-We move now to Hispanic Heritage Month.

The Las Vegas Raiders boast one of the most loyal Latino fan bases in the National Football League, with an estimated 32% of Raider Nation identifying as Latino or Hispanic.

Nevada Week's Maria Silva shares how two trail blazers helped spark this strong support of the Silver and Black.

(Maria Silva) Bienvenidos to the Las Vegas Raiders headquarters.

I'm about to head inside where we're going to talk about living legends Tom Flores and Jim Plunkett, Viva Los Raiders, and FAMILIA.

Vamonos.

Once inside this state of the art facility, I got the chance to sit down with Community Relations Manager Victoria Alejandre and Jonathan Martinez, Vice President, Revenue Planning & Analytics.

- Bienvenida, Maria.

[in Spanish] -[in Spanish], Jonathan.

Let's talk about your career with Los Raiders.

You've been here 20 seasons?

(Jonathan Martinez) Yes, yes.

I'm entering my 20th season now with the Raiders.

I started my career back in Oakland in 2006.

-As a Latino being part of this organization, what does that mean to you, personally?

-To me, it means a lot.

This organization is a first of a lot of things when it comes to minorities for the right reasons, and that's been instilled through our past owner, Mr.

Davis, and even through Mark now.

And, you know, with the history of what has happened with the Raiders through the Latinos with Tom Flores being the first Hispanic head coach to win a Super Bowl-- (Tom Flores) We were the best team.

We deserve to be world champions.

I'm proud of you.

[cheering] -With Jim Plunkett also being the first Hispanic quarterback to win a Super Bowl for the Raiders, it's a lot of heritage that is deep rooted within not only them, but also our fan base.

(Jim Plunkett) You know, Al Davis saw something in me that he thought I could help the ball club, and it worked out for him, worked out for me.

And you know, as everybody says, I'm proud to be a Raider.

-Representation matters in any field.

What needs to be done so we see representation out on the field?

-I think the NFL is doing a good job with some of the pathway programs, but that's a difficult run, because I think it starts at the youth and then high school and then collegiate level.

So I think it's just, you know, maybe having additional scouts that focus on Mexico, those types of things.

But again, it's-- there's hundreds if not thousands of individuals that want to become professional athletes, especially in the NFL.

So I think that's a challenging one.

Putting dedicated resources to that, I think that's tough, you know, for an organization to come in and look at, do you do an international scout?

You know, that's, that might be an opportunity, but that's a tough one.

-We need more Tom Floreses and Jim Plunketts out there.

-Yeah, we do.

-And let's talk about FAMILIA.

It's a wonderful organization within the organization.

-Yeah, so it's our employee research group.

It's our two and a half years into FAMILIA.

It's been great.

I sit on as the executive sponsor for FAMILIA.

Right now, we're sitting with around 62-ish members within the organization that are part of that group.

And it's really used to be a sounding board for those individuals, whether if it's difficult conversations, whether if it's just camaraderie, whatever it is, I think it's a good opportunity for people of the same background and allies as well, right?

Not everyone in that group is Latino.

It's people that want to support the Latino cause as well.

-When you yourself hear "Viva Los Raiders," what goes through your mind?

-It's just an opportunity to celebrate the heritage of the Latino fan base.

And I think the biggest thing, too, is that we are trying to be very genuine in what we do at the Raiders.

I think that we realize how important the fan base is to us, and our marketing department and our game entertainment department has done a very good job of incorporating that through the years of the history of the Raiders with Hispanic Heritage Month.

-And it's not just during Hispanic Heritage, which is really important as well.

Let's celebrate throughout the year.

-I completely agree.

I think it's just an opportunity for us to showcase more throughout that month, but you're right.

This is something that is something that we do consistently, whether that's here domestically or even internationally with our global markets program in Mexico.

-Another thing that was really touching for me on a personal level was to read some of the testimonials from your fans on your Viva Los Raiders part of your website.

I have one here I'd love for you to read, if you don't mind.

-Yeah, absolutely.

"I became a Raiders fan because my tios and tias are all die-hard Raiders fans...The Raiders' grit and rebellious spirit felt like home.

Sundays were sacred with silver and black everywhere.

My family lived and breathed those games, and I got hooked on the legacy, the underdog energy, and the unapologetic toughness."

So I grew up in LA, so I had the opportunity to really have the Raiders in my backyard when I was growing up, before they relocated to Oakland.

So I had a ton of family that were die-hard Raider fans--my uncles, cousins, all those types of things.

Full transparency, my parents were bigger college fans than anything; but, you know, they're the biggest Raider fans to this day now.

But I had a lot of friends growing up, big Raider fans.

So to me, this is exactly hitting home of what we're used to seeing, right, the passion and the reason why people became fans, whether if it was tradition through family, whether it was they loved the style of the play of the Raiders, whatever it is, this really just hits home.

-Viva Los Raiders!

-Victoria, if anyone knows the community here in Southern Nevada and Las Vegas, it's you, because born and raised here.

(Victoria Alejandre) Yes, I know.

I'm so excited to talk a little bit more about my experiences and everything we do with the Raiders.

-And let's talk about some of the events happening throughout the year, but especially during Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month.

-Yes.

So we do have an annual event, Huddle and Grow.

So we normally bring in panel speakers.

They'll speak to the community, to our staff really about their experiences, how it was growing up as a Latino, where they're at now in their careers.

So we have partnered up with Latinas in Power, the Latin Chamber of Commerce.

We do the Las Vegas Metro Police Department Hispanic Coalition Alliance.

-And how wonderful as well, not just the players that the kids see, but behind the scenes.

I mean, I'm sure you speak to young Latinas, young kids, young ladies here in Southern Nevada, young men.

And they see you and they're like, Wow, if she can do it, I can do it too.

-Yes.

It is a wonderful thing.

We actually, for one of our events, we did Nevada Reading Week in schools.

And so we had some players go to certain places, to certain schools, but we also had some of our corporate staff go to schools.

And so to see those kids come in and say, like, You work for the Raiders?

You're a girl!

And you're like, Yes.

If we could do it, you can too.

Like, football is important, and, yes, we need all of our players on that field, but there's so many things that happen off the field that you can be a part of too.

And then people will be like, But you're also Latina.

And you're like, Yes, we are here, and we are coming into the sports industry.

And we have been, but I think they just didn't see that.

And so to be able to say like, Oh, I met someone from the Raiders who was a Latina.

I could do it if she can too.

And to be able to inspire them and empower them at such young ages is really a sight to see.

-What message do you have for Raider Nation and Viva Los Raiders fans?

-Just thank you.

Thank you for being part of Raider Nation and embracing us with everything that we do.

And always remember, Viva Los Raiders.

There's never going to be a day that we don't have Viva Los Raiders with us.

-Thank you to Maria Silva for her reporting.

It sure was hard to get Tom Flores into that Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Don't you think it's time to get Jim Plunkett in as well?