Tips and Resources for Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month
Teachers can promote cultural literacy in the classroom by honoring the contributions of people from a wide spectrum of traditions.
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Imagine for a moment that people used the term “Englos” for a multiracial, multicultural group consisting of Scottish, Irish, British, Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, Americans, and people from the Caribbean islands. Yes, we all speak English. But culturally, how closely related are we? “Ay mon” versus “G’day mate.” Baked beans and black pudding versus grits and hash browns. Left-side driving versus right side. Monarchies versus democratic republics.
Imagine the differences in cultural celebrations, community values, faith and political ideologies, even fashion and sports preferences, all melded into one singular identity. How would you celebrate Englo Heritage Day? Just choosing food would be a virtual impossibility. The best thing would be to highlight the differences in the various cultures represented.
‘Hispanic’ Culture Is Not a Monolith
What is Latino/Latina/Latinx? What is Hispanic? As a person of color who has been identified as Black, black African American, Afro-American, POC (person of color), and a few less pleasant monikers, I can say it’s complicated. The Census Bureau uses both Latino and Hispanic to describe ethnicity and not race, meaning that people from the Hispanic community could be Black, White, or any shade in between. They could be descended from North, Central, or South American Indigenous nations; Spain; Africa; or the Caribbean—and, as with most Americans, an ancestry test could also reveal European lineage.
Hispanic people might speak Spanish as spoken in Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, or the Dominican Republic, or they might not speak Spanish at all. They might speak Portuguese, as in Brazil. Or perhaps people descended from Spanish and Portuguese speakers now only speak English, either by choice or because of the pressure their parents felt not long ago, before being openly bilingual was recognized as the perquisite that it is today. Who are the people, described by these monolithic terms, that we celebrate during Hispanic Heritage Month?
As we arrive at yet another American celebration month, let’s look beyond the Hispanic Monolith to highlight diversity.
4 Ways to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month
1. Celebrate through music exploration:
2. Celebrate through the arts:
3. Celebrate through history and literature:
Explore books and poetry of authors from Latino communities. Discuss what experiences your students have in common with the protagonist and what experiences, if any, are unique to the culture. Ensure that your class and campus libraries include some of these selections.
Write bios on great authors from diverse Latin American communities. With older students, compare the popularity of, for example, Shakespeare and Austen to the fame of authors that you discover. Discuss the disparity in prominence and possible reasons for that disparity.
4. Celebrate through celebrations:
What do the terms Latino/Latina/Latinx and Hispanic mean to people in our communities, and how can we focus less on terms and more on celebrating people? We can extend our own cultural literacy by delving into the colorful palette of unique traditions and customs that represent Americans who identify as any one of those terms. While we’re at it, we start by asking whether they prefer Latino/Latinx, Hispanic, or Colombian/Dominican/Puerto Rican/etc. Providing a safe space for people to self-identify is one of the easiest ways we can honor and respect human diversity.