2018
Iowa Latino Hall of Fame Honorees
to Be Inducted
The Iowa Department of Human Rights and the Iowa Commission of Latino Affairs will induct five remarkable Iowans,
including a Latino youth and a Latino Ambassador, into the
Second Iowa Latino Hall of Fame. See photos and full biographies below. The induction ceremony will be held on Saturday, October 20, 2018, at 9:30
a.m. at the Iowa State Historical Building, 600 East Locust Street, Des
Moines, Iowa. Spanish and American Sign Language interpretation will be provided.
The Iowa Latino Hall of Fame
is held around National Latino & Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15 to
October 15, which celebrates and honors the contributions made by Latinos in
the United States.
Highlights will include:
Latino
Hall of Fame Awards to:
The first Iowa Latinx Youth Leadership Award to:
The first Iowa Latino Ambassador Award for Equity and Justice to:
To celebrate the honorees,
their families and friends, the Iowa Commission of Latino Affairs will host a
reception immediately following the ceremony in the atrium of the Iowa State
Historical Building. The reception is free and open to the public and sponsored
by Community 1st Credit Union. Attendees do not need to register.
The Iowa Latino Hall of Fame
was established by the Iowa Commission of Latino Affairs. Awards will be
presented to the recipients by Lorena Gingerich, chair of the 2018 Iowa Latino
Hall of Fame selection committee; Nick Salazar, community member and member of
the selection committee; and members of the Iowa Commission of Latino
Affairs.
Note to editors: Media
are welcome and encouraged to attend the ceremony.
Biographies
Salvador (Chavo) J.
Lopez
Salvador J. Lopez was born in Muscatine, Iowa, in 1928 to Antonia and Federico
Lopez, two Mexican immigrants. During the Depression, the family moved from
Fairport, Iowa, to Cook’s Point, where they found a close-knit Mexican
community. To earn extra money for themselves or their families, Lopez and the other children of Cook’s Point worked in the fields cutting the tops
off of onions in nearby Pleasant Valley.
When World War II broke out, Lopez and several of his friends
from Cook’s Point enlisted in the military. In the army, Lopez faced
prejudice from his fellow soldiers, who did not see him as an equal. Upon his
return to Iowa, Lopez hoped to work as a heavy equipment operator with one
of the local factories because he had gained experience working with heavy
machinery in the army. Yet despite his experience, the local union refused to
issue him a union card. Discriminatory practices on the part of the union meant
that Lopez continued to work maintenance on the local railroad. When he applied for higher paying railroad
jobs, such as a postal clerk at the freight house, he was turned away.
By then, Lopez was married to Joan Garcia and raising a family,
which eventually grew to eight children. Since Lopez faced great
discrimination, he and a couple of friends decided to co-found an Iowa League
of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in his area which was focused on
discrimination, politics, and the betterment of the Hispanic community. As a
founding member of LULAC, Lopez played a key role in the establishment of a
LULAC education scholarship fund for college students, one of LULAC’s primary
programs. Since 1978, LULAC Council 10 has awarded over $535,000 in
scholarships to 920 Quad City students entering or enrolled in college.
Additionally, Lopez was part of the Davenport Citizens Advisory
Committee (DCAP) and assisted in the administration of the federal Community
Development Block Grant program for the past ten years. Lopez insured that the poor
and disenfranchised were being represented as these critical federal dollars
were allocated.
While serving on the Center for Active Seniors (CASI) Board, Lopez was instrumental in the establishment of a senior Hispanic meal site
which provided Mexican meals to the local Latino seniors. It soon became the
most popular meal site in Scott County, drawing people of every race and age.
Salvador Lopez has no limits when it comes to participating and
enriching the lives of those in Iowa and beyond our borders. Whether it
is participating in mission trips to Mexico building medical clinics (2008-2009)
or orchestrating a Bingo event for earthquake victims of Mexico, Salvador,
without fanfare, continues to give. On top of all these accomplishments and
despite his own battles with injustices, Lopez continued to serve our country
in the National Guard for 25 years.
