Note To Readers: This may be short, but here are my personal thoughts and emotions toward this month.
Hispanic Heritage Month. From September 15th to October 15th. This is a time to honor history and culture from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and both Central and South America.
During this month, holidays such as México’s Independence, which lands on the 16th of September as well as Chile’s, which lands on the 18th are celebrated.
Our culture is taught, honored, and celebrated by many. I am Hispanic and there was a time when I used to get teased or had to deal with sly remarks from friends of different cultures. I was told to bite my tongue not to cause drama, but as I grew up, I became proud of who I was, who my family is, and where my family has come from.
On my mother’s side of the family, my grandparents came from the small town of San Luis Potosí, Mexico, then moved in 1962 to Texas and later to Coachella Valley in Southern California. They came to this country with little to nothing, but they both worked every single day as migrant workers. My grandfather, he worked in the fields all day long in the 110-degree weather in order to provide for his family. They created five wonderful children and taught them to be strong. Later, those children had children, and now we are a family of thirty (possibly more).
Now that I am in college, I am so interested in learning and participating in my Hispanic culture. I am grateful for the ones who didn’t give in to not teaching it to us no matter how reluctant we were as children. Because now, when I hear someone say any form of a racist remark about the Hispanic culture, I do not hesitate to speak my voice and stand up for my roots and the culture that will be honored this month that so many Americans belong to.