Once upon a time there was Mexican-American man by the name of César Chávez, a farm worker who became a civil rights leader and founded the United Farm Workers Union...and there was an inspirational woman named Dolores Huerta, also Mexican-American, who helped him do it. Then, there was a Colombian-American man by the name of Harry Pachon, who drew national attention to Latino issues, such as bilingual education, political engagement and immigration. To follow, there were a number of men and women who helped to mobilize change and enable success for Latinos in America. The End? 

No, not the end, however. Nowadays, Latinos are finding it difficult to name some, if any, leaders who represent them and their cause. Latinos, on the most part, feel that they are without a national leader, according to the Pew Research Center.

For the study, 5,103 Latino adults were polled, and 62 percent of those individuals said that they didn't know of a leader, and nine percent responded with "no one." The nation survey was conducted by the Pew Research Center from May 24 to July 28, 2013, taken in Spanish and English, using landlines and cellphones. In addition to asking Latinos if knew of a recognizable Latino leader, the research also questioned participants' national origin, and the importance of having a Latino national leader.

"In your opinion, who is the most important (Hispanic/Latino) leader in the country today?" was the question posed; and the options listed as answers were "Don't know," "No one," "Sonia Sotomayor," "Marco Rubio," "Antonio Villaraigosa," "Luis Gutierrez," and "Others."

Each individual listed are politicians. There are no civil rights leaders, educators, activists, or revolutionaries, who in the past have been the most effective Hispanic-American leaders. These posed leaders, who work inside the system, may very well be good representation for the "typical" Hispanic-American, but there is no typical Hispanic-American; being that the Hispanic ethnic group is comprised of dozens of nationalities.

The surveys, which took nationality into account, examined differential responses among the separate sects of Latinos who took part of the study. 40 percent of Cuban-origin named a leader; though only 25 percent of Mexican-origin and Salvadoran-origin named a leader. Also, 25 percent of Cuban-origin who named a leader, named Marco Eubio, who is also of Cuban descent; 11 percent of Puerto-Rican origin named Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who is also of Puerto Rican descent. Mexican (65 percent), Puerto Rican (60 percent), Cubans (45 percent), Salvadorans (63 percent) and Dominicans (56 percent) didn't know of a leader, though 75 percent of Latinos believe it's important to have one.

One woman of Peruvian descent stated, "No, there are no are real representative for the Latino community, not really. I'm not even familiar with most of the people on that list. If these people are supposed to be representing us, then shouldn't we have a better idea of who they are? Besides, we don't know if these people are trying to represent us, anyway. There are two types of Latinos in America, "the 25-year-old said, spanning her arms wide, each hand to represent the types of Latino Americans. "There are the ones who want to assimilate and the one who want to hold on to their culture; and politicians are only interested in representing one of those Latinos."

The survey was conducted prior to the prominence of Senator Ted Cruz, a Cuban-American Republican who received notoriety for his leading the government shutdown in an attempt to repeal President Obama's health care bill. Though, Cruz has received criticism for not being "Latino" enough, and often accused of not being a good representative of Latino Americans.

Huffington Post posed a new proposition for participants. They removed "Don't Know," "No One" and "Other" from the equation, and listed 16 of the most influential Latinos in the nation. The open-ended question, "The most promising national Latino leader in the United States is..." includes republicans and democrats, men and women, and appointed and elected officials. New additions include Xavier Becerra, George Prescott Bus, Julian Castro, Joaquin Castro, Linda Sanchez, Susana Martinez, Robert Menendez, Thomas Perez, Ileana Ro-Lehtinen, Brian Sandoval, Hilda Solis and Ted Cruz. They are still conducting the survey, and have yet to tally the results.