We often hear and talk about certain months: September, February, March. I am sure you can guess what each one of these months represents. There are month-long celebrations and time for people to indulge in what makes these months great.
For Hispanic Heritage Month, Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, we should indulge in the wonderful things their heritage has brought us: the food, the culture, the people, and more.
But beyond that, we should be diving into what we don’t always see. Sometimes the struggles, the pain, and the paths that they took.
As someone who is not Hispanic, I think that it is beyond important to approach this month with curiosity but with overall respect. I look at it as an opportunity to learn about the history, their traditions, and experiences that are not highlighted on the front page. More importantly, this is not a culture that can be understood in just a month, and we should continue learning, growing, and enjoying everything year-round.
Our culture is formed through everyday moments, from the language we speak in our homes, recipes that great-grandparents had created, family traditions, and more.
This is why Hispanic Heritage Month should be about more than celebrating what is unfamiliar to us. It is about encouraging ourselves and others to learn about the people and history behind the traditions, food, and more that we are experiencing.
There is an important distinction between appreciating another culture and just experiencing it. It is very easy to enjoy the food, music, and more without actually taking time to understand where it came from. Appreciation is asking us to go deeper, and really listen, learn, and give credit to the people whose culture we are celebrating.
We shouldn’t be limiting our curiosity to just this month. Hispanic Heritage Month may provide a time to learn and celebrate, but this time shouldn’t have an expiration date.
Culture is the history, families, language, traditions, memories, and more. It is the identity that many hold.
So, I encourage you to take this month to celebrate, but also to learn. But never stop learning after this month; open yourself up to opportunities to learn more and move forward, celebrating this culture in the other eleven months of the year.
There is a reason why there is a celebratory month, because they experienced hardships and moments that are shared.
This month is not just about the yummy food that we can get, the wonderful people that we got to meet, and the traditions that we should all be grateful to experience. But the wonderful people, who fought for their culture, who made sure that they passed in down through their children, then their grandchildren and more.