Hispanic Heritage Month Engagement Guide
Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15 by celebrating the histories, cultures, and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. The reason we begin celebrating on September 15 is because that day marks the anniversary of independence for five Latin American Countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16 and September 18, respectively.
The observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson. It was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover a 30-day period. Also, Columbus Day, or Día de la Raza as it’s known in some Latin American Countries, which is October 12, falls within this 30-day period. The landing is celebrated as Columbus Day in the United States, but the name varies internationally. The Dominican Republic celebrates this day as "The Discovery of America". Some countries such as Spain refer to the holiday as the Day of Hispanicity or Día de la Hispanidad and is also Spain's National Day or Fiesta Nacional de España.
This year's theme for Hispanic Heritage Month is, “Todos Somos, Somos Uno: We Are All, We Are One.” As you will see in the Engagement Guide below, there is a vast array of voices and stories within the Hispanic/Latino(a) community, and we hope that some of you will see your stories or your families’ stories represented.
Hispanic Heritage Month Engagement Guide
Listen to God of Rest (Dios del Descanso), a worship song written by Tina Colon Williams, an attorney practicing immigration law, the Worship Pastor at Elm City Vineyard, and an artist at Vineyard Worship.
Afro-Latino Contours, Code Switching, and Transitional Justice (Part 1)
Afro-Latino Contours, Code Switching, and Transitional Justice (Part 2)
If You Love Potatoes, Tomatoes Or Chocolate Thank Indigenous Latin American Cultures.
Learn about the Taino people and what became of them.
Learn about the exceptional story of Fernanda Contreras Cruz, a trailblazing Latina and education advocate in California.
Read about the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay here (a kids’ book on the same topic can be found on the “For the Kids” section of this engagement guide).
Watch Elizabeth Acevedo perform "Rat Ode," a poem dedicated to a professor she once had who told her that rats were not noble enough for a poem.
A New National Anthem and The Contract Says: We'd Like the Conversation to be Bilingual by Ada Limon (24th Poet Laureate of The United States).
Sheila E.: On how faith and family shaped the drummer's eclectic music career.
Originally from Chile, jazz vocalist Claudia Acuña’s art comes from a deep and spiritual place.
Learn about and listen to bachata and reggaeton flair.
Ezequiel Moreno started a Mexican bakery and restaurant out of his home in 1918, moving to La Plaza in the heart of Los Angeles in 1920. He named his bakery La Esperanza, meaning hope. Until the 1970s, their bread, coffee, Mexican dishes, and “American-style” lunches brought all kinds of people together, from Mexican immigrants to downtown employees to even Hollywood movie stars.
Bakeries today continue this tradition of community with El Bolillo Bakery in Houston, baking an estimated 4,400 pounds of flour into Mexican bread to help those in need after Hurricane Harvey.
Learn about the Latinidad here in Atlanta:
Hispanic Heritage: A Vital Component of Atlanta History
Atlanta Con Sabor Latino (turn on the closed captioning and set it to English).
Latino community baseball leagues across the United States provided a place for people to build relationships, organize, and engage with younger community members. At the Major League level, Roberto Clemente, a player for the Pittsburgh Pirates, was a Hispanic civil rights activist and a close collaborator with Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Movies / TV Series
In The Heights (Rated PG-13)
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Rated PG-13)
Flamin’ Hot (Rated PG-13)
Tortilla Soup (Rated PG-13)
Real Women Have Curves (Rated PG-13)
Father of the Bride (2023, with Andy Garcia and Gloria Estefan) (Rated PG-13)
Selena (PG)
West Side Story (2021) (Rated PG-13)
Dolores (Not Rated)
Cesar’s Last Fast (Not Rated)
John Leguizamo's Latin History for Morons (Not Rated)
PBS Latino Americans (Not Rated) (The companion book is also listed on the “Books” section)
The Eternal Memory (Not Rated)
Books
The Deeply Formed Life by Rich Villodas
Mi Casa Uptown: Learning to Love Again by Rich Perez
Hermanas: Deepening Our Identity and Growing Our Influence by Natalia Kohn Rivera, Noemi Vega Quiñones, Kristy Garza Robinson
The God Who Sees: Immigrants, the Bible, and the Journey to Belong by Karen Gonzalez and Sandra van Opstal
The Next Worship: Glorifying God in a Diverse World by Sandra Maria Van Opstal and Mark Labberton
Latina Evangelicas: A Theological Survey from the Margins by Loida I. Martell-Otero, Zaida Maldonado Perez, Elizabeth Conde-Frazier
The Brown Church: Five Centuries of Latina/o Social Justice, Theology & Identity by Robert Chao Romero
Latino Americans: The 500-Year Legacy That Shaped a Nation by Ray Suarez (This is the companion book for the PBS series of the same name)
Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America by Juan Gonzalez
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
The Book of Unknown Americans by Christina Henrique
The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio (National Book Award Finalist)
The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino” by Héctor Tobar (Pulitzer Prize–winning writer)
My Broken Language: A Memoir by Quiara Alegría Hudes (Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright and co-writer of In the Heights)
Solito: A Memoir by Javier Zamora
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes: A Son's Memoir of Gabriel García Márquez and Mercedes Barcha by Rodrigo Garcia
For the Kids
Movies
Coco (Rated PG)
Encanto (Rated PG)
The Book of Life (Rated PG)
Vivo (Rated PG)
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Rated PG)
Spy Kids (Rated PG)
Books
Alma and How She Got Her Name by Juana Martinez-Neal (Reading age: 3 - 8 years)
My Name is Gabito / Me llamo Gabito: The Life of Gabriel Garcia Marquez (English, Multilingual and Spanish Edition) by Monica Brown (Author), Raul Colon (Illustrator) (Reading age: 4 - 8 years)
La Princesa and the Pea by Susan Middleton Elya (Author), Juana Martinez-Neal (Illustrator) (Reading age: 4 - 8 years)
Ada's Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay by Susan Hood and Sally Wern Comport (Reading age: 4 - 8 years)
Planting Stories: The Life of Librarian and Storyteller Pura Belpré by Anika Aldamuy Denise (Author), Paola Escobar (Illustrator) (Reading age: 4 - 8 years)
Coco: Miguel and the Grand Harmony by Matt de la Peña (Author), Ana Ramírez (Illustrator) (Reading age: 6 - 8 years)
Biblioburro: A True Story from Colombia by Jeanette Winter (Reading age: 6 - 9 years)
Merci Suarez Changes Gears by Meg Medina (Reading age: 9 - 11 years)
Frizzy by Claribel A. Ortega (Author), Rose Bousamra (Illustrator) (Reading age: 9 - 12 years)
Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar (Reading age: 10 - 11 years)
Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan (Reading age: 8 - 12 years)
Invisible: A Graphic Novel by Christina Diaz Gonzalez (Author), Gabriela Epstein (Illustrator) (Reading age: 10 - 12 years)
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez (Reading age: 14 years and up)
*We would like to thank Natalie d'Aubermont Thompson (who is of Argentine descent and was raised in Atlanta) for contributing book recommendations to this Engagement Guide. You may find more book recommendations and reviews on her website, Living by the Page, “an online space that provides her the opportunity to write about her quest to live by the page, be that by immersing herself in a book, reading to her children, integrating her faith into the quotidian and practicing her work as an executive coach and inter-cultural communications consultant.”