San Antonio Spurs honor Ernesto Nieto and NHI for Hispanic Heritage celebration

The San Antonio Spurs have celebrated Ernesto Nieto twice in the span of six weeks.

Though the Spurs did honor the National Hispanic Institute founder and president at an Oct. 10 event during Hispanic Heritage Month proper, they extended the honors during a halftime ceremony of the Nov. 16 game against the Sacramento Kings.

Two of Nieto’s sons, Roy and Chris Nieto, accepted the award on their father’s behalf before the crowd at the Frost Bank Center.

“The San Antonio Spurs are a first-class organization that consistently gives back to the San Antonio community,” said Chris Nieto, recalling Sunday’s event. “Our family was honored to see our father, Ernesto Nieto, recognized at the event alongside other leaders making an impact in the Latino community. For 46 years, he has been dedicated to empowering talented Latino youth to become active and engaged community leaders. A heartfelt thank you to the San Antonio Spurs and all the individuals who made this recognition possible.”

NHI: A presence in San Antonio

Not only does San Antonio have a robust and active group of students participating in NHI events, and committed and invested alumni at the core of its volunteer group helping students through their leadership journeys, but it will also be host to three different programs in 2026 — for the second year in a row.

The Texas Star Great Debate, which began as an event for students too far from major metro areas to join Texas Great Debate teams, has evolved into one of NHI’s premier six-day programs, pulling in students from beyond Texas to participate. Our Lady of the Lake University, a private, Catholic university in a surprisingly verdant pocket of San Antonio’s Westside, is home to the program.

“We had a fantastic staff and a fantastic set of students who understood to heart the principles of community equity building, who understood their role in bringing about the future that their communities deserved and the future that they got to write for their communities,” said Paolo Hernandez, the program’s Co-Education Director, reflecting on the 2025 edition of the program. “They understood the fact that if they don’t invest back in their communities, then we can’t build the future of our dreams, and that we also get to benefit from those investments.”

The Texas Ambassador Great Debate is at another private, Catholic, Westside institution — St. Mary’s University, which houses the city’s only law school and is also the oldest university in San Antonio, founded in 1852.

This four-day event will feature teams from Austin, Corpus Christi, El Paso, Houston, San Antonio, and Tip of Texas (Cameron County), plus a team from Guadalajara, Mexico — and although the program runs from June 27-30, it will really start for students in March with training sessions allowing them to embark on their leadership journeys while still in their freshman year of high school.

“This program was an opportunity to highlight what it means to be a true ambassador in your community: someone who represents themselves with enthusiasm, their community’s legacy with love, and the power of collaboration with an open mind,” said Isabella Sada Nieto, director of the Texas Four-Day Great Debates, of the nearly 100 rising sophomores who participated, in NHIMagazine.com’s coverage of the 2025 edition.

The Texas Lorenzo de Zavala (LDZ) Youth Legislative Session, NHI’s first and most enduring leadership education program, created more than 40 years ago, found a new home last year at Trinity University.

“Trinity’s stellar reputation and its welcoming campus, nestled with a culturally rich and vibrant city, is perfect for the Texas LDZ,” said Nicole Nieto, NHI’s executive vice president, upon NHI and Trinity’s joint announcement of the partnership in March. The Texas LDZ is among the best-attended of NHI’s annual programs, and it’s an important transformative experience for students from throughout the U.S. and Mexico, though it does draw significantly from the ranks of Texas NHIers.

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