The Hispanic Heritage Foundation is a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

based in Washington, D.C. that works to increase the number of Latina and Latino leaders in society. As of 2010, the Chairman was Pedro José Greer. The foundation hosts several long-term programs, including: *The Hispanic Heritage Youth Awards, created in 1998, which honor Latina/o high school students (organized into regions or "markets") who demonstrate leadership potential and support them as they move through college and into graduate school and/or the workplace, especially in the

STEM fields Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is an umbrella term used to group together the distinct but related technical disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The term is typically used in the context of ...

and in the "Green Industry". As of 2013, the award categories include (in alphabetical order) Business/Entrepreneurship, Education, Engineering/Mathematics, Healthcare/Science and Innovation/Technology. *a Youth Speakers Bureau, an outreach program in which the Youth Award recipients visit schools and other community centers and use social networking tools to provide information and inspiration to young Latinos/as. *the Latinos on Fast Track (LOFT) Workforce Program, created in collaboration with the

Hispanic College Fund Hispanic College Fund, Inc. (HCF) is a nonprofit organization aiming to prepare Hispanic young people to become professionals in the future. It serves primarily high school and college students. It was founded in 1993 by a group of Hispanic business ...

to prepare Latina/o professionals for the workplace. The LOFT program also works with Human Resource departments and corporate diversity programs to place new workers. LOFT also houses the LOFT Innovation branch, the technology and computer programming program, with an office located in Los Angeles, CA. *the Hispanic Heritage Awards, founded in 1987 as part of the first

Hispanic Heritage Month National Hispanic Heritage Month (Spanish: ''Mes nacional de la herencia hispana'') is annually celebrated from September 15 to October 15 in the United States for recognizing the contributions and influence of Hispanic Americans to the history, cul ...

and hosted by over thirty-five national Hispanic organizations, which honor the contributions of Latinas/os in the fields of (alphabetically) arts, education, leadership, literature, math/science, and sports, as well as Vision and Lifetime Achievement Awards. In recent years, the awards ceremony has been televised on both

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language Terrestrial television, terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Television and Streaming#NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a divi ...

, and Mundo Fox. Selected winners in each category include: **''Arts'':

Rita Moreno Rita Moreno (born Rosa Dolores Alverío Marcano; December 11, 1931) is a Puerto Rican actress, dancer, and singer. Noted for her work across different areas of the entertainment industry, she has appeared in numerous film, television, and thea ...

Edward James Olmos Edward James Olmos (born February 24, 1947) is an American actor, director, producer, and activist. He is best known for his roles as Lieutenant Martin "Marty" Castillo in ''Miami Vice'' (1984–1989), ''American Me'' (1992) (which he also dir ...

Gloria Estefan Gloria Estefan (; born Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García; born 1 September 1957) is a Cuban-American singer, actress, and businesswoman. Estefan is a seven-time Grammy Award winner, a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, and has been ...

Tito Puente Ernest Anthony Puente Jr. (April 20, 1923 – June 1, 2000), commonly known as Tito Puente, was an American musician, songwriter, bandleader, and record producer of Puerto Rican descent. He is best known for dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz c ...

Jimmy Smits Jimmy L. Smits (born July 9, 1955) is an American actor. He is best known for playing attorney Victor Sifuentes on the 1980s-1990s legal drama ''L.A. Law'', NYPD Detective Bobby Simone on the 1990s-2000s police drama '' NYPD Blue'', Matt Santos ...

Andy Garcia Andy may refer to: People * Andy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Horace Andy (born 1951), Jamaican roots reggae songwriter and singer born Horace Hinds * Katja Andy (1907–2013), German-American pianist and pi ...

Martin Sheen Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez (born August 3, 1940), known professionally as Martin Sheen, is an American actor. He first became known for his roles in the films ''The Subject Was Roses'' (1968) and ''Badlands'' (1973), and later achieved wid ...

Antonio Banderas José Antonio Domínguez Bandera (born 10 August 1960), known professionally as Antonio Banderas, is a Spanish actor and singer. Known for his work in films of several genres, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Antonio Ba ...

Plácido Domingo José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French, ...

Anthony Quinn Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca (April 21, 1915 – June 3, 2001), known professionally as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican-American actor. He was known for his portrayal of earthy, passionate characters "marked by a brutal and elemental v ...

Ricky Martin Enrique Martín Morales (born December 24, 1971), known professionally as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican singer, songwriter, and actor. He is known for his musical versatility, with his Ricky Martin albums discography, discography spanning ...

John Leguizamo John Alberto Leguizamo Peláez (; ; born July 22, 196013:04) is an American actor, comedian, and film producer. He has appeared in over 100 films, produced over 20 films and documentaries, made over 30 television appearances, and has produced ...

Selena Gomez Selena Marie Gomez ( ; born July 22, 1992) is an American singer, actress and producer. Gomez began her acting career on the children's television series ''Barney & Friends'' (2002–2004). As a teenager, she rose to prominence for starring a ...

Kali Uchis Karly-Marina Loaiza (born July 17, 1994), known professionally as Kali Uchis ( ), is an American singer. She released her debut mixtape, ''Drunken Babble'', in 2012, which was followed by her debut EP, ''Por Vida'', released in 2015. In 2018, Uc ...

**''Business'': Monika Mantilla **''Education'':

Virgilio Elizondo Virgilio P. Elizondo (August 28, 1935 – March 14, 2016) was a Mexican-American Catholic priest and community activist, who was also a leading scholar of liberation theology and Hispanic theology. He was widely regarded as "the father of U.S. Latin ...

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (; born Ileana Carmen Ros y Adato, July 15, 1952) is a politician and lobbyist from Miami, Florida, who represented from 1989 to 2019. By the end of her tenure, she was the most senior U.S. Representative from Florida. She wa ...

Jane Delgado Jane L. Delgado (born June 17, 1953) is a Cuban-American clinical psychologist, health care advocate, non-profit executive, and author. She is president and CEO of the National Alliance for Hispanic Health. She is the author of The ''Buena Salud'' ...

Henry Cisneros Henry Gabriel Cisneros (born June 11, 1947) is an American politician and businessman. He served as the mayor of San Antonio, Texas, from 1981 to 1989, the second Latino mayor of a major American city and the city's first since 1842 (when Juan ...

Jaime Escalante Jaime Alfonso Escalante Gutiérrez (December 31, 1930 – March 30, 2010) was a Bolivian-American educator known for teaching students calculus from 1974 to 1991 at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles. Escalante was the subject of the 19 ...

Isolina Ferré ''Sor'' Isolina Ferré Aguayo (5 September 1914 – 3 August 2000) was a Puerto Rican Roman Catholic religious sister. Known as the "Mother Teresa of Puerto Rico", she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her humanitari ...

Alberto Carvahlo Alberto is the Romance version of the Latinized form (''Albertus'') of Germanic '' Albert''. It is used in Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. The diminutive forms are ''Albertito'' in Spain or ''Albertico'' in some parts of Latin America, Albert ...

Carmen Delgado Votaw Carmen Delgado Votaw was a civil rights pioneer, a public servant, an author, and community leader. She studied at the University of Puerto Rico and graduated from American University in Washington, D.C., with a bachelor of arts in international ...

**''Leadership'': Pedro José Greer,

Patrick Flores Patricio Fernández Flores (July 26, 1929 – January 9, 2017) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served from 1979 to 2004 as archbishop of the Archdiocese of San Antonio in Texas, bishop of the Diocese of El Paso in Texa ...

Hector P. Garcia In Greek mythology, Hector (; grc, Ἕκτωρ, Hektōr, label=none, ) is a character in Homer's Iliad. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. Hector led the Trojans and their allies in the defense o ...

Federico Peña Federico Fabian Peña (born March 15, 1947) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 12th United States secretary of transportation from 1993 to 1997 and the 8th United States Secretary of Energy, United States secretary of energy ...

Bill Richardson William Blaine Richardson III (born November 15, 1947) is an American politician, author, and diplomat who served as the 30th governor of New Mexico from 2003 to 2011. He was also the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Energy Secretary ...

