Jimmy Smits, Roberto Clemente, Maria Elena Salinas, Jose M. Garzon, Ph.D. Honorees at CHCI's 29th Annual Hispanic Heritage Month Gala

Jimmy Smits, Roberto Clemente, Maria Elena Salinas, Jose M. Garzon, Ph.D. Honorees at CHCI's 29th Annual Hispanic Heritage Month Gala

His Royal Highness the Prince of Asturias, Felipe de Borbon and Her Royal Highness Princess Letizia Join CHCI to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month

Host Anheuser-Busch to Welcome Honorees and Highlight 'Our Youth, Our Future, Our Legacy'

WASHINGTON, Sept. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI), the nation's premier Hispanic youth leadership development and educational organization, announced this year's Hispanic Heritage Month Medallion of Excellence honorees: Emmy Award- and Golden Globe- winning actor Jimmy Smits for Leadership; and Major League Baseball Player legend, the late Roberto Clemente for Community Service.

Emmy Award-winning Univision news anchor Maria Elena Salinas will be presented with the Chairwoman's Award for journalistic and humanitarian service to Hispanics. Jose M. Garzon, Ph.D. will be presented with the Distinguished Alumni Award.

His Royal Highness the Prince of Asturias, Felipe de Borbon and Her Royal Highness Princess Letizia, together with CHCI, will celebrate this year's honoree achievements at the 29th Annual CHCI Hispanic Heritage Month Gala, Wednesday, Oct. 4 at the Washington Convention Center.

Gala host Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. joins honorees and evening's celebration supporting CHCI's leadership development and education services to Hispanic youth, "Our Youth, Our Future, Our Legacy."

Premier and Millennium sponsors Comcast Corporation and Fannie Mae join CHCI's gala, now in its 29th year.

Four-time Platinum Record award winner and Grammy nominee musical artist, Frankie Negron will perform songs from his most recent productions, Amanecer Contigo, Inesperado and Por Tu Placer.

Jimmy Smits will be presented with the Medallion of Excellence -- Leadership, for his exemplary work in promoting the Arts and success in film and television.

Roberto Clemente will be honored posthumously with the Medallion of Excellence -- Community Service, for his significant athletic and humanitarian contributions to all Hispanics. Clemente's family will accept the award.

Maria Elena Salinas will be presented with the Chairwoman's Award, for her influential work in the field of journalism on both a national and international level; her humanitarian efforts to help Hispanics and her work as an accomplished author, "I am my father's daughter."

CHCI Alumni Jose M. Garzon, Ph.D. will receive the Distinguished Alumni Award, for his achievements and continued service to the Latino community and CHCI.

About the Honorees

Emmy Award and Golden Globe-winning actor Jimmy Smits, has established himself as one of the most gifted and versatile actors working in film, television, and on the stage. After an influential and successful role in ABC's NYPD Blue, Smits returned to television last fall in a powerful role on NBC's The West Wing playing Matt Santos, a Houston Congressman later elected to the White House. Most recently, Smits acted in several films, including New Line Cinema's Price of Glory, and Chuck Russell's thriller Bless The Child, opposite Kim Basinger. In theater, Smits was most recently seen in Much Ado About Nothing during the 2004 summer season of Shakespeare in the Park. He also starred in Nilo Cruz's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Anna in the Tropics. A strong education advocate, Smits co-founded the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts to promote Hispanic talent in the performing arts.

Roberto Clemente Walker was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, August 18, 1934. The youngest of four children, he excelled in track and field. A seasoned baseball player, Clemente signed with the New York Brooklyn Dodgers, and later joined the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1955, where he played his entire 18-year Major League Baseball career. A four-time National League Batting Champion, Clemente was awarded 12 Gold Gloves, and was selected National League MVP in 1966 and at the 1971 World Series. On New Year's Eve, December 31, 1972, Clemente's airplane crashed off the cost of Puerto Rico. The plane was transporting medical, food and clothing supplies to earthquake stricken Nicaragua. Today, Clemente is remembered as one of the greatest Hispanic athletes and humanitarians of all time.

Maria Elena Salinas has been called by The New York Times, "The Voice of Hispanic America." The Emmy Award-winning Univision news anchor is the most recognized Hispanic female journalist in the United States. For the past 25 years Salinas has informed millions of Hispanics in the United States and 18 countries in Latin America. As co-anchor for the highly rated "Noticiero Univision," she has handled some of the most challenging assignments in modern day journalism. Throughout the years, Salinas has interviewed more world leaders, dictators and political figures than any other female journalist. She has interviewed nearly every U.S. President since Jimmy Carter and followed Pope John Paul II on a dozen foreign trips, including his historic visit to Cuba in 1998 and ultimately his funeral at the Vatican. Her list of groundbreaking reports includes exclusive interviews with Mexican Presidents Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Ernesto Zedillo and Vicente Fox; Carlos Menem of Argentina, Chile's Augusto Pinochet, Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega, Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega, Violeta Chamorro and Enrique Bolanos; Colombia's Cesar Gaviria, Andres Pastrana and Alvaro Uribe; Peru's Alberto Fujimori and Alejandro Toledo, as well as other prominent political figures of the past two decades, such as the enigmatic Mexican rebel leader Sub-Comandante Marcos.

Her commitment to education led her to establish the "Maria Elena Salinas Scholarship for Excellence in Spanish-language News" which is administered by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and which awards three $5,000 scholarships to promising journalism students.

Born in Los Angeles to Mexican immigrant parents, Salinas resides in Coral Gables, Florida, with her two daughters, Julia Alexandra and Gabriela Maria.

Jose M. Garzon, Ph.D. is a native of Pico Rivera, California. He is a graduate from Whittier College with a BA in Political Science and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Garzon has worked with multiple international relief and development agencies throughout his career. Over the past 17 years he has been with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) working in diverse settings, from El Salvador to the Philippines, Bangladesh to Bolivia. As current Chief of the Democracy and Governance Office in Guatemala, Dr. Garzon is working on a new reality show that he helped support and approve through USAID. The show challenges hardened former members of international gangs to make new lives for themselves by succeeding at a legitimate business endeavor with the help of private sector mentors. "When you hear about some of the horrible things that go on -- murder, drug abuse, rape -- you can very easily dehumanize the gang member; this show is putting a human face to their struggles," says Dr. Garzon. "Witnessing the impact of development on the lives of ordinary people has been the most personally rewarding aspect of the work I do."

About Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute

Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI), a nonprofit and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization, provides leadership development programs and educational services to students and young emerging leaders. The CHCI Board of Directors is comprised of Hispanic Members of Congress, nonprofit leaders and corporate executives. For more information call CHCI at (202) 543-1771 or visit http://www.chci.org/.

Source: Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute

CONTACT: Daniel Diaz, +1-202-548-5876, ddiaz@chci.org, or Rebecca
Dreilinger, +1-202-543-1771, rdreilinger@chci.org, both of Congressional
Hispanic Caucus Institute

Web site: http://www.chci.org/

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