# How TIME Picked the 2026 Latino Leaders

> TIME's fourth annual Latino Leaders list hunts for range, not a single story of who Latinos are.
- Title: How TIME Picked the 2026 Latino Leaders · TIME | Shortify
- Summary: TIME's fourth annual Latino Leaders list hunts for range, not a single story of who Latinos are. The list is built around breadth on purpose, because a fifth…
- Keywords: latino leaders, time, hispanic heritage month, culture, media, news, world, Picked, 2026, Latino, Leaders
- Source: TIME — https://time.com/article/2026/09/15/how-we-chose-2026-latino-leaders
- Author: Ruairí Arrieta-Kenna
- Published: 2026-09-15T13:00:20.403+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: latino leaders, time, hispanic heritage month, culture, media, news, world
## No box fits
Actor Sofia Carson, one of the 2026 honorees, frames the community as something that resists a single description.

> In reality, we are a kaleidoscope of cultures, of talents, of thoughts, of passions
## A list since 2023
TIME started marking Hispanic Heritage Month four years ago by naming influential Latinos in the U.S. across entertainment, politics, business, sports and science.
## A fifth of the country
Latinos make up 20 percent of the U.S. population, and their economic and cultural weight keeps growing. That scale shaped who made the cut.
## Range was the point
Selections spanned Netflix stars like Carson, NBA champions like the Knicks' Jose Alvarado, fashion disrupter Marina Larroudé, chef Nelson German, and nonprofit founder Mónica Ramírez.
## Heritage as fuel
Each honoree found a way to bring their background into their work, and rose higher because of it rather than in spite of it.
## Lifting others too
Many on the list built their careers with an eye on opening doors behind them, reshaping their industries and the country along the way.
## Key takeaway

The list is built around breadth on purpose, because a fifth of the country cannot be summed up by one kind of success story.