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Hispanic Heritage Month: Recognizing Pioneers of Change
In honor of this year’s Hispanic Heritage Month, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights is celebrating Hispanic Americans who have championed civil rights, equality, and social justice.
Dolores Huerta
Labor leader, community organizer, civil rights activist, co-founder of the United Farm Workers union
Huerta was born in 1930 in a small mining town in New Mexico. In spite of prejudice against Hispanics, young Huerta excelled in school and went on to the University of the Pacific’s Delta College in Stockton, earning a provisional teaching credential. While teaching, she witnessed students attending school hungry and barefoot, and this sparked her lifelong efforts to correct economic injustice. In 2019, the community-based union that Huerta co-founded with César Chávez, La Unión del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), received the RFK Human Rights Award for their work serving low-income neighborhoods of Hidalgo County through community organizing and social services. In 2020, Huerta received the Ripple of Hope Award for her tireless, decades-long commitment to labor activism and civil rights.
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Lucas Benitez
Farmworker leader, animator, co-founder of Coalition of Immokalee Workers
Lucas Benitez was born in Guerrero, Mexico, and moved to Immokalee, Florida, at the age of 16 to work in the tomato fields. The wages were barely enough to live on, and workers faced a climate of intimidation, fear, and violence. The grueling conditions angered him, and he had to act. Benitez got together with other workers to discuss the exploitation and eventually helped found the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). Instead of calling himself an organizer, Benitez considers himself an animator—someone who activates the community to fight together and share the struggle. Lucas Benitez has risen above the harshest conditions to create an alliance of workers and consumers who are changing the narrative. In 2003, Benitez and the CIW received the RFK Human Rights Award for their work to transform the lives of some of the worst-paid people in America by bringing long-deserved dignity to their work.
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Profile
Learn more about Lucas Benitez
Human Rights Award
Read Benitez’ remarks at the 2003 RFK Human Rights Award ceremony
María Teresa Kumar
Voting rights activist, founding president and CEO of Voto Latino
María Teresa Kumar is a respected non-profit executive, social entrepreneur, and leader in the Latinx community. She is the founding President and CEO of Voto Latino, which she grew to be America’s largest Latinx voter registration and advocacy organization. Since 2004, Kumar has raised more than $75 million, directly registered over 1,109,000 new voters, and mobilized millions more. Kumar is known for applying consumer marketing strategies to civic engagement. In 2006, she pioneered text messaging for voter registration and mobilization. In 2018, she launched a peer-to-peer voter registration app that the AppStore named amongst the top four political apps.
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Migrant Rights Organizations
Angry Tias and Abuelas of the Rio Grande Valley, Detained Migrant Solidarity Committee, and La Unión del Pueblo Entero were honored with the 2019 RFK Human Rights Award
On June 6, 2019, RFK Human Rights honored three organizations advocating for migrant rights and the humane treatment of asylum seekers at the 36th Annual Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Awards in Washington DC. The award was presented to Angry Tias and Abuelas of the Rio Grande Valley in recognition of their pursuit of dignity and justice for individuals and families seeking asylum at our borders; Detained Migrant Solidarity Committee (DMSC), an organization that challenges the inhumanity of the US migrant detention system; and La Unión del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), the organization founded by labor rights activist César Chávez and Dolores Huerta to build strong communities where residents can leverage the power of civic engagement for social change.
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Lin-Manuel Miranda
Songwriter, actor, director, and producer
Lin-Manuel Miranda is a Pulitzer Prize, Grammy, Emmy, and Tony award-winning songwriter, actor, director, and producer. He is the creator and original star of Broadway’s Hamilton and In the Heights, and the Academy Award-nominated songwriter of Disney’s Moana and Encanto. Miranda and his family are active supporters of initiatives that increase people of color’s representation throughout the arts and government, ensure access to women’s reproductive health, and promote resilience in Puerto Rico. In May 2024, he was named one of this year’s Ripple of Hope Award laureates; Miranda will be honored alongside four other honorees on Wednesday, December 11, at a ceremony in New York City.