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8A SUNDAY, DEC 13, 1998 BATTLE CREEK ENQUIRER A hero whose devotion must be remembered Master Sgt. Roy P. Benavidez of El Campo, Texas, did not consider himself a hero, although action by Congress in 1981, designated him so. One of 36 Hispanic recipients of the Medal of Honor in this nation's history, Benavidez maintained he was only doing what he had been trained for when he rescued a Special Forces team ambushed on May 2, 1968, inside Cambodia. Late in November, this American hero died at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. But it is up to...

HISTORY of Hispanic Employment Program (HEP). On November 5, 1970, President Richard Nixon formally established "The Sixteen Point Program." The name of the Program highlighted the sixteen major employment issues presented in the original Presidential Directive. On January 23,1973, the Program was renamed "Spanish-Speaking Program" to emphasize the bilingual skills, and on February 28, 1978, the Program was again renamed to what it's known today as "Hispanic Employment Program (HEP)." AUTHORITY. The HEP is an integral part of the Federal government-wide Equal Employment Opportunity Program under the authority of Executive Order 11478 (1969). Also, the following executive orders and statutes apply...

Women of Hope Latinas Abriendo Camino   Nydia Velázquez First Puertorican Congresswomen "My community is always at the center of what I do, as inspiration, reason, and hope." When Nydia Velázquez was in high school in rural Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, she organized her classmates and closed down the school. Their protest against the dangerous and unsanitary conditions of the school building was finally heard and the necessary renovations were made. Velázquez, now a second term congresswoman from New York, has been stirring people to action and getting the job done ever since. She became the first Puerto Rican woman to...

Nydia Velázquez, First Puertorican Congresswomen   Ellen Ochoa (Ph.D), NASA Astronaut   Linda Chavez-Thompson, AFL-CIO Executive Vice-President   Linda Chavez, President of the Center for Equal Opportunity Check out Linda's Book   1998 LATINA EXCELLENCE AWARDS   Julia Alvarez, Latinas Abriendo Camino   Miriam Cruz, President of Equity Research Corporation(ERC)   Isabel Allende Magical StorytellerCheck out Isabel's Books   Antonia HernandezPublic Interest Lawyer   Maria HinojosaNPR Correspondent   Dolores Huerta and MoreLabor  Leader,  Social Activist   Esmeralda Santiago AuthorCheck out Esmeraldas's Books    Ana Sol Gutierrez Aeronautical Engineer   Antonia Novello The first woman and the first Hispanic to become the Surgeon General of the United States

g (7580 bytes) Women of Hope Latinas Abriendo Camino   Julia Alvarez "I am more who I am when I’m down on paper than anywhere else." "The sisters were special women because they were like you and me. All of us have the capacity to be good and to be evil too... Heroes are all around us." (Julia Alvarez on the Maribal sisters) Although Julia Alvarez was only ten years old when she escaped with her family from the Dominican Republic, she has a vivid memory of the secret police at their door. Alvarez includes this experience in her autobiographical novel, How...