Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 – Oct. 15)

By: Atziri Hernandez

For one month every year, all Hispanics and Latino communities come together to celebrate their culture and heritage together. Some may not understand the distinction between Hispanic and Latino, but I can demonstrate it. Hispanic refers to Spanish-speaking people; Latino refers to people from South America, Central America, and the Caribbean who either speak or don’t speak Spanish; Mexico counts as well, despite being part of North America. During this time, many countries celebrate their Independence day. Some examples are, Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

Even though some countries do not have Independence during that month, they celebrate as big as others. They have large festivals with traditional dances from their countries and share among the community their traditions, stories, and customs. Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated amongst the Latino community in the United States. Even bigger festivals due to having an enormous diversity of Latinos and showcasing the majority of every aspect of the culture in a country and also discovering each other’s cultural practices while connecting with others.

My family is mainly from Mexico. Even though my family doesn’t reside there, Independence day is significant to us. When I was little, some of my aunts and uncles would host a family gathering to watch ¨El Grito de Independencia,” which translates to the exclamation of Independence, which the president of Mexico does on September 15. This was first said by a Catholic priest who led the war of Independence for Mexico: Jose Maria Morelos. The following day, September 16, is the actual independence day. In my family, we either eat at a Mexican restaurant or go to an aunt or uncle’s house for a big family get-together to eat a variety of homemade Mexican food that all my aunts prepared. Furthermore, it tastes so good when you know the recipe for the quantity of food was passed down from generation to generation.

Here is my interpretation of the month: