Monthly DEIJ Celebrations: December – Latine and Hispanic Heritage

For more information on this monthly-series, please be sure to read the original post, published on August 25, in the Parent Post, written by E-chieh Lin, the Director of Inclusion and Wellbeing. 

• Read about August - Diverse Families & Self
• Read about September - SWANA
• Read about October - Pride
• Read about November - Indigenous Heritage Month

December is Latine and Hispanic Heritage Month at TAS. In the United States, this month is celebrated between September 15 and October 15.

Why are there two terms to celebrate this month? Just as we learned with SWANA, language evolves with time. Hispanic was a term given by the United States government to a group of people from Latin America who are descended from Spanish-speaking countries.  During the Nixon and Ford presidencies, there was a lot of support from Latine people for the term Hispanics, and in 1980, it was adopted in the US census.  Paul Oritz, author of An African American and Latinx History of the United States shares, “We hated the term Hispanic because it was a term that we felt was forced upon us by the U.S. government.” The terms Latine,, Latinx, Latina, and Latino are terms that some people from the Latin American areas find to be more inclusive. And yet, there are others from the Latin American region that do not find these terms to be inclusive because it excludes Indigenous and Afro-Latin people.  There are some that would prefer to be identified as Chicano(a), Tejano(a), Isleño(a), Boricua, Afro-Latino(a), and many more terms for the people, families, and ancestors in the 22 nations and territories that comprise Latin America.  As with all identities, people should have the right to self-identify.   

Hispanic Heritage Month began as a commemorative week when it was introduced in 1968.  Proposed by California Congressman George E. Brown to recognize and honor the role that these communities have played in U.S. history.  In 1989, Hispanic Heritage Week became Hispanic Heritage month.   

In celebrating and honoring this month, I would like to highlight some lessor known notable figure of Latine and Hispanic heritage.   

Gabriel Mistral, born as Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga was the first Hispanic American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature on November 15, 1945.  Mistral, a Chilean American poet born in 1889 in the small town of Vicuña in the Elqui Vally four hundred miles north of Santiago.  Mistral wrote about her experiences in life, justice, and fairness.  In 1906, she published an article called "La instrucción de la mujer" (The Education of Women) which spoke about the limits placed on women’s education.  Mistral used her poetry to advocate for the oppression she witnessed to underrepresented identities. She taught at Columbia University, Barnard College, and Middlebury College.   

Sylvia Mendez was born in 1936 to Mexican, Puerto Rican parents.  In 1944, Mendez’s parents tried to enroll her at the 17th Street School, which white children attended.  They were denied access while their cousins with fairer skin and a French last name were allowed to register.  Mendez was denied enrollment.  A decade before Brown vs. Board of Education, Mendez’s father filed a lawsuit, Mendez vs. Westminster, with four other men in federal court representing 5,000 Latine children in the district, arguing that their children were not given the same learning opportunities as white children in the district.  Mendez, an eight-year-old at the time, sat in court every day.  On February 18, 1946, the Mendez family won their case.  Mendez enrolled at the 17th Street School, enduring racial bullying from classmates.  Mendez continues to highlight her family’s fight for desegregation and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her family’s legacy.  Later in life, Mendez recalls her mother saying, "We weren’t fighting so you could go to the beautiful white school. We were fighting because you are equal to that white boy.”

Dr. Ellen Ochoa, born in 1958, joined NASA in 1988 as a research engineer at Ames Research Center.  With degrees in physic and electrical engineering, Ochoa investigated optical systems for performing information processing.  She is the co-inventor on three patents on optical inventions.  In 1985 Ochoa applied for the NASA Training Program and was denied.  In 1987 she applied again and was yet again rejected.  In 1990, she applied again and was accepted finishing her training in 1991, making her one of the 110 astronauts eligible for flight.  In 1993, she became the first Latina astronaut in space.  Ochoa has been a part of four space missions, logged nearly 1,000 hours in orbit, and her final mission was to the International Space Station.  Ochoa because the first Latina and second woman to be the director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center.  

Let us celebrate Latine and Hispanic Heritage Month with by learning more about the diversity of Latine/x/a/o and Hispanic experiences and culture.   

•  Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with Latin culture
• Latino or Hispanic? What is the difference – BBC News
• What to Watch to Celebrate Latine and Hispanic Heritage Month - PBS
• Learn about the recordings released by the Library of Congress for National Hispanic Heritage Month in the USA