Linda Chavez-Thompson Linda Chavez-Thompson (born August 3, 1944)Franklin, "Labor's Message Heard in Clear New Voice," ''Chicago Tribune,'' October 30, 1995. is a second-generation Mexican-AmericanKarsko, "Success of Unions, Middle Class Are Linked, Labor Advocate Say ...

Dolores Huerta Dolores Clara Fernández Huerta (born April 10, 1930) is an American labor leader and civil rights activist who, with Cesar Chavez, is a co-founder of the National Farmworkers Association, which later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizi ...

Antonia Novello Antonia Coello Novello, M.D., (born August 23, 1944) is a Puerto Rican physician and public health administrator. She was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as 14th Surgeon General of the United States from ...

**''Literature'':

Julia Alvarez Julia Alvarez (born March 27, 1950) is an American New Formalist poet, novelist, and essayist. She rose to prominence with the novels ''How the García Girls Lost Their Accents'' (1991), '' In the Time of the Butterflies'' (1994), and ''Yo!'' ...

Jimmy Santiago Baca Jimmy Santiago Baca (born January 2, 1952) is an American poet, memoirist, and screenwriter from New Mexico. Early life and education Baca was born in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, in 1952. Abandoned by his parents at the age of two, he lived ...

Luis Valdez Luis Miguel Valdez (born June 26, 1940) is an American playwright, screenwriter, film director and actor. Regarded as the father of Chicano film and theater, Valdez is best known for his play '' Zoot Suit'', his movie '' La Bamba'', and his cre ...

Isabel Allende Isabel Angélica Allende Llona (; born in Lima, 2 August 1942) is a Chilean writer. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the genre magical realism, is known for novels such as ''The House of the Spirits'' (''La casa de los espír ...

Nicholasa Mohr Nicholasa Mohr (born November 1, 1938) is one of the best known Nuyorican writers, born in the United States to Puerto Rican parents. In 1973, she became the first Nuyorican woman in the 20th century to have her literary works published by the maj ...

Gary Soto Gary Anthony Soto (born April 12, 1952) is an American poet, novelist, and memoirist. Life and career Soto was born to Mexican-American parents Manuel (1910–1957) and Angie Soto (1924-). In his youth, he worked in the fields of the San Joaqui ...

Oscar Hijuelos Oscar Jerome Hijuelos (August 24, 1951 – October 12, 2013) was an American novelist. Of Cuban descent, during a year-long convalescence from a childhood illness spent in a Connecticut hospital he lost his knowledge of Spanish, his parents' ...

Denise Chavez Denise may refer to: * Denise (given name), people with the given name ''Denise'' * Denise (computer chip), a video graphics chip from the Amiga computer * "Denise" (song), a 1963 song by Randy & the Rainbows * Denise, Mato Grosso, a municipalit ...

**''Math and Science'':

Richard A. Tapia Richard Alfred Tapia (born March 25, 1938) is an American mathematician and University Professor at Rice University in Houston, Texas, the university's highest academic title. Tapia is the Principal investigator on a $2 million NSF grant (2007-20 ...

**''Sports'':

Mary Joe Fernandez Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

Sammy Sosa Samuel Peralta Sosa (born November 12, 1968) is a Dominican-American former professional baseball right fielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 19 seasons, primarily with the Chicago Cubs. After playing for the Texas Rangers and C ...

Nancy Lopez Nancy Marie Lopez (born January 6, 1957) is an American former professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1977 and won 48 LPGA Tour events, including three major championships. Amateur career Lopez won the New Mexico Women's ...

Derek Parra Derek Parra (born March 15, 1970) is an American Inline speed skating, inline skater and speed skating, speed skater from San Bernardino, California, who graduated from Eisenhower High School (Rialto, California), Eisenhower High School in Rialto, ...

, Juan "Chi-Chi" Rodríguez,

Bobby Bonilla Roberto Martin Antonio Bonilla (, born February 23, 1963) is an American former professional baseball third baseman and outfielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1986 to 2001. Bonilla was one of the Major League's best batters a ...

Rebecca Lobo Rebecca Rose Lobo-Rushin (born October 6, 1973) is an American television basketball analyst and former women's basketball player in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) from 1997 to 2003. Lobo, at 6'4", played the center position f ...

