Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month
What I learned: Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day
Part of my responsibility as Equity Specialist was to support and/or lead the celebration months the school district had selected.1 This work involved curating resources (mostly videos and biographies) for education staff to both learn from and use with students.
For each celebration month, it is important for students to be able to see themselves reflected in their schools, to honor the community being celebrated, and for students to learn about people and cultures different from their own. It was also important to highlight the inherent diversity within each broader community. No one group of people is a monolith; each group has diversity within itself.
We highlighted leaders and role models for each month, as often as possible from both national and local community leaders. One of the advantages to featuring these leaders is that people often talk about various elements of the levels of culture. While it’s easiest to recognize the elements of surface culture, shallow and deep culture elements are almost always present if we pay attention.
Throughout this year, I’ll provide an overview of each celebration month, and I’ll also be sharing something specific I learned as I was preparing for the month’s celebration.
Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month - September 15-October 15
September 15 marks the Independence Days of 5 Hispanic countries (Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador), and the month includes the independence days of several other countries as well.
It started as a one-week celebration (as many of the celebration months did) and was signed into law in 1968. The celebration expanded to a month in 1987 and was signed into law in 1988.2
Photo by Daniel Lloyd Blunk-Fernández on Unsplash
I learned that, contrary to a common misconception, Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day. Mexican Independence Day is celebrated September 16, along with the independence days of several other Latin American countries. Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Battle of Puebla, Mexico’s improbable victory over France on May 5, 1862.
In 1861, Mexico had accumulated significant foreign debt after the end of a civil war (the War of Reform). The new President Juárez paused payments for two years, which upset Great Britain, Spain, and France. All three countries sent troops to Veracruz, Mexico to demand repayment. While this violated the Monroe Doctrine, the United States was too entrenched in the Civil War to ensure compliance. Spain and Great Britain negotiated with Mexico and shortly withdrew their troops. France however, led by Napoleon III, continued to advance.3
The 6,000 French troops commenced towards Puebla de Los Angeles, a small town in east-central Mexico. President Juárez gathered 2,000 troops to fortify the town, led by General Charles Latrille de Lorencez. The battle lasted one day (May 5), ending when the French retreated due to casualties sustained.4
While France went on to win the war, the Battle of Puebla served as a symbolic victory and boost to morale and resistance. Today, the Battle of Puebla is celebrated in the state of Puebla with minimal celebrations in the rest of the country. Cinco de Mayo is more widely celebrated in the United States than it is in Mexico, and the original meaning of the celebration is often lost.5
If you would like to celebrate the real Mexican Independence Day and the independence days of many other Latin American countries, the following are some ideas:
Learn more about leaders and role models (past and current), and pay attention to the surface and shallow elements of culture that are important to them. (Nudge: Many of them talk about the importance of the support from their family and community, contrasting the individualism of the United States dominant culture.)
Find and attend celebrations for Día de la Independencia and /or Hispanic Heritage Month in your area. In my community, there is an annual celebration on the Sunday closest to September 15/16 in a mall parking lot. This includes vendors selling (remarkably delicious) food and other crafts and wares, singers, dancers, and more.
Support Latinx-owned businesses. You can often search online for this criteria in your area and get a list of businesses.
These are also great ways to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month6 and to honor Hispanic and Latin culture yearlong.
Help us learn more: What Hispanic/Latinx leaders and role models do we need to learn more about? What are additional ways to celebrate and honor Hispanic Heritage Month (and perhaps what stereotypes and/or tropes do we need to make sure we challenge or avoid)?
I’m excited for us to be able to learn from each other as I share what I’ve learned. It’s important that sharing and learning be welcoming and inclusive.
Expectations for comments:
Be curious
Be kind
The district selected the celebration months based on the US Courts Annual Observances and Washington State RCW 28A.230.158.
The video at the top of this article, What Is Hispanic Heritage Month—and Who Celebrates It? is a great, quick overview of the history of the month.
As a bonus for those of you who read the footnotes 🙂, here’s one of my favorite videos we used for this month’s celebration: Celebrate National Hispanic American Heritage Month With These Stories. It’s a bit on the longer side and worth every minute, in my opinion.