Posts Tagged ‘Hispanic Heritage Month’
Hispanic Heritage Month has officially started (September 15 to October 15). The month, which is not really a proper month if you think about it, was built/invented around the independence (from Spain) days of some Latin American countries (i.e. Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua – 9/15, Mexico 9/16, Chile 9/18). For those countries/nationalities whose independence days fall outside this range, or for those, like my own Puerto Rico, who have yet to have an independence day, we are expected to rest easy knowing that within this invented month is included October 12 – Columbus Day/Dia de la Raza/Discovery Day/genocide day so that we are all included via our “creation” as an identity if you will.
The issue of naming the 30 days set aside to acknowledge the existence of Latinos complicates things further. Originally called Hispanic Heritage Week and later turned into the month we now know , the government label of “Hispanic” makes the role of the Spanish/European conquest central to the “celebration”. Some people, who reject the label “Hispanic”, prefer to call the month “Latino Heritage Month” in an attempt to deemphasize the conquista and focus on the survival and growth of the diaspora/mestisaje.
Clearly I’m somewhat comfortable with the label Latino – defined by me as including the diaspora of those colonized in Latin America, the Hispanic/Latin@ identity is complex and controversial and certainly not universally accepted. The idea of Latinidad is sometimes – and rightfully to some extent – accused of erasing certain aspects of what have made Latinos who we are today. The mixing of the indigenous with the European and the European with the African was not based on mutual consent but conquest, rape, violence, and war. All other variations were based on survival. This not a matter of ancient history, this is a matter of looking at how right now across Latin American governments are actively committing acts of theft and violence against indigenous communities. It is not a matter of ancient history the way many among “us” claim/re-claim our Indigenous identities to the exclusion of our African roots or vice-versa or claim none of the above at all.
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NJ 2010 Hispanic Heritage Celebration: LatinaVoices and Visions Latinas Out Loud: Epistles
9:46 am By Maegan La Mala · Arts|Culture|Events|Linking Latinos|Lo Que Hay|New Jersey · 1 Comment
9 Oct 2010
While we here at VivirLatino and in our respective communities and circles may debate the merits of Hispanic/Latino Heritage Month, we must support our artists and cultural activists who represent and reflect our realities through words, theater, performance and art.
I wanted to draw your attention to an event happening next weekend at the Newark Public Library in New Jersey. Check it out and if you are in the area support if you can. Note that it features friend to VivirLatino, Adele Nieves.
2010 Hispanic Heritage Celebration: LatinaVoices and Visions
Latinas Out Loud: Epistles
Saturday, October 16, 2010, 2:00 pm
Main Library, Centennial Hall, Second Floor
SPECIAL FEATURED GUEST: Sandra Maria EstevezTHIS IS A KID FRIENDLY EVENT!
Latino Flavored Productions brings to New Jersey a dynamic and compelling new show that features Latina performers—as well as regular, everyday, non-performers—exploring personal, social, or political issues through the art of letter writing. This ensemble production presents twenty Latinas reading their own short, funny, dramatic, evocative, and/or often poetic letters to their addressee of choice.
Directions and more info after the jump
Happy (?) Latino Heritage Month
8:17 am By Maegan La Mala · history|Latin America · 5 Comments
16 Sep 2010
Yesterday marked the official start of Latino (of Hispanic) Heritage Month, 30 days or so of corporate cafeterias serving tacos. Ok so I’m being cynical. The marketing is so over the top some time (see picture). The political pandering so offensive, especially at a time like this with the mid-term elections, it feels like all fluff and no substance.
It’s not that I don’t love being a Latina, it’s my primary identity above all others. I think in large part because of my political awaking when I was a teenager, whenever someone asks that tired old question and I am forced to limit myself to one answer, I’ll go with Latina over mujer. It’s just it is who I am, how I live. I don’t wake up in the morning thinking about how can I be more Latino and don’t try extra hard to be extra Latina during this month. But that, that not trying so hard to prove myself, is a shift for myself so maybe in that there is value in this month as a kind of “new year” of sorts for our multiple communities.
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From Hispanic Heritage Month to Hateful Halloween
9:00 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Culture|history|holidays|Shopping · 7 Comments
18 Oct 2009As a Latina mami, I think I hate September through November more than any other time of the year. Hispanic Heritage Month, Columbus Day, Halloween, and Thanksgiving provide way more damn teaching moments than I care to experience and the worst part of it is that I’m not teaching my children, but rather those charged with educating them, why certain things are just plain old fucked up.
So far, with la Mapu, my older daughter, in a new school, I haven’t had to send notes to her teacher or make copies of articles, as I have done in the past, about why it’s wrong to teach what a great guy Columbus was. For Latino Heritage Month, she wrote about Chile and it’s U.S. sponsored 9-11-73 military coup and was praised. I was pleased to hear that there was an actual discussion of how the conquistadors contributed to what amounted to Native American genocide. There was discussion not of the contributions the Europeans brought to the not so new world but rather of the diseases they brought.
