♪ ♪ JOHN: If you know me, you know how much I love history, especially Latin history, because Latin history is American history.

(audience cheering).

And it's important that everyone knows the impact of those who came before us.

Which is why we're here to celebrate one icon whose legacy is all around us.

(audience applause).

LISA LISA: Roberto Clemente was born in Barrio San Antón in Carolina, Puerto Rico in 1934.

The youngest of 7, he worked the sugar cane fields with his siblings and his father.

LUIS: But dad's passion and talent for baseball lifted him from the fields, first joining the Puerto Rican Amateur League as a teenager, before getting picked up by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1955, where he would remain with the Pirates for the rest of his 18-year career as number 21.

JOHN: And what a career.

3,000 career hits.

(audience cheering and applause).

Four National League Batting Titles.

12 Gold Glove Awards.

And 2 World Series Titles.

(audience applause).

LISA LISA: But his story is more than an impressive baseball career.

His sport was a vehicle for his mission.

LUIS: As a Black and Latino man playing in the Majors in the 1950s and 60s, Clemente was on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement, using his platform to address racial injustice head-on.

JOHN: He demanded equal treatment for Black and Latino players and advocated for recruiting more Puerto Rican and Dominican players who'd been overlooked because of their accents and skin color.

LUIS: Inspired by a special guest to our family farm in Puerto Rico, Dr. Martin Luther King, dad became a voice for the voiceless.

Even addressing the media in Spanish after his 1971 World Series Victory, the first time anyone had spoken Spanish on a nationally televised broadcast in the U.S. (audience cheering and applause).

LISA LISA: And after Dr. King was assassinated, Clemente organized his teammates to postpone the start of the 1968 season in Dr. King's memory, spurring the League to postpone until after Dr. King's funeral.

He was a hero to many, but tragically, his life was cut short.

JOHN: Just before Christmas in 1972, an earthquake struck Managua, the capital of Nicaragua.

LUIS: Dad had been in Managua only three weeks prior, so he was particularly devastated by the news.

LISA LISA: Like the man of action he was, Roberto Clemente did what he could, sending three planes full of aid.

Most of that aid never made it.

JOHN: But determined to make sure the aid got there where it was needed, Roberto Clemente personally joined the fourth flight.

And on December 31, 1972, his plane crashed off Isla Verde de Puerto Rico immediately after take-off.

LUIS: His passing hit our family, and the country very hard.

But in their grief, people found meaning in our Father's legacy.

In a special election, he became the first Latino to be inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame.

And in addition to the countless other recognitions, streets, parks, schools that bear his name, so does MLB's annual Roberto Clemente Award, given to the player who "best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and individual contribution to his team."

LISA LISA: And while his legacy is carried on through his sons and the Roberto Clemente Foundation, it is also due to the relentless advocacy by his late wife Vera that his work lives on.

Bringing access and love of the game to boys and girls in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

JOHN: And so, it's in the memory of Roberto Clemente and his continuing legacy that we present, our first posthumous Hispanic Heritage Award to Roberto Clemente Jr and Luis Clemente on their father, and mother's, behalf.

(audience cheering and applause).