10 Puerto Ricans Who Belong in U.S. History Classes

Hispanic Heritage Month is a great time to learn about Puerto Rican heroes. So is Caribbean Heritage Month. And, hey, all the other months, too! Puerto Rico has been a U.S. possession for more than a century. Every U.S. history class should include people of Puerto Rican heritage. We’ll start with 10 Puerto Ricans who belong in U.S. history classes. If you didn’t learn about them in school, you can catch up now.

1. Lt. Augusto Rodríguez, one of the documented Puerto Rican soldiers serving in the U.S. Civil War
2. José Celso Barbosa, the first Puerto Rican and the first Afro-Latino to earn a medical degree in the United States
3. Roberto Clemente, Major League Baseball great, philanthropist, and civil rights activist
4. Herman Badillo, the first Puerto Rican voting member of Congress
5. Nydia Velazquez, the first Puerto Rican woman elected to congress
6. Rita Moreno, a rare EGOT artist, so named for winning Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards
7. Gigi Fernández, the first Puerto Rican woman to win an Olympic Gold Medal
8. Dr. Antonia Novello, the first woman and the first Hispanic person to serve as the Surgeon General of the United States
9. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic Supreme Court judge
10. Joseph Michael Acaba, the first Puerto Rican astronaut and the first Hispanic Chief of the NASA Astronaut Office

These are not the only important people from Puerto Rico; they are just ten people from a variety of different fields that we believe everyone should know about. Tell us in the comments who you would add to the list!

Isn’t “the first Puerto Rican” just about Puerto Rico?

It really isn’t. When we see that Puerto Rican served in the Civil War, earned one of the greatest honors in the performing arts, or became a Supreme Court judge, that works against the stereotypes of Puerto Ricans as foreigners or outsiders. When we see that the first Puerto Rican congressman didn’t get his seat until 1970 and the first Puerto Rican woman in Congress wasn’t elected until 1992, it tells us that those stereotypes still exist.

There have been 12,591 people serving in Congress so far. Puerto Rico has belonged to the United States for more than a century. How can it be that people from Puerto Rico were elected into Congress only in the last 50 years? The first person from Maine elected to Congress served in 1820. The first person from Arizona elected to Congress went there in 1912. Why was Puerto Rico so late?

Because Puerto Rico still doesn’t have voting members in Congress. The state of Puerto Rico will have two senators and four or five voting Members of the House. The territory of Puerto Rico has one non-voting representative.

As Americans, we all should be shocked and ashamed that U.S. citizens living in a place that has been under the U.S. flag for 128 years still do not have full voice in American democracy.