Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
In 1980, Linda Garcia Cubero became a member of the first class of women to graduate from the U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA). She made history as well as the first woman of Hispanic descent to graduate from any of the service academies. In a 2009 interview with Latina Style magazine, Linda discussed her own... Continue Reading →
For nearly four decades now, Michael P. Huerta has served in a wide range of high-ranking transportation roles. In a 2011 speech at the National Hispanic Coalition of Federal Aviation Employees Annual Training Conference, Huerta addressed not only those professional achievements but also the prejudicial treatment he sometimes encountered early on in life as a... Continue Reading →
In 2002, Angelina Hidalgo became only the second Hispanic American woman in the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) to command an afloat unit. As a lieutenant junior grade, she was specifically named commanding officer of the coastal patrol boat USCGC Kingfisher (WPB-87322). This appointment was made just two years after Hidalgo graduated from the USCG Academy... Continue Reading →
Cipriano Andrade, whose U.S. Navy service spanned four decades, was born on September 1, 1840 in the port city of Tampico in northeastern Mexico. He eventually attended both public and private schools in Philadelphia. In addition, Andrade studied engineering at the Franklin Institute in that city. On July 1, 1861 -- less than three months... Continue Reading →
As a soldier in the Massachusetts National Guard (the Bay State’s component of the U.S. Army National Guard), Marisol A. Chalas achieved an aviation milestone by becoming the first Latina in the entire National Guard to pilot a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. (That longtime four-blade, twin-engine utility helicopter is manufactured for the Army by the... Continue Reading →
Sandra Cauffman, who has charted a trailblazing career as an engineer at NASA, was born in the central region of Costa Rica in 1962. She and her brother grew in a single-parent home after their mother Maria Jerónima Rojas made the lifesaving decision to leave her abusive husband. Even with their mother holding down two... Continue Reading →
Scientist and NASA astronaut Fernando “Frank” Caldeiro was born in Argentina’s capital city of Buenos Aires on June 12, 1958. As a young immigrant to the United States, however, he regarded both New York City and the Florida community of Merritt Island as his actual hometowns. Caldeiro graduated from William Cullen Bryant High School in... Continue Reading →
On June 10, 2021, Nuria I. Fernandez was confirmed by the U.S Senate as administrator of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). This Senate confirmation by voice vote made Fernandez the first Afro-Latina to lead FTA. (An agency within the U.S. Department of Transportation [USDOT], FTA provides both financial and technical assistance to a wide range... Continue Reading →
José Antonio Muñiz, an aviator whose U.S. military career included service in Southeast Asia during World War II, was born on October 16, 1919, in the city and municipality of Ponce on Puerto Rico’s southern coast. He was a student at elementary and secondary schools in Ponce. Muñiz then enrolled at the Ponce-based Colegio Ponceño... Continue Reading →
During a career in the U.S. Navy that spanned nearly four decades, Mery-Angela Sanbria Katson firmly established herself as a trailblazer in that military branch. Katson had been born in Colombia’s capital city of Bogota. In 1970, Katson immigrated with her family to the United States. They ended up residing in the city of New... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 