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Warren
Morrow
Warren Morrow was born to Rosamaria Celis and Walter Morrow in Mexico
City, Mexico. His family immigrated to Tucson, Arizona, when he was ten years
old, and he moved to Iowa in 1995 to attend Grinnell College. Inspired by a
Latino leadership conference he attended his last year of college, Morrow decided
to forego medical school, and he and his friends created the Latino Leadership
Project (LLP) in Des Moines in order to teach leadership development to high
school students to help them create prosperous futures. The Latino Leadershp Project and Morrow helped
connect undocumented Latino students with sponsors that allowed for these
students to secure college loans at prestigious private colleges, further their
education, gain Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status, and eventually reach permanent citizenship.
Morrow also helped create
the Latino business corridor known as La Placita that allowed for Latinos and
women of color to pursue entrepreneurship while owning their places of
business. While creating La Placita, Morrow worked hard to create his own
business, Coopera Consulting, which specializes in bringing together unbanked
populations and local credit unions. Through Coopera Consulting, Morrow expanded services to Credit Unions across the United States, allowing many to
stay in business and grow others. Morrow also dedicated many hours to mentoring
others who wanted to start companies in the Des Moines area and helped them
navigate the American bureaucracy that kept women-owned, Latino and Hispanic
immigrant communities from achieving their dreams.
Weeks prior to his passing, Morrow had meetings to create his vision of a center where nonprofits could
have a space where the public would be welcome to partake in their services and
volunteer of their time and talents. This conversation led to the formation of
what later became the Latino Forum and in 2016 branched out to create a 501(c)(3) called the Iowa Latino Center whose mission is to create a space for and by
Latinos to serve their changing needs.
After his passing, the Iowa
Credit Union Foundation honored Morrow by creating the Warren Morrow Memorial
Scholarship Program that encourages Iowa high school seniors and post high
school students to learn about credit unions in order to prepare them for their
futures. Coopera created the Warren Morrow Hispanic Growth fund to improve
opportunities for more Hispanic individuals and families to receive needed
financial services through credit unions.
Former mentees, his friends
and his wife founded the Warren Morrow Memorial Concert in 2012 which has since
grown to the Warren Morrow Latin Music Festival. The festival celebrates
various Latin music genres and artists while raising money for the charities Morrow loved. Since its inception, the event has awarded over ten thousand
dollars to Latino-serving agencies in Central Iowa.
Warren Morrow was a dedicated
family man, spending time not only with his wife, Christina Fernandez-Morrow
and their daughter, Ariana, but with his nieces and nephews, as well as being a
foster parent to kids in need of a safe home.
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Ernest
M. Rodriguez
Civil rights activist Ernest Rodriguez was born in 1928 in the
predominantly Mexican settlement in Bettendorf, Iowa, known as Holy City. His
father, Norberto Rodriguez, migrated from Mexico in 1910 at the age of
17, and in 1919 he married Muggie Belva Adams, an African American woman
from Alabama. They moved to Bettendorf, Iowa, in 1923.
The Rodriguez family lived in Holy City's boxcars and
"flats" from 1924 to 1937 when they moved to southwest Davenport. Rodriguez graduated from Davenport High School (now known as Davenport
Central High School) in 1946 and served in the U.S. Army from 1951 to 1953
where he was stationed in El Paso, Texas. In 1955, he married Juanita Serrano
Segobiano, who pursued the path of a homemaker and chief caretaker of their
nine children.
Rodriguez worked with other Davenport activists to push forward a
strong civil rights agenda beginning in the late 1950’s and continuing
throughout his life. During the 1960’s he served on the Human Relations
Commission where he successfully targeted the need for a paid, full-time
director for the commission. He stressed the importance of improving
police-community relations as well as the need for the Davenport Community
School District to hire more minority teachers, including Spanish-speaking
teachers.
Rodriguez became the director of the newly created Area Board for
Migrants, where he was instrumental in lobbying the state legislature for the
creation of the Spanish Speaking Peoples Commission, the forerunner of the Iowa
Commission of Latino Affairs. He advocated for a better understanding of Latino
rights in Iowa and across the country. During this same period of time in the 60’s
and 70’s, he initiated two bilingual newspapers (El Reportero and Columnas) as
well as educational radio and television programs that reached a wide audience.
Additionally, Rodriguez assisted aggrieved Hispanics to file discrimination
complaints with appropriate government agencies like the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission. He developed an immigration assistance program which is
currently sponsored by the Davenport Catholic Diocese.
