Mola of Sun God with Moon from Mansucum Village in Panama's San Blas Islands. Photo courtesy National Museum of National History.
The history and contributions of Canadian members of the Latin American community were honoured by the Government of Canada's proclamation of the first Latin American Heritage Month in 2018. This year, Skate Guard celebrates the milestones and achievements of members of the Latin American community in figure skating in Canada with this timeline.
CANADA
1878 - Lyndwood Charles Pereira won the 'club championship for gentlemen' at the Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal. The following year, he won the Gentlemen Amateurs' Prize at a skating masquerade and in 1882 he was the runner-up to Louis Rubenstein at a fancy skating competition at the rink. Pereira was of Portugese and not Latino heritage, but he was the first skater with roots in Spain or Portugal to win a 'fancy' skating competition in Canada.
1924 - John (Juan) Zaldivar Machado won the Canadian senior men's title, making history as the first skater of Latino heritage to win a Canadian title at any level. A year prior, he was also the first skater of Latino heritage to compete at the North American Championships. Born in New Jersey to a Cuban father, John earned the Croix de Guerre for his service with the United States Army Ambulance Service during The Great War.
John Zalvidar Machado. Photo courtesy City Of Toronto Archives.
1941 - David Anthony Tyrrell Youle represented the Minto Skating Club in the junior pairs event at the Canadian Championships. Youle was the son of an assistant paymaster with the Royal Navy who was born in Rio de Janeiro. Though British subjects, the Youle family's ties to Brazil dated back to reign of Emperor Dom Pedro II.
1967 - A quartet of Canadian skaters - Toller Cranston, Lise Gauthier, Raymonde Corbo and Tom Hayim - performed at the opening of Haiti's first ice rink.
1990 - Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay's moving performance about forced disappearances in South America, set to Peruvian panpipe music, earned a standing ovation and silver medal at the 1990 World Championships in Halifax.
Penny Mann and Juan Carlos Noria
1991 - Venezuela born Juan Carlos Noria won his first of three consecutive medals in senior ice dance at the Canadian Championships. The following year, he and partner Penny Mann represented Canada at the World Championships. Noria made history as the first skater of Venezuelan descent to compete at an ISU Championship in 1992.
1995 - David D'Cruz made history as the first skater of Latin descent to win the Canadian junior men's title.
2008 - Alexandra Najarro took the novice women's crown at the Canadian Championships, making history as the first woman of Canadian heritage to win a national title. She is of Nicaraguan heritage.
2008 - Siblings Pilar and Leonardo Maekawa Moreno won the bronze medal in the national pre-novice ice dance event. The siblings, who were born in Mexico City and raised in Victoria, British Columbia, are of Mexican and Japanese ancestry. They went on to represent Mexico at three Four Continents Championships.
2010 - Two-time Olympic Silver Medallist and three-time World Champion Elvis Stojko married Gladys Orozco, a two-time Mexican Champion. Gladys went on to tour with Disney on Ice and coach and perform professionally in Canada.
Denis Margalik at the 2014 Canadian Championships
2014 - Denis Margalik, who was born in Buenos Aires to Ukrainian parents, won the Canadian junior men's title. Two years later, he is the first skater to represent Argentina at the World Championships.
2019 - Nelson Sanchez Leemet starred in Disney On Ice's "Road Trip Adventures" tour. He was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to Montreal when he was ten.
AMERICA
1940 - Anthony Canal is one of the first American judges of Latino heritage. Born in the Catalonian region of Spain, Tony emigrated to Cuba and then America. He joined the St. Louis Figure Skating Club in the twenties and passed his Silver Dances, later becoming an Intermediate Figure and Bronze Dance judge.
1942 - Cuban born Gise Sanchez is one of the first skaters of Latino heritage to compete at the Eastern Sectional Championships. Five years later, she earns the Junior Skating Club of New York's highest honour - the President's Cup.
Venita Holquina Berea 'Lucky' Petersen. Photo courtesy "National Ice Skating Guide".
1948 - Venita Holquina Berea 'Lucky' Petersen stars in Elizabeth and Fritz Chandler's "Hielo y Estrellas" tour of South America, performing on a portable ice rink in the forties in such exotic locales as Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Barquismieto, Maracaibo and Caracas. As a skater of Latin American heritage she was a rarity in the professional skating scene. She recalled that on the South American tour there were "thirty-two blondes, one redhead and one brunette - me."
