role in the long running hit show Modern Family on ABC launched her career and her endorsement deals and co-ownership of the talent management and entertainment-marketing firm Latin World Entertainment keep her on this big roller list.

Jessica Alba
Former actress and Latina, Jessica Alba is her way to earning a spot on Forbes Magazine's new ranking of America's Richest Self-Made Women with her Honest company which makes safe, nontoxic products for young babies and family, an its way to becoming a billion dollar company.

Eva Longoria
Actress, producer, director, activist and businesswoman she came to prominence in ABC's Desperate Housewives. She has since then branched out to producing film and documentaries, is owner of Beso a restaurant in L.A. She campaigned for Obama in 2008 and is a philanthropist at heart supporting causes from cancer to children with special needs. Last pilot season she had four optioned and one of them Hot & Bothered is scheduled to premiere in the spring of 2016.

Jennifer Lopez
What can be said about one of the most well-known Latinas the world over and what hasn't she done. Performer/actress/entrepreneur/producer and mother. She has it all and is one of Hollywood's highest profile actresses. Come Spring 2016 stay tuned to see Jennifer Lopez back on TV as Det. Harlee Santos on NBC's Shades of Blue

International Icon

Dolores Huerta - A labor leader and civil rights activist for the United Farm Workers (UFW). Awarded the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights[1] and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. As a role model to many in the Latino community, Huerta is the subject of many corridos (ballads) and murals.

Local Community Icons

Alex Nogales, President/CEO of National Hispanic Media Coalition - Alex Nogales works tireless for the balances portrayal and on issues affecting Latinos in media. His organization's on hate speech, under Alex's leadership the organization has increasingly engaged on media and telecommunications policies that impact the Latino community. NHMC has an office in Washington, D.C., and serves as the voice of the Latino community on such issues as

Hilda Solis, L.A. County Supervisor - Dist. 1, - Former U.S. Secretary of Labor, Solis returned to her home town and quickly got into local politics an elected to the L.A. County board

Thomas Saenz, President and General Counsel of MALDEF which is the nation's leading Latino legal civil rights organization. Often described as the "law firm of the Latino community", Sans is a nationally recognized civil rights attorney, returns to MALDEF as President and General Counsel.

We are positive you have your favorites! Leave us a comment and let us know is on your favorite list.