In 1970 Rodriguez was
appointed to the Iowa Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission
and was a member of a team that toured the State of Iowa to make on-site
assessments of community race relations in a number of cities. Rodriguez worked
as an Equal Employment Officer for the Rock Island Arsenal from 1975 until his
retirement in 1990, after which he continued to serve on civil rights
organizations including the Illinois Migrant Council and the Davenport Civil
Rights Commission.
At age 90, Ernest Rodrigeuz continues to do public speaking engagements at
many eastern Iowa civil rights rallies and writes eloquent newsletters and
articles for a variety of organizations and news outlets.
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Vanessa Espinoza
Vanessa Espinoza was born
in Zacatecas, Mexico. She is the daughter of campesinos. Espinoza immigrated to
the United States when she was a toddler. Espinoza grew up in the small town of
Conesville, Iowa, and attended high school in Columbus Junction, Iowa. As a
junior in high school, she started a literacy program for Latinx adults. Upon
graduation, Espinoza received the Herbert Hoover Uncommon Student Award and the
Mariah Becker Volunteer Leadership Award. She received the distinction of
giving a speech in English and Spanish at graduation.
A year after graduating
high school, the young leader started the Vanessa Espinoza Scholarship. The
scholarship recognizes graduating seniors that have overcome adversity. During
her undergraduate experience at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI), Espinoza co-founded the "I, Too, Am UNI" campaign
with a group of student activists. They worked to address injustices on campus.
After seeing racist, sexist, Islamophobic, anti-semitic and homophobic posts
online, she worked closely with university administrators to create an
inclusive and safe environment for UNI students on campus.
Espinoza collaborated with
Dr. Cooley at UNI to create learning, advocacy, and professional support
material for people working with immigrants that have survived sexual assault
violence in the workforce. Espinoza, a McNair Scholar, and Sigma Delta Pi
member was able to graduate with recognition from UNI with the Dean of Students
Citation Award, the Outstanding Student Leader Award and a Purple and Old Gold
for Meritorious Scholarship in Spanish.
After UNI, Espinoza relocated to Washington, Iowa, where she co-founded Latinos for Washington, IA,
Inc. This 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization reaches out to the whole community for
the betterment of all its citizens, especially Latinos. Additionally, Espinoza worked at Mid-Prairie Community School District in Kalona, Iowa. She taught
Spanish and English to speakers of other languages while acting as a cultural
liaison for the district’s Latinx families.
Currently, Espinoza is a
graduate student at Iowa State University. She has been involved with Latinx
Student Leader Council in which the team created a 5K race for the first time
to raise scholarship money for undocumented students. In addition, she is the
ACPA Latinx Midwest Representative, advocates
for her cohort members in the School of Education Graduate Student Advisory
Council and works with first generation, low income and students with
disabilities in the TRIO Student Support Services Program.
At the age of 26, Vanessa
Espinoza has launched innovative initiatives, excelled in academics, and
charted her professional life, all with a laser-like focus on lifting up Iowa’s
Latinx community. She is a keen observer. She sees a problem, confronts the
problem, and gathers others to help look for solutions. Espinoza is a doer who
will continue to achieve remarkable
things for our community,
state, and the world.
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Governor Robert D. Ray
Robert
D. Ray was born in Des Moines, Iowa, on September 26, 1928, and passed away on July 8, 2018. In the intervening years, Governor Ray’s
leadership touched the lives of Iowans on dozens of fronts and reached global
impact on several occasions.
Governor Ray grew up
in the Drake neighborhood and met the love of his life and future wife, Billie
Lee Hornberger at what is now First Christian Church while they were students
at Roosevelt High School. The Roosevelt High School sweethearts started dating
in 1945 and were married on December 22, 1951. His life revolved around love of
family, first as a son and brother, followed by his passion to be a devoted
husband, dedicated father to the Rays' three daughters and adoring grandfather
to their eight grandchildren.
After World
War II, Governor Ray served in the U. S. Army in Japan. He graduated from Drake
University with a business degree in 1952 and law degree in 1954. He was
a law and reading clerk in the Iowa State Senate, where he began to understand
government and relish politics. Later, he built a successful practice as
a trial lawyer.
In 1963, Governor Ray
was elected Iowa Republican State Chairman. After heavy losses in 1964, Governor Ray led GOP elected three new Congressmen and 88 state legislators in 1966.
After
winning a hard-fought primary, and surviving an airplane crash, he was elected
Iowa’s 38th Governor in 1968. He was re-elected in 1970, 1972, 1974 and
1978. Because Iowans appreciated his
steady, open, bipartisan leadership, Governor Ray became the state’s first four-term,
then five-term Governor.
Governor
Ray established the Iowa Commission of Latino Affairs and the Iowa Commission
on the Status of Women and issued Executive Orders advancing civil rights.
In
the late 1970’s Governor Ray became a worldwide leader in the humanitarian
resettlement of refugees from Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam by helping
them relocate, find jobs, and start new lives in Iowa.
In
1979, Governor Ray was a member of the U.S. delegation to the Special United Nations
Conference of Refugees in Geneva, Switzerland. He later served as a U.S.
Representative to the United Nations in 1983.
After
leaving office, the Rays moved to Cedar Rapids where he became President and
Chief Executive Officer of Life Investors, Inc., later known as AEGON.
The Rays moved back to Des Moines when he became President and CEO of
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa. Governor Ray
owned radio station KILR in Estherville and was co-owner of WMT in Cedar
Rapids.
Governor
Ray was a member of the Iowa Business Council and served on the boards of
directors of The Maytag Corporation, AEGON USA, Norwest Bank (aka Wells Fargo)
and Alliant Energy. As a private citizen, Governor Ray became involved in national
health care debates while serving on many commissions.
In the late 1990's, Governor Ray filled out a term as mayor of Des Moines. He also chaired the
Drake University Board of Trustees and, when a vacancy occurred, he was named president of Drake.
Governor Ray was a
trustee for the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum and member of
The Greater Des Moines Committee. He was a founding board member of the
Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation and founding co-chairman of Keep Iowa
Beautiful. Governor Ray was a strong supporter of Easter Seals of Iowa and Camp
Sunnyside including decades as a faithful participant in the annual Pony
Express Ride.
In 2005. Governor Ray
became the only governor or former governor to receive Iowa’s highest honor,
the Iowa Award, presented by Governor Tom Vilsack and the Iowa Centennial Memorial
Commission.
Govermor Ray
was the first recipient of the Des Moines Register’s Iowa Star Award after
having been named by the paper in 2000 as "The Most Influential Iowan of the
20th Century." He was inducted into the Iowa Insurance Hall of Fame, the
Business Hall of Achievement, and Iowa Business Hall of Fame.
“The happiest people I know are people who
are doing things for other people.” - Governor Robert D. Ray
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Proclamation
Governor Kim Reynolds issued a proclamation declaring September 15-October 15, 2018, as Latino and Hispanic Heritage Month.
WHEREAS, the history of Latino and Hispanic people in Iowa
dates back centuries and continue to positively influence and enrich our society
through their strong commitment to family, community, and service; and
WHEREAS, Latinos descended from
Native Americans whose indigenous civilizations developed and thrived thousands
of years before Christopher Columbus reached the Americas; and
WHEREAS,
Latino and Hispanic Heritage Month is an opportunity to celebrate the multicultural and multiethnic traditions
of people whose ancestry can be traced to the Caribbean Islands, Central
America, Mexico, South America, and Spain; and
WHEREAS,
as part of this celebration, the Iowa Commission of Latino Affairs recognizes and
honors the outstanding and significant cultural, political, social and economic
contributions to Iowa by Latinos and Hispanics through the Iowa Latino Hall of
Fame; and
WHEREAS, Ernest Rodriguez, Salvador Lopez, Vanessa
Espinoza, Warren Morrow, and Governor
Robert D. Ray symbolize Iowa’s strengths, demonstrating outstanding
achievements and play a vital role in Iowa’s economy and workforce as well as
our communities with the cultural, educational, and political influences of
their culture that can be seen and
appreciated in all aspects of our life, from farm-worker struggles for housing
and equal wages to incredible and gifted artists, professionals, vibrant
businesses, music, and community festivals.
NOW, THEREFORE, I,
Kim Reynolds, Governor of the State of Iowa, do hereby proclaim September 15 to
October 15, 2018, as
LATINO AND HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH
in Iowa, and urge citizens to observe
this month by increasing their awareness of the valuable ways Latinos and
Hispanics have contributed to our state’s prosperity.
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