1949 - Armando 'Pancho' Rodriguez wins the Pacific Coast senior pairs title with Patricia Quick. Armando was born in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico but emigrated to California via Texas with his family during World War II.
Manuel del Toro and Jerry Rehfield
1950 - Manuel del Toro tours Canada in Barbara Ann Scott's Skating Sensations Of 1950 tour. Manuel, who grew up in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, had a professional career that spanned four decades. He toured with Holiday On Ice and Ice Vogues and took center stage in numerous hotel shows.
1951 - Armando 'Pancho' Rodriguez makes history as the first man of Latino heritage to win a medal at the U.S. Championships. He won the silver medal in the junior men's event and defeated future Olympic Medallists Ronnie Robertson and David Jenkins in the free skate that year.
1954 - Catherine Machado wins the U.S. junior women's title, making history as the first skater of Latino heritage to win a national title at any level.
Catherine Machado. Photo courtesy Harlick Skates.
1955 - Catherine Machado is the first skater of Latino heritage to represent the United States at the World Championships. A year later, she is the first American woman of Latino heritage to compete at the Winter Olympic Games.
1957 - Alfredo Mendoza, a World Water Skiing Champion from Acapulco de Juárez, Mexico, joins the cast of Holiday On Ice. He is one of the tour's biggest stars in the sixties, performing adagio pairs acts with Tom Collins' future wife Janie Morris, Darolyn Prior, Carol Johnson and his future wife, Jinx Clark.
Alfredo Mendoza and Jinx Clark. Photo courtesy "World Ice Skating Guide".
1958 - Catherine Machado is the first skater of Latino heritage to win the World Professional Ice Skating Championships in England.
1961 - Though he wasn't a skater, Aristide Alves Ferreira was popular with skating audiences. After appearing with the circus troupe The Rambellis in a handful of Tom Arnold's ice pantomimes in England, he toured Europe with Holiday On Ice. He was of Brazilian and African descent.
1961 - Johnny Melendez' touring hotel revue "Ice-A-Rama" delighted diners across America. A former roller skater with the Skating Vanities from Brooklyn, Melendez had a long career in ice revues, including stints at the Centre Theatre and Conrad Hilton Hotel and in Sonja Henie's Hollywood Ice Revue and Tom Arnold's ice pantomimes in England.
1962 - Colorado sisters Junee and Delita 'Deedee' Rodriguez were the third pair of siblings in history to pass the USFSA's Gold Test on the same day. The Rodriguez sisters were the daughter of a physician who was born in the Dominican Republic.
1982 - Rudy Galindo is the first skater of Latino heritage to win the U.S. novice men's title.
1983 - Yvonne Gómez wins the silver medal in the junior women's event at the U.S. Championships.
Her paternal great-grandparents Epigmenio Muñoz and Isaura Gonzalez emigrated from Mexico to Texas.
Yvonne Gómez. Photo courtesy "Ice & Roller Skate" magazine.
1986 - Rudy Galindo is the first skater of Latino heritage to win the U.S. junior pairs title.
1986 - Rochester, New York's Renée Roca made history as the first skater of Latin American ancestry to win the U.S. senior ice dance title, with partner Donald Adair. Roca went on to represent the United States at five World Championships. With partner Gorsha Sur, she won the U.S. dance title in 1993 and 1995 and the World Professional Championships in 1997. Her opthamologist father, Dr. Primitivo Diaz Roca, was born in Cuba.
1987 - Rudy Galindo is the first skater of Latino heritage to win the World Junior men's title. A year later, he is the first skater of Latino heritage to win the World Junior pairs title.
1989 - Rudy Galindo is the first skater of Latino heritage to win a U.S. senior title. Rudy and partner Kristi Yamaguchi repeated as pairs champions the following year and placed fifth at the World Championships.
1990 - Yvonne Gómez, who represented Spain at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, joins the cast of Katarina Witt and Brian Boitano's "Skating" tour.
Clipping about Rudy Galindo's 1996 U.S. title win from the "Bay Area Reporter".
1996 - Rudy Galindo is the first skater of Latino heritage to win the U.S. senior men's title and a medal at the World Championships.
