Reflection of Our Roots

What does Hispanic Heritage Month mean?

For me, it meant looking on my iPhone calendar and seeing “First Day of Hispanic Heritage Month,” and then moving on with my life. This is definitely how the majority of iPhone users lived that day. We were done dirty. “Our” month starts in the middle of September and goes all the way until mid-October. No one really understands why it starts on September 15th, unless you care enough to do a Google search. But, that’s the problem: no one cares.

On September 16th, 1810, the infamous Don Miguel Hidalgo rang the bells of his church to mark the beginning of the revolution against the Spaniards which would eventually lead to independence. The reason we start celebrating on September 15th is because it commemorates the “Cry of Independence”, more commonly known as the grito.

I’ve always felt weird about the name of our month, too. Hispanic Heritage Month. To settle things, Hispanic refers to Spanish-speaking people, whereas Latino refers to people from Latin American countries. Even though the majority of Latin American countries are Spanish-speaking countries, you won’t find them referring to themselves as Hispanic. This is because those of us with heritage from Latin American countries like to distinguish ourselves from the countries who colonized us–from Hispanic countries. So, we’re Latinos. I’m not sure why it’s not called Latino Heritage Month.

We’ve had a lot of wins for our community this year. The “Flamin’ Hot” documentary was huge, and it showcased one of our best and brightest: Richard Montañez. A man with a true underdog story, he started as a janitor at Frito Lay and became the director of multicultural advertising. We finally had the spotlight for a week, but then people started saying that his story wasn’t accurate, and that there was no one there to validate it. But, at least we got Peso Pluma. He’s one of the biggest Mexican artists that’s out today. Unfortunately, he’s been getting threatened by the cartel, so he’s now watching his back. The cartel is huge in Mexico, especially among authorities. Oh, well. There’s been a lot of social media posts floating around that picture mass groups of people coming through the southern border, many with children. I saw one woman carrying a toddler while soldier-crawling, with cardboard on her back, to prevent getting cut by barbed wire.

More locally, Hispanic Heritage Month is being celebrated at my school through a “Party in the U.S.A.” themed spirit day and a Taco Tuesday fundraiser. Personally, I think that Hispanic culture–Latino culture–is a lot more than Miley Cyrus, Taco Tuesday, El Caballo Dorado, and Loteria… but perhaps I’m wrong.