Now comes Halloween. Now I love Halloween. It’s always been one of my favorite holidays. With a long family history of good relationships with muertos, it was more about dressing up in fanciful costumes, begging for candy, and decorating the house with carved pumpkins. I don’t ever remember thinking that it was ok for me to dress up as an “Indian Princess”, a stereotypical Mexican (or a Puerto Rican for that matter), and sure it sure as hell wasn’t ok for me to dress up as an “illegal alien”. I was a smurf, a vampire, a poodle skirted 1950′s girl, and a devil. I even wanted to be he-man one year because I was obsessed with He-Man pero that’s another post. My kids have been cats, hot dogs, turtles, pirates, dead punk zombies, mimes, dinosaurs, skeletons and ghosts. As if the racist costumes that have me pretty much boycotting most Halloween shops wasn’t enough, there’s a lack of appropriate tween girl costumes. My 12 year and I, thanks to my mom, have put together a pretty awesome costume but that came after hours of being disgusted by having to treat my daughter like a baby or a slut.
And then it’s only a hop, skip and a jump to thanks for nothing day or as I always used to hear Tiokasin Ghosthorse on WBAI say, “There goes the neighborhood day”.
Hispanic Heritage Months Starts Today. Since We’re Not Hispanic, We Don’t Care
8:05 am By Maegan La Mala · Culture|history|Latin America · 2 Comments
15 Sep 2008
For today’s social experiment of the day, I will greet everyone with “Happy Hispanic Heritage Month”. That’s right, today, smack in the middle of a month, you Hispanics get a whole 30 days to eat pasteles, churros and tacos, to wear folkloric outfits you’ve been hiding in your closets, and dance the way only Hispanics know how!
Originally Hispanics only got a week pero since we’re always late anyway, they decided to extend it to a month so that as soon Hispanics realized that they were being celebrated (seriously why else would the company cafeteria suddenly offer quesadillas) the party would be halfway done.
Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15 to October 15. The celebration began as National Hispanic Heritage Week, which was authorized and requested by Congress in 1968 (Public Law 90-498). It was officially proclaimed as such by President Ford in 1974, calling “upon the people of the United States, especially the education community and those organizations concerned with the protection of human rights, to observe that week with appropriate ceremonies and activities.” In 1988 a joint resolution of the Senate and House of Representatives authorized the change to National Hispanic Heritage Month (Public Law 100-402). President Ronald Reagan proclaimed the change official that same year.
Aberto Gonzales as CNN’s Hispanic Heritage Poster Boy? Seriously?
8:13 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Politics|TV · Comments Off
4 Oct 2007
As part of their Hispanic Heritage Month (puke) coverage, Uncovering America, CNN has decided to hold up disgraced former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales as an example. An example of what, I’m not so clear on.
Seems the line for all to say these days is that Hispanic values equal American values but Gonzales takes it a step farther saying:
Over the past 2 ½ years as attorney general, I have seen crimes involving dishonesty, corruption and depravity of types I never thought possible. I’ve seen things I didn’t know man was capable of.
Need Some Reasons to Hate Hispanic Heritage Month
8:38 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Culture|Latin America|Politics · 1 Comment
2 Oct 2007I was searching for an image to include with this little post but the images ranged from the stereotypical (maracas anyone?) to the narrow (since when does Hispanic Heritage Month mean a flamenco dancer or a Mexican dancer). Fellow Boricua blogger Liza over at Culture Kitchen gives some good reasons to hate Hispanic Heritage Month.
Hispanic assumes that all people in Latin America speak Spanish. Hispanic assumes all people in Latin America have a Spaniard and European ascendancy. Hispanic somehow has come to mean WHITE in this country.
I don’t use the term Hispanic for some of the same reasons as Liza. It’s just an ugly, dirty word that someone else stuck on.
Read all of Liza’s post and excellent explanation over at Culture Kitchen.
VivirLatino In Your Inbox : Our Hispanic Heritage Month Gift to You
1:16 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Blogs|Internet|VivirLatino · 2 Comments
15 Sep 2007
Even though we might hate the name, VivirLatino is still in a gift giving sort of mood for Hispanic Heritage Month, which kicks off today. Now every week, once a week, you can catch up on all the VivirLatino happenings and get a sneak peak of what’s to come just by checking your email. We’ve launched the VivirLatino E-Newsletter. By entering your email into the box located on the right sidebar of the VL page, you will get all the best of VL. And we promise we won’t go writing your email addys on bathroom stalls or sharing/selling it in other ways. So what are you waiting for? It’s FREE!
Don’t Panic! It’s Time to Celebrate Being Hispanic
9:07 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Events|history|Latin America · Comments Off
15 Sep 2006
Yes it’s that time of year again. I admit that I hate the term “Hispanic” and feel it does little to express my experience growing up in the United States as a Nuyorican but I guess I should be happy that Hispanic Heritage Month, which kicks off officially today, is a full 30 days through October 15th. According to Wikipedia:
National Hispanic Heritage Month is a period to recognize the contributions of Hispanic Americans to the United States and to celebrate Hispanic heritage and culture. The observation started in 1968 as National Hispanic Heritage Week and was expanded in 1988 to cover a 30-day period starting on September 15 and ending on October 15. It was enacted into law on August 17, 1988 on the approval of Public Law 100-402.“September 15 was chosen as the starting point for the celebration because it is the anniversary of independence of 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.
Hola!
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