Andrés Cantor Andrés Cantor (born December 22, 1962) is an Argentine-American sportscaster and pundit who works in the United States providing Spanish-language commentary and analysis in sports. Cantor is well known among both Spanish- and English speakers f ...

Tab Ramos Tabaré "Tab" Ramos Ricciardi (born September 21, 1966) is an American former soccer player and current head coach of Hartford Athletic in the USL Championship. Over his thirteen-year professional career, Ramos played as a midfielder in Spain, ...

Omar Minaya Omar Teodoro Antonio Minaya y Sánchez (born November 10, 1958) is a Dominican baseball executive. He was the special assistant to the general manager of the New York Mets of Major League Baseball. He previously served as general manager for the ...

Anthony Muñoz Michael Anthony Muñoz (born August 19, 1958) is an American former professional football player who was an offensive tackle for 13 seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the US ...

Oscar De La Hoya Oscar De La Hoya ( , ; born on February 4, 1973) is an American boxing promoter and former professional boxer who competed from 1992 to 2008. His accolades include winning 11 world titles in six weight classes, including the lineal championshi ...

Ron Rivera Ronald Eugene Rivera (born January 7, 1962), nicknamed "Riverboat Ron", is an American football head coach for the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL). He attended the University of California, Berkeley in the early 1980 ...

**''Vision'':

Narciso Rodriguez Narciso Jesus Rodriguez III (; born January 27, 1961) is an American fashion designer. Early life and education Rodriguez was born in Newark, New Jersey, the eldest child and only son of Cuban parents. His parents, Narciso Rodríguez Sanchez I ...

Soledad O'Brien María de la Soledad Teresa O'Brien (born September 19, 1966) is an American broadcast journalist and executive producer. Since 2016, O'Brien has been the host for ''Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien,'' a nationally syndicated weekly talk show ...

Rosario Dawson Rosario Isabel Dawson (born May 9, 1979) is an American actress. She made her feature-film debut in the 1995 independent drama ''Kids''. Her subsequent film roles include '' He Got Game'' (1998), ''Josie and the Pussycats'' (2001), ''Men in Bl ...

, James A. Johnson **''Inspira Award'':

America Ferrera America Georgina Ferrera (; born April 18, 1984) is an American actress. Born in Los Angeles to Honduran parents, Ferrera developed an interest in acting at a young age, performing in several stage productions at her school. She made her featur ...

**''Legend'': Don Francisco **''Lifetime Achievement'':

Raul Julia Raúl Rafael Carlos Juliá y Arcelay (March 9, 1940 – October 24, 1994) was a Puerto Rican actor. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he took an interest in acting while still in school and pursued the career upon completion of his studies. After ...

Oscar de la Renta Óscar Arístides Renta Fiallo (22 July 1932 – 20 October 2014), known professionally as Oscar de la Renta, was a Dominican fashion designer. Born in Santo Domingo, he was trained by Cristóbal Balenciaga and Antonio del Castillo. De la Renta ...

Celia Cruz Úrsula Hilaria Celia de la Caridad Cruz Alfonso (21 October 1925 – 16 July 2003), known as Celia Cruz, was a naturalized Cuban-American singer and one of the most popular Latin artists of the 20th century. Cruz rose to fame in Cuba during t ...

Carmen Zapata Carmen Margarita Zapata (July 15, 1927 – January 5, 2014) often referred to as "The First Lady of the Hispanic Theater" was an American actress best known for her role in the PBS bilingual children's program ''Villa Alegre''. Zapata is also t ...

José Feliciano José Montserrate Feliciano García (born September 10, 1945) () is a Puerto Rican musician, singer and composer. He recorded many international hits, including his rendition of the Doors' "Light My Fire" and his self-penned Christmas song " ...

References

External links

Official websiteLOFT Innovation
{{Authority control Charities based in Washington, D.C. Hispanic and Latino American organizations Awards honoring Hispanic and Latino Americans Hispanic and Latino American culture in Virginia Hispanic and Latino American culture in Washington, D.C. Literary awards honoring minority groups