Latinas or Hispanic women have contributed to the culture of the world and to history in the Americas. In this list, I've focused on a few women of Hispanic heritage in the New World.

List of notables

• Anita Garibaldi (Laguna, Santa Catarina, 30 de agosto de 1821 - Guiccioli Farm, Ravenna, Italia, 4 de agosto de 1849) Foi a companheira do revolucionário Giuseppe Garibaldi, sendo conhecida como a "Heroína dos Dois Mundos". Ela é considerada, até hoje, uma das mulheres mais fortes e corajosas da época.
• Bárbara de Alencar One of the first women to become involved in politics, was arrested in Fortaleza in 1817 for participating in movements for the independence of Brazil. Considered the first female political prisoner in Brazil, it gains the freedom to November 17, 1821, at the General Amnesty.
• Isabel Allende A Chilean journalist who fled Chile when her uncle, Salvador Allende, was overthrown and assassinated, Isabel Allende moved first to Venezuela and then to the United States. She has written several popular novels, including the autobiographical novel . Her writing is often about the experience of women from a "magic realism" perspective.
• Folksinger Joan Baez, whose father was a physicist born in Mexico, was part of the 1960s folk revival, and she has continued to sing and work for peace and human rights.
• Empress Carlota of Mexico. European in heritage, Carlota (Born Princess Charlotte of Belgium) was married to Maximilian, archduke of Austria, who was established as emperor of Mexico by Napoleon III. She spent her last 60 years suffering from severe mental illness -- probably depression -- in Europe.
• Conservative commentator and author, Linda Chavez served in the American Federation of Teachers, then in President Reagan's administration. Her "nanny-gate" problems kept her from confirmation as United States Labor Secretary under George W. Bush.
• Dolores Huerta was a co-founder of the United Farm Workers, and has been an activist for labor, Hispanic and women's rights.
• Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter whose primitive-like style reflected Mexican folk culture, her own pain and suffering, both physical and emotional.
• Author, feminist, and Pan-Americanist, Muna Lee worked for women's rights as well as advocating for Latin American literature.
• Zélia Maria Cardoso de Mello It is a Brazilian economist. It was the first and only woman to hold the post of Minister of Finance in Brazil.
• Ellen Ochoa, selected as an astronaut candidate in 1990, flew on NASA space missions in 1993, 1994, 1999, and 2002.
• Of mixed heritage (she claimed mexican and Native American but also likely had African background), Lucy Parsons became associated with radical movements and labor. Her husband was among those executed in the so-called Haymarket Riot of 1886. She spent the rest of her life working for labor, the poor, and for radical change.
• Raised in poverty, Sonia Sotomayor excelled in school, attended Princeton and Yale, worked as a prosecutor and lawyer in private practice, and then was nominated to the federal bench in 1991. She became the first Hispanic justice and third woman on the United States Supreme Court in 2009.
• Salma Hayek
• Raquel Welch
• Sonia Braga (Maringá, Paraná, 8 de junho de 1950) É uma atriz brasileira de renome internacional. Musa de Jorge Amado.
• Rita Hayworth
• Mercedes Sosa, La Negra Sosa o La Voz de América Conocida en América Latina y Europa. Considerada como la principal cantante de Argentina. Fundadora del Movimiento del Nuevo Cancionero.
• Carmem Miranda The Brazilian Bombshell
• Tattoo artist and photographer of Argentinian descent Kat Von D

External links

• Famous Hispanic Women / Women of Hispanic Heritage By Jone Johnson Lewis, About.com Guide
• Notable Hispanic Women - Famous Latinas
• Cinema of Mexico