Every year, Southern honors Hispanic Heritage during the month of September/October. As part of our celebration this year, the university has partnered with the Student Association in recognizing these Hispanic Americans for their contributions, both to our country and to our campus.
Born in Havana, Cuba, Celia Cruz is known as one of the most popular salsa musicians of all time, recording 23 gold albums. She first gained recognition in Cuba in the 1950s, but after becoming a United States citizen in 1961, Fidel Castro barred her from returning to Cuba. Cruz joined the Tito Puente Orchestra and gained wider recognition in the U.S. She was awarded several Grammys, Latin Grammys, and the American National Medal of Arts by the National Endowment of the Arts.
Franklin Chang Díaz is a Costa Rican-Chinese American mechanical engineer, physicist, and former NASA astronaut. Founder and current CEO of Ad Astra Rocket Company, he is a veteran of seven Space Shuttle missions, making him the record holder (as of 2018) for the most spaceflights—a record shared with Jerry L. Ross. Díaz was the first Latin American immigrant selected by NASA to go into space and also a member of the NASA Astronaut Hall of Fame.
As Southern’s first Latin American Student Association president, Luis Chanaga was influential in making the Latin American Club a popular, vibrant student organization. He is now serving as vice president for finance and operations at Kettering Health Network in Dayton, Ohio.
The first Latin American and Caribbean baseball player to be enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Roberto Clemente was a Puerto Rican right fielder who played Major League Baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was an All-Star for 12 seasons, the National League Most Valuable Player in 1966, and a Gold Glove Award winner for 12 consecutive seasons. He also played in two World Series championships and was the first Latin American and Caribbean player to help win a World Series as a starter.
Esther Díaz Sablón de Guerrero is a Seventh-day Adventist educator. After studying theology in Cuba and graduating with a master’s degree in education at the University of Montemorelos, Mexico, she worked as a professor and chaplain at Ricardo Greenidge Adventist College in Caracas, Venezuela. She was the first woman to serve as president of Cuba Adventist Theological Seminary from 2000-2008, during which time the seminary gained its independent accreditation. She has received the Woman of the Year award by the Association of Adventist Women in 2005; the Ellen White Medal from the Department of Education in the Interamerican Division in 2009; and an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Andrews University in 2009.
Considered possibly the most accomplished plant collector working in the early 1900s, Ynés Mexía was born in 1870 to Mexican parents and grew up in Texas. She began her career in botany at the age of 55, often choosing to travel alone, in contrast to many women of her time. Her career was lauded during her life, and accounts were published of her adventures in Central and South America. Out of the approximately 150,000 specimens Mexía collected, it is estimated that she discovered up to 500 new species.
Internationally renowned Adventist musical artist Ysis España is the daughter of Cuban missionary parents. España grew up in the United States—where her parents attended what is now Southern Adventist University—Mexico, and Puerto Rico, and then Cuba again during the rise of Fidel Castro. España married, but her husband was unable to leave Cuba because of a law restricting travel for young men, so she and her baby daughter left the country alone. Her husband was able to leave a few years later, and the family emigrated to the United States. España is now a successful recording artist, and she travels the world performing her music.
Maria Fernanda Mejia is the senior Vice President of the Kellogg Company and serves as the president of Kellogg Latin America. Since 2011, Mejia has furthered the Kellogg Company’s mission to support nutrition and well-being by growing the company in Latin America and in the United States. In 2017, she received the BRAVO Business Award for dynamic CEO of the year and was named one of the 50 most powerful Latinas by Fortune.
Born in Central Mexico, Laura Gómez emigrated to the United States as a child and grew up in Silicon Valley, California. She decided to pursue a career in technology after discovering computer science in high school, and she interned at Hewlett-Packard at the age of 17. During her time working at Google, YouTube, and Twitter, Gómez experienced and began to speak about a lack of diversity in tech, which led to her creation of Atipica, a software that seeks to reduce discrimination in job recruitment. She also helped found Project Include, a non-profit for tech industry diversity and inclusion. Gómez has been named one of the Frederick Douglass 200.
Named one of Hispanic Business magazine's 100 Most Influential Hispanics in America in 2007, Robert Jimenez graduated from Southern in 1987 with a degree in business administration. He has worked as marketing manager for Florida Hospital and the Walt Disney Corporation and is now the vice president for corporate communications and public affairs at Cox Enterprises, Inc. in Atlanta, Georgia. He has received multiple professional awards for corporate leadership and innovative marketing and is highly recognized as a Hispanic leader in his profession and community.
Born to Puerto Rican parents, Sonia Manzano is a semi-retired American actress best known for playing “Maria” on Sesame Street. She has won 15 Emmys for her television scripts, written critically praised books for children and young adults, and received awards including the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Award, the Bronx Hall of Fame and the Hispanic Heritage Award for Education.
A Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, Gabriel García Márquez is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century and one of the best in the Spanish language. He was awarded the 1972 Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Sylvia Mendez is an American civil rights activist of both Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage. Growing up at a time when many schools in the United States were segregated, Mendez played an instrumental role in the Mendez v. Westminster case, the landmark desegregation case of 1946. The outcome of this case ended segregation in California and paved the way for integration and the American civil rights movement. Mendez was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor, in 2011.
Lourdes Morales-Gudmundsson, PhD, has been a Spanish educator for more than 40 years, teaching at Atlantic Union College, Antillean College, University of Connecticut, and La Sierra University. She has founded and led organizations for the promotion of Christian education for Hispanic students, and she serves as the president of the Association of Adventist Women.
Ellen Ochoa is the first Latina to become an astronaut. She is the veteran of four space flights and currently serves as the director of NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. She is also a classical flutist, a pilot, and has three patents to her name. She has been awarded with NASA’s Distinguished Service Medal, Exceptional Service Medal, and Outstanding Leadership Medal among many other honors.
Carlos Parra served as chair of Southern’s Modern Languages Department for 14 years. During that time he volunteered at various local Latin American organizations, including La Paz Chattanooga and Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce. He has been awarded with the La Paz Latino Leadership Award and Southern’s President’s Award for Community Service Excellence and is now working as the chair of the World Languages Department and ESL Program at La Sierra University.
Of Cuban-Polish heritage, Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski is a 25-year-old American Physicist who studies high-energy physics and is a graduate student at Harvard University. According to Google Trends, Pasterski ranked third Trending Scientist in 2017. In 2018, she was named to Forbes 30 under 30 first-ever all-female science judging panel. Pasterski’s 2016 work in promoting the Let Girls Learn initiative has been recognized by an invitation to the White House, a congratulatory message from the White House played on network television, as well as a two page spread in Marie Claire’s January 2017 issue with former First Lady Michelle Obama. Pasterski has received recognition for her continuing efforts to promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education for girls in Cuba and Russia.
A fourth generation Seventh-day Adventist born in Dominican Republic, Juan Rafael Prestol-Puesán was elected as treasurer of the Adventist world church in 2015. His church career began in 1969 as an accountant at the Dominican Conference and has taken him to multiple treasury positions in the United States and Russia.
One of the most recognizable faces in Spanish-speaking America, Jorge Ramos has anchored Noticiero Univision, Univision’s top-rated national newscast, since 1986. He has also hosted a weekly news show, Al Punto, since 2007. Born in Mexico City, he has penned 11 books and received eight Emmy Awards, the Maria Moors Cabot Award, and the David Brinkley Award for Journalistic Excellence.
Of Mexican heritage, Raul Ruiz is a Seventh-day Adventist and the first Latin American to receive three graduate degrees from Harvard University. After graduating from Harvard, Ruiz spent time abroad in Mexico, El Salvador, and Serbia before becoming an emergency physician at the Eisenhower Medical Center, a nonprofit hospital in Coachella Valley. He received a Commander’s Award for Public Service from the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division for his humanitarian efforts for victims of the Haiti earthquake in 2010. In 2012, Ruiz ran for the United States House of Representatives as a first-time candidate in California’s 36th congressional district. Since then, he has served three terms.
Born to Puerto Rican parents in The Bronx, New York, Sonia Sotomayor is the first Hispanic and third woman to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. She was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2009.
Maria Elena Salinas was the longest running female news anchor on U.S. television and the first Latina to receive a Lifetime Achievement Emmy. Called the “Voice of Hispanic America” by the New York Times, Salinas used her platform to shed light on various issues in the Latin American community. She actively works to increase voter registration in the Latino community and works to help Latino youth become journalists. Since leaving Univision, Salinas is working on the second season of her English-language series, "The Real Story with Maria Elena Salinas," on the Investigation Discovery network.
Of Puerto Rican decent, Jorge Torres graduated from Southern in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in theology. As a bilingual pastor, he has ministered in Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida and has also served as a missionary in Mexico and Taiwan. Torres was deployed twice to Iraq and upon returning from his deployment, moved to Ansbach, Germany, where he served as the pastoral coordinator for the Ansbach Garrison chaplain’s office and adviser to the Seventh-day Adventist chaplains throughout the United States Army Europe Command. Torres currently serves at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, as the 95th Civil Affairs Special Operations Brigade Chaplain.
Born in Uruguay, Juan Carlos Viera was the first director of the Ellen G. White Estate to come from outside the North American Division. He earned a master’s degree in religion from Andrews University and a doctorate in missiology from Fuller Theological Seminary. In 1998, he authored the book The Voice of the Spirit: How God has Led His People Through the Gift of Prophecy.
Of Puerto Rican decent, Pedro Juan Villanueva graduated from Southern in 1945 with a pre-medical degree, making him Southern’s first Latin American alum (based on the university’s available records). Villanueva went on to pursue medical school and became a practicing physician.