She made "Hispanic" official

While success has many fathers and failure is an orphan, bureaucrat-ese, it turns out, sometimes has one proud author. During her long career in government, Grace Flores-Hughes spent some time working as an assistant in what was then called the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. It was there, in the early 1970s, that she helped establish "Hispanic" as the government's word of choice for people of Spanish origin -- a term that made it onto the official U.S. census form in 1980.
... 

How did the federal government come to use the term "Hispanic"?

There are many Hispanic activists who think that Richard Nixon did it. Well, no, Richard Nixon was very busy -- he didn't have time to be doing this. When I explain it, they get relieved. They were holding this anger that some nasty Anglo named them. Well, no, it wasn't. It was this little Hispanic bureaucrat.
...

So you and others in your office joined a committee to come up with the best name?

It was very contentious. Others were pulling for the word "Latino." I wanted "Hispanic." And I was the youngest one in the group. They said: " 'Latino' and 'Latina' is what we all are, that's why we should be called that." But to me the only way to accurately count us is by using the term "Hispanic."
...

It was an affirmative action decision?

Essentially it was guiding any affirmative action that was going to evolve.

Who is Hispanic in your mind? Who were you thinking of when you fought for the term?

All the people in South Texas I grew up with. So many of them were poor, so many were disenfranchised. I thought: How can we argue for more federal funds or more federal help if we don't know how many they are?

Washington Post, 2009. She Made 'Hispanic' Official.