1996 - The Friends of Minority Figure Skaters is founded in Cleveland, Ohio by Jacqueline Flournoy and Jacquelynne Goode. Sonia Lott, Anthony Wilcox, Harlita Robinson and Dr. Mark Wilcox also sat on the board. The organization's mission was to "educate the general community about the sport and the needs of young minority athletes in figure skating, increase awareness of other athletes to the sport of figure skating" and "conduct aggressive fundraising events." By 1998, the organization had budgeted $70,000 to place 75 minority students to Learn-To-Skate programs, expose 2000 minority students to skating and present four full scholarships to competitive skaters.
Excerpt from a flyer from The Latino International Skating Coalition
2000 - The Latino International Skating Coalition is founded in New Jersey.
2001 - Kristine Yomaris Stone-Cruz wins the senior women's event at the first Puerto Rican Championships.
Kristine Yomaris Stone-Cruz. Photo courtesy The Latino International Skating Coalition.
2003 - Laureano Ibarra won the gold medal in the senior pairs event at the Midwestern Championships with partner Tiffany Vise. He went on to win two Pacific Coast pairs titles with partners Stephanie Kuban and MeeRan Trombley. Ibarra started skating at the age of eleven in his country of birth, Venezuela.
2005 - American born siblings Laura and Luke Munana are the first ice dance team to represent Mexico at the World Championships.
2005 - Catherine Machado is the first skater of Latino heritage to be inducted to the U.S. Figure Skating Hall Of Fame.
2006 - Maryland's Kimmie Meissner wins a gold medal at the World Championships. Her maternal great-grandparents Emmanuel and Paulina Novo emigrated to America from Galicia, Spain in the 1920's.
Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto. Photo courtesy "International Figure Skating" magazine.
2006 - Benjamin Agosto wins the silver medal in ice dancing at the Winter Olympic Games in Torino. Agosto, a four-time World medallist and five-time U.S. Champion, has a Jewish mother and Puerto Rican father.
2006 - Victoria Muniz is the first skater to represent Puerto Rico at the World Junior Championships.
2006 - Megan Williams-Stewart is the first skater of Latino heritage to win a gold medal at the Nebelhorn Trophy.
Stephanie Gardner. J. Barry Mittan photo.
2007 - Stephanie Gardner is the first skater to represent Brazil at an international competition (the Winter Universiade in Turin) and an ISU Championship (the Four Continents Championships). She was born in Newport Beach, California and her parents emigrated to the United States from Brazil in the seventies.
2007 - Eliot Halverson, who was born in Bogotá, Colombia, wins a gold medal as a junior at the U.S. Championships.
Rachel Nevares. Photo courtesy The Latino International Skating Coalition.
2007 - Puerto Rican novice and junior medallist Rachel Nevares wins a silver medal at the U.S. Collegiate Championships.
2008 - Victoria Muniz is the first skater to represent Puerto Rico at the World Championships.
2008 - Chelsi Celina Guillen and Danny Curzon win a bronze medal in novice pairs at the U.S. Championships and represent the United States at the World Junior Championships.
2009 - Andrew Huertas is the first man to represent Puerto Rico at the World Championships.
2010 - Carolyn-Ann Alba wins a pewter medal in junior pairs with partner Chris Knierim at the 2010 U.S. Championships.
2014 - Isadora Williams is the first skater to represent Brazil at the Winter Olympic Games. Isadora was born in Marietta, Georgia.
Rohene Ward
2017 - Rohene Ward is the first person of mixed heritage to be awarded the Professional Skaters Association's Paul McGrath Award for Choreographer of the Year. His father is African American; his mother Puerto Rican.
2019 - Latina skater Karina Manta and partner Joe Johnson make history as the first openly LGBTQ+ ice dance duo to compete at the U.S. Championships.
2021 - Jacob Sanchez, a talented young skater of Puerto Rican heritage, wins the pewter medal in the junior men's event at the U.S. Championships.
2022 - Lindsay Thorngren claims the bronze medal in the women's event at the World Junior Championships. Thorngren is of Dominican heritage.
2023 - Valentina Plazas and Maximiliano Fernandez represent the United States at the Four Continents Championships, placing in the top five in their first trip to the event. Plazas is of Colombian heritage; Fernandez is of Cuban and Peruvian descent.