NO Major Contributions To Society By Hispanics

    No major contributions to society by Hispanics, he commented with a tone of self-importance and the conviction of the righteous. There have also been no Nobel Price winners in the Sciences by any Hispanic or Mexican he added. In my time on Gather I have read and have been subjected to numerous idiotic and prejudice filled statements, from “they all look alike” to “they are all deviants, thieves and welfare cheats”. However, no statement has irritated or annoyed me more than the one mention at the beginning of this article.

    On Saturday May 5^th, my girlfriend and I hosted a fight party and invited all our friends to watch the De La Hoya and Mayweather fight. The majority if not all of the attendees were Business Professionals, Educators and Hispanic. Normally I do not distinguish my friends, business associates and colleagues by race, color or ethnicity. However, it is an important fact in the writing of this article. After the fight and after a few drinks, I mentioned to the small group of people who still found themselves at the party, my dealings with certain individuals on Gather, and how certain people were always making Xenophobic and racist remarks towards me and anyone of Latin decent. After a small amount of prodding I gave in and I brought up Gather on my computer. As I brought up, statement after statement, regarding Hispanics, immigration and illegal immigrants, the laughter was loud and thundering and it almost drowned out the music in the background. The statements that brought the most ridicule and laughter was the one that entitles this article, “No major contributions to society by Hispanics” and “There have been no Nobel Price winners in the Sciences by any Hispanic or Mexican.” After a few heated words between us, my ex-business partner and fraternity brother mentioned that we should look up as much information and facts to prove the individual who made these idiotic statements the fool that he is. So here are a few excerpts from the list and facts we compiled that night. There is no skewing or denials that can be made by anyone that change these truths.

 The great American poet, Walt Whitman, said, "I have an idea that there is much of importance about the Latin contributions to American nationality that will never be put with sympathetic understanding and tact on the record." 

 Hispanic Nobel Price winners

BENACERRAF, Baruj, Venezuela, Medicine and Physiology, 1980
HOUSSAY, Bernardo, Argentina, Medicine and Physiology, 1917.
LELOIR, Luis Federico, Argentina, Chemistry, 1970.
MILSTEIN, C�sar, Argentina, Medicine and Physiology, 1980.
MOLINA, Mario , M�xico, Chemistry, 1995.
OCHOA, Severo, Spain, Medicine and Physiology, 1959.
RAMON Y CAJAL, Santiago, Spain, Medicine and Physiology, 1906.

 Notable Hispanic-American Scientists     

   Luis Walter Alvarez, Nobel Prize-winning physicist        

 Franklin Chang-Dìaz, astronaut           

Mario Molina, Nobel Prize-winning chemist          

 Carlos Noriega, astronaut           

 Ellen Ochoa, astronaut

Severo Ochoa, Nobel Prize-winning biochemist

Congressional Medal of Honor Winners

there have been 41 Hispanic, 87 African-American, 31 Asian-American, and 22 American Indian MOH recipients.

Hispanic Inventors

Narciso Monturiol Spain.
A Spanish physicist and inventor, Monturiol, a Catalonian researched the first underwater navigation and in 1859 he drove the first fully operable submarine in the world, the "Ictineo". The Spanish inventor offered the US Confederacy his advanced submarine to smash the Federal blockade. The "Ictineo" was never purchased. Jules Verne apparently based the Nautilus on this, the world's most advanced vessel of the day.

Ellen Ochoa United States
Invented optical analysis systems, also the world's first Hispanic female astronaut.

Baruj Benacerraf Venezuela
Benacerraf gained the Nobel Prize, along with his colleagues Dausset and Snell "for their discoveries concerning genetically determined structures on the cell surface that regulate immunological reactions.

Carlos Finlay Cuba
Finlay became famous for his work in identifying the mosquito as a carrier of the deadly yellow fever germ.

Carlos Finlay
Website for the Carlos Finlay Institute.Bernardo Houssay Argentina
Argentinian scientist and activist Bernardo Houssay was recognized by the Academy for "his discovery of the part played by the hormone of the anterior pituitary lobe in the metabolism of sugars".

Luis Federico Leloir Argentina
Luis Leloir was awarded the Nobel Prize for "his discovery of sugar nucleotides and their role in the biosynthesis of
carbohydrates".

César Milstein Argentina
In work with his colaureate Georges J. F. Koehler, Milstein developed the techniques for producing monoclonal antibodies, antibodies with a specific affinity for certain sites in the body that might find diseased cells but leave healthy cells intact.

Severo Ochoa de Albornoz Spain
His research on high-energy phosphates and their role in the body's energy processes resulted in the discovery and application of the enzyme polynucleotyde phosphorilase, which catalizes the synthesis of RNA.

Santiago Ramón y Cajal Spain
Santiago Ramón y Cajal was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on the structure of the nervous system.

Miguel Servet Spain
His work in anatomy and physiology led him to the discovery of the circulation of blood through the human body.

   In science in 1968, Luis Alvarez won the Nobel Prize for his work with subatomic particles. As a teacher and researcher at the University of California at Berkeley, he helped develop microwave beacons, a ground-controlled landing approach for aircraft, and a new theory for why the dinosaurs became extinct. Also, in 1995, Mario Molina, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, along with two other scientists, won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for research that helped the world confront the threat that chlorofluorocarbons pose to the earth's protective ozone layer.

    In medicine, Dr. Walter Reed is generally credited with originating the theory of yellow fever transmissions by mosquitoes. The truth is that he only confirmed this theory. Carlos Juan Finlay, a modest Cuban physician, was the one who actually originated it. Up until the time that Dr. Finlay began his research into yellow fever, the medical research profession worldwide believed this disease was transmitted through the air or produced by a putrid substance from dead marine organisms. In 1879, Dr. Finlay suspected this theory was wrong and began his research, which lasted two years, after which his findings convinced him that yellow fever was transmitted by mosquitoes. For the next 22 years, American scientists, including Dr. Reed, repeatedly rebuffed Dr. Finlay's attempts to convince them that his theory was correct. During this period, yellow fever killed more American soldiers than died in the Spanish-American War and claimed the lives of 52,000 French workers constructing the Panama Canal. It wasn't until 1901 that the North American scientists, following the lead of their colleagues in Mexico, Cuba and Europe, finally confirmed Dr. Finlay's theory. One can only wonder how many lives would have been saved if more people had listened him earlier.