Elizabeth Peña are a few Latinas who
have reached wide audiences as film
actresses. Latino movie stars have includ-
ed Antonio Banderas, Edward James
Olmos, Andy Garcia, John Leguizamo,
Benicio Del Toro, and the late Raul Julia,
who died in 1994. Spanish-American
Martin Sheen (born Ramon Estevez)
established an acting dynasty, with sons
Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen fol-
lowing in his footsteps. Hispanic-
American television actors have included
Freddie Prinze, the first Puerto
Rican–American to become a major tel-
evision star, who played Chico in the
1970s sitcom Chico and the Manand died
in 1977 (his son, Freddie Prinze Jr.,
starred in the 1999 big-screen hit She’s
All That), and Jimmy Smits, star of the
television dramas L.A. Lawand NYPD
Blue.Broadway performers of Hispanic
ancestry have included Chita Rivera andRita Moreno—the latter holding the dis-
tinction of having won all four major
entertainment awards: an Oscar, a Tony,
an Emmy, and a Grammy.
A number of great 20th century jazz
musicians and singers, mentioned in ear-
lier chapters, are Hispanic Americans—
Xavier Cugat, Tito Puente, and Celia
Cruz—as is the classical cellist Pablo
Casals. Hispanic-American pop and rock
sensations from the 1950s to the present
have included Ritchie Valens, Joan Baez,
Carlos Santana, Jerry Garcia, Linda
Ronstadt, and Gloria Estefan. In the
1990s, Selena (1971–1995), star per-
former of the style known as Tejano
music, entranced Mexican-American
audiences until her untimely shooting
by a disgruntled employee. Recent pop
music stars have included Ricky Martin,
Marc Anthony, Mariah Carey, Jon
Secada, Shakira, Reggaeton star Daddy
Yankee, and Christina Aguilera. Not all
Latino performing artists fit in these cat-
egories. Supermodel Christy Turlington
is Hispanic American. So is Vanna
White, the woman who turns the letters
on the TV game show Wheel of
Fortune, and Geraldo Rivera, the jour-
nalist and broadcaster.Hispanic Athletes
Sports is another area in which Latinos
have had high-profile success. Many
Hispanic Americans love fútbol (soccer,
known as football outside the United
States), which is popular across Latin
America. Their enthusiasm has helped
make it popular in the United States
as well. Tab Ramos, an Uruguayan
American, is among the great Hispanic-
American soccer players.
In several Hispanic countries, base-
ball is as much the national pastime as it is
in the United States. At the start of the
2007 Major League season, there were
750 players on opening day rosters, of
which were 149 were foreign-born
Latinos and 33 were Latinos born in the
United States. The Dominican Republic
alone provided one out of every nine play-
ers in the Majors in 2005. Of 895 players
on active rosters and disabled lists that
year, an astonishing 101 were Dominican.
Heading into the 2008 season the New
York Mets boasted 14 Latinos on their
active roster of 25 players.236 ATLAS OF HISPANIC-AMERICAN HISTORY
Rosie Perez has appeared in
numerous films since her debut
in Spike Lee’sDo the Right Thing.
(Movie Star News)Singers Mark Anthony and Jennifer Lopez join New York mayor Michael Bloomberg
at the front of the city's annual Puerto Rican Day Parade. (Corbis)