In August of this year, American Airlines became a premier corporate sponsor for, as well as the official airline of, the Hispanic Heritage Awards Foundation.

More recently, the 2000 Awards ceremony was nationally televised from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. As part of its sponsorship, American flew the national winners of Hispanic Heritage Youth Awards, with a parent or guardian, to Washington first class for the Kennedy Center awards event.

Widely recognized as the most prestigious honor in the Hispanic community, the Awards honor individuals in five categories: the arts, literature, leadership, education and sports. Individuals honored are recognized as having reached the pinnacle of their careers, achieving brilliant personal success while contributing to the Hispanic community and society as a whole.

The millenial celebration of the Awards honored Oscar Hijuelos, the first American-born Hispanic to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction; Dolores Huerta, the co-founder of the first successful union of agricultural workers in the United States; Anthony Quinn, the two-time Academy Award-winning actor; Cruz Reynoso professor of law at UCLA and vice-chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; and Chicago Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa, who along w ith Mark McGwire is the only man in major league baseball history to hit more than 60 home runs in two separate seasons.

The Hispanic Heritage Awards Foundation is dedicated to creating broad recognition for Hispanic achievement in the United States, which in part prompted the corporate sponsorship by American.

"In recent years, American Airlines has become a clear airline of choice for the Hispanic community, reflecting our commitment to diversity and recognizing the many Hispanic causes we support all across the system," said AA Chairman and CEO Don Carty. "With thousands of Hispanic employees and thousands more Hispanic customers, we feel privileged to participate in recognizing the leaders of today so they can help mold the leaders of tomorrow. We are honored to be part of the Hispanic Heritage Awards Foundation."

American works in many ways to help advance the interests of the U.S. Hispanic community. The airline assists Hispanic advocacy groups on a national level, and works locally with Latin American consulates and their bureaus of tourism, with Hispanic chambers of commerce, and with a broad range of community grass-roots organizations.

American's principal focus in the Hispanic community is with education, child health welfare, and U.S. Hispanic business development. It also seeks counsel from Hispanic organizations on how best to allocate resources and in developing a diverse base of suppliers. The airline also is committed to finding ways of making the total air travel experience friendlier for Hispanic travelers.

Other celebrity participants at the Awards ceremony included actors Martin Sheen and Antonio Banderas, and musicians Carlos Santana and Miami Sound Machine, among many others. Additional information about the ceremony, award recipients and foundation in general is available on the Web at http://www.HispanicAwards.org/.