This Hispanic Heritage Month Don't Act Like a Colonizer
It's a pretty low bar, but some people still need a primer
Hispanic Heritage Month kicks off this Friday. No doubt you’ll start receiving all kinds of contrived (or genuine, who knows🤷🏻♀️) messaging from everyone and their capitalist overlords about a sale or a discount, fronted by attractive people with some vaguely brown coloring.
If I sound cynical, it’s for good reason.
Like Pride Month, this time of year has been commodified by all manner of organizations solely for their own benefit, paying lip service to diversity while doing very little to actually diversify their own leadership, create more inclusive spaces, or improve policy. Watch out for a rant and an episode coming out about these watered down feel-good gestures down the road.
Here’s that intro again in audio form.
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Latines make up about 20% of the US population, and hold over $1 trillion in purchasing power. Yet somehow only 4% of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are brown. And remember the LVMC episode on the stock market?
Brown people make up only .5% of stock market investors. That’s LESS THAN 1%. I’m one of them, and my 10-year old nephew just became the proud holder of Nintendo stock, too. But we’re just two people out of 330 million.
So yes, I am cynical. But I also try to leave space for optimism. And in that vein, here’s a primer on what this month is about, why it straddles 2 calendar months, and why you should care.
What is Hispanic Heritage Month?
60 years after the end of the Spanish-American War, in which Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines were ceded (if temporarily) to the United States, President Lyndon B. Johnson created Hispanic Heritage Week.
What began as a bill to Congress sponsored by Congressmen George Brown Jr., Edward R. Roybal (both Bruin alumni!), and Henry B. González from Texas, to honor Hispanic influence in the US, was later extended for an entire month under Reagan.
The significance of the start date, September 15th, was chosen for its tie to the Grito de Dolores or El Grito de Independencia, the war cry that kicked off the Mexican War of Independence and led to New Spain’s freedom. At the time, “New Spain” included Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
These 5 Central American countries all celebrate their respective Independence Days on September 15th, followed by Mexico on the 16th (not Cinco de Mayo!). In South America, Chile celebrates theirs on the 18th. And Día de la Raza—formerly Columbus Day—falls also on October 12th.
So that’s how Hispanic Heritage Month began and why it straddles 2 months.
It also has nothing to do with Día de Muertos which is not Mexican Halloween either. Although espooky season is coming! More about “our season” here:
How to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month
If you are Hispanic, ¡felicidades! You get to continue being you!
But what does Hispanic mean? Simple answer: descending from a Spanish-speaking country in Latin America and the Caribbean.
That excludes Brazil, Belize, Guyana Suriname, and any of the French, Dutch, or English speaking countries in the Caribbean.
Basically: was your country colonized by Spain? If yes, then congrats. You’re Hispanic.
This is also mostly a distinction in the US only. People from Latin American countries tend to prefer to be called by their nationality as opposed to “Hispanic.” But since we’re such a melting pot of awesome diversity in this country, it’s a simple (albeit occasionally inelegant) way to group brown people together.
Some dark humor:
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To answer some common questions:
What if I’m not one of the 7 nationalities that celebrate their independence day during this time? You’re still Hispanic.
What if I don’t speak Spanish? No sabo kids are also allowed to be proud of their ethnicity.
If you’re not Hispanic, you’ve got your work cut out for you. How can non-Hispanics observe this time period?
You can follow along with what Salud America is proposing. Their schedule here has weekly events.
Attend an El Grito event locally. Here’s one happening in Los Angeles celebrating Mexican Independence.
You can also aim to shop at Hispanic-owned stores or buy Latine-produced products. Walk into Target next week and I’m sure there’ll be a whole ass Hispanic Heritage display. Target is actually pretty good about highlighting products produced by marginalized groups (kinda…but that’s a story for another time).
Here’s a store where you can buy a limited edition t-shirt designed by a Latina. You probably have a discount for it already in your inbox.
Why not Latinx or Latino Heritage Month?
I’ll actually go deeper into this topic next week because for some people, Latinx is a dirty word.
According to this NPR article, the name could’ve been Brown Heritage Month. Can you imagine? 😵💫
So Hispanic was the agreed upon compromise since it wasn’t “too foreign” and therefore problematic. Because we have enough discourse floating around about “illegals” and so forth.
The article does a good breakdown, but it’s also good to remember that a lot of “Hispanics” are themselves a mixture of multiple cultures.
I, myself, am Mexican AND Puerto Rican AND American. Setting aside the fact that Puerto Ricans are Americans (for now), I can break my cultural heritage down even further into European and indigenous people of the Caribbean and Mesoamerica. But I can’t (and won’t) simply call myself just Chicana or Mexican-American or Puerto Rican. I’m equally and proudly ALL of that.
So, for me, the word Hispanic fits in ways that others don’t. I’m brown. Hablo español. In 6 weeks, I’ll be living in Puerto Rico. When I’m there, will I be just Puerto Rican?
No, because I’m still always equally Mexican. But I’ll be more profoundly ensconced in the culture of one of my parents. And hopefully, be able to live in the other parent’s culture someday, too.
Honestly, my goal is to be able to give a TedX Talk completely in Spanish (not Spanglish!). Can I do it? It’s on the bucket list, so watch this space.
Still have questions about Hispanic Heritage Month? I bet if you have one, so do a bunch of other people. Comment below with your questions and let’s figure them all out.