César Chávez

César Chávez (March 31, 1927 – April 23, 1993) (born Cesario Estrada Chavez) was an American labor leader and civil rights activist. Along with Dolores Huerta, he co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), which later merged with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC) to become the United Farm Workers (UFW) labor union. Ideologically, his world-view combined leftist politics with Catholic social teachings.

He became an icon for organized labor and leftist groups in the U.S. and posthumously became a "folk saint" among Mexican Americans. His birthday is a federal commemorative holiday in several U.S. states, while many places are named after him, and in 1994 he posthumously received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Richard Anthony “Cheech” Marin

Richard Anthony "Cheech" Marin (July 13, 1946 - Present) is an American comedian, actor, musician, and activist. He gained recognition as part of the comedy act Cheech & Chong during the 1970s and early 1980s with Tommy Chong and as Don Johnson's partner, Insp. Joe Dominguez, on Nash Bridges. He has also voiced characters in several Disney films, including Oliver & Company, The Lion King, the Cars series, Coco and Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

Marin is an avid collector of Chicano art and started his collection in the 1980s. Two national touring exhibitions have featured works from his private collection. He feels that it's important to "use his celebrity status to call attention to what he saw as an under-appreciated and under-represented style of art". In collaboration with the city of Riverside, California, and the Riverside Art Museum, Marin established The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art, Culture & Industry, in the City of Riverside, which opened June 18, 2022.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (October 13, 1989 - Present), also known by her initials AOC, is an American politician and activist. She has served as the U.S. representative for New York's 14th congressional district since 2019, as a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes the eastern part of the Bronx, portions of north-central Queens, and Rikers Island in New York City

Taking office at age 29, Ocasio-Cortez is the youngest woman ever to serve in the United States Congress. She has been noted for her substantial social media presence relative to her fellow members of Congress. Ocasio-Cortez attended Boston University, where she double-majored in international relations and economics, graduating cum laude. She was previously an activist and worked as a waitress and bartender before running for Congress in 2018.

Dr. Tom Rivera

Dr. Tom M. Rivera (September 22, 1939 – March 8, 2022), or "Dr. Tom,” as he was commonly known, had over 47 years of experience in education, including at the elementary school, community college, and university levels. Rivera served as a Counselor/Human Relation Coordinator at San Bernardino Valley College from 1970 to 1972. He retired from California State University, San Bernardino in 2011, after serving nearly 40 years as an administrator. There he initiated numerous programs to motivate underrepresented students to graduate from college.

A defining moment in Tom's life was when Susan Castro, Frank Acosta, Henry Vasquez, and Bill Allison asked him to help them start an organization that would address the dropout rate of Hispanics. Today, 38 years later, the Inland Empire Future Leaders Program continues as an all-volunteer leadership training program for 8th and 9th graders.

In the last decade of his life, Tom became a co-researcher in the South Colton Oral History Project with friends Frank Acosta and Henry Vasquez. Their interviews with long-time South Colton residents leave a historical record of early life in that segregated community. Tom's impact on a multitude of lives was not obstructed by Guillain Barre Syndrome, which left him wheelchair-bound for nearly 40 years. He was positivity personified, with no stop signs in his head.

Ruben Salazar

Ruben Salazar (March 3, 1928 – August 29, 1970) was a civil rights activist and a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, the first Mexican journalist from mainstream media to cover the Chicano community, in the US.

Salazar's strong support for the Chicano movement as a Mexican-American distinguished him early on from other journalists in mainstream media. With a strong disparity of racial minorities in news organizations nationwide, Salazar felt it was his personal and professional responsibility to give necessary attention to the actions led by his fellow Chicanos in East Los Angeles. In February 1970, just six months prior to his death, Salazar made his support for the Chicano movement particularly clear when he authored an article in the Los Angeles Times, titled, "Who Is A Chicano? And What Is It the Chicanos Want?" In this piece, Salazar not only describes the evolving identity of Chicanos and the historic importance of the movement, but he details his frustration with the lack of Mexican-American representation among the elected representatives in the Los Angeles city council. Salazar writes, "Mexican-Americans, though large in numbers, are so politically impotent that in Los Angeles, where the country's largest single concentration of Spanish-speaking live, they have no one of their own on the City Council. This in a city politically sophisticated enough to have three Negro council-men.