Research Guides: Hispanic Heritage Month: Getting Started

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 originated from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, as well as Central and South America. The observation of this started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan 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.

The day of September 15 is significant because it is the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16 and September18, respectively. Also, Columbus Day or Día de la Raza, which is October 12, falls within this 30 day period.

More about National Hispanic American Heritage Month

Hispanic Cultures in Texas

What's the difference between Hispanic, Latino and Latinx?

Celebrate HISPANIC HERITAGE Month | Google Arts & Culture

Defining Latino: Young People Talk Identity, Belonging | NBC Latino | NBC News

La NASA celebra el mes de la herencia hispana 2020

America Ferrera: My identity is a superpower -- not an obstacle | TED

Bold Latina
The BoldLatina Podcast is a monthly podcast series brought to you by BoldLatina.com Our journeys. Our amazing stories. Navigating between worlds. Makers, creators, trendistas, rebels with a cause, provocateurs...our amigas
La Brega
As host Alana Casanova-Burgess explains in episode 1, la brega is a term that roughly translates to “grapple,” or “struggle.” This incisive pod from WNYC and Futuro, released in both English and Spanish, tells “stories of the Puerto Rican experience,” from the history of P.R.’s own Levittown suburb to the fumbled recovery efforts after Hurricane Maria.
The Latin American History Podcast
The Latin American History Podcast aims to tell the story of Spanish and Portuguese America from its very beginnings up until the present day. Latin America’s history is home to some of the most exciting and unbelievable stories of adventure and exploration, and this podcast will tell these stories in all their glory.
Latina to Latina
In this interview series, host Alicia Menendez talks to remarkable Latinas about making it, faking it, and everything in between.
Latino Rebels
Latino Rebels, a pioneering digital news outlet founded by Julio Ricardo Varela that reaches millions through its website, radio programming, and podcasts
Latino USA
Futuro Media produces Peabody Award winning Latino USA, the longest running national Latino news and cultural public radio program
News in Slow Spanish
If you're looking for a podcast to improve your Spanish, this one discusses current topics in a very slow and deliberate manner so non-native speakers can better understand. If your Spanish is a little so-so, take a listen to the latest episodes.
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Through Spotify
Spanish Aqui
Raiza, Oscar, Tony, and Carlos host this laugh-out-loud comedy show that centers on asking their special guests: ¿Que te Pica? (What's itching you?). And there's even a hilarious improv session at the end. From code-switching to Latino movies, they're adept at tackling any topic with humor.
Tamarino
Tamarindo is a Latinx empowerment podcast discussing politics, culture, and how to keep your calma with well-being practices and self-love, hosted by Brenda Gonzalez and Ana Sheila Victorino.
The Best Spanish and Latino Podcasts for Learning—and Laughing
Check out more podcast selections from Oprah Daily
Hispanic Heritage Podcast
From Player FM
Podcast in Color
The largest directory of podcasts of color.
Ten-ish Podcasts to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month
From the National Endowment for the Arts get links to podcast episodes that will introduce you to men and women whose personal stories and artwork reflect the Latino experience in the United States.

Americano as Apple Pie: The Latino Experience in America
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2 episodes: "The Blending of Culture: Latino Influence on America" and "Issues of Latino Identity: The Yearning to Be..."
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Produced by University of Notre Dame, 2001 Both episodes ~29 mins
Empire of Dreams (1880-1942): The Latino Americans
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Widespread immigration to the U.S. from Latin countries begins – first with a small group from Cuba, then a larger one from Mexico. Both flee chaos and violence in their home country and seek opportunities in the United States. The first Puerto Rican arrivals establish a network in New York. We follow Juan Salvador Villaseñor's story; first through a grueling journey and poverty, then as a bootlegger, and finally as a successful businessman. During the 1920s, Mexicans and Mexican Americans build a thriving community in Los Angeles. But when the economic boom ends with the catastrophic Depression of the thirties, the pendulum swings. Immigrants are deported en masse. Emilia Castaneda loses her home and her family when she is deported to Mexico. Puerto Ricans, also caught in the depths of the Depression, rebel against U.S. rule on the Island, and eventually gain Commonwealth status from the U.S. Government.
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Produced by PBS, 2013 53 mins
The Latino List Vol.1
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HBO presents a unique glimpse into the vibrant and burgeoning culture of Hispanic America through a series of highly personal video portraits of Latinos who have richly contributed to the fabric of contemporary society.
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Directed by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (New York, NY: Filmakers Library, 2011), 57 minutes
The New Latinos
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Review the decades after World War II through the early 1960s, as swelling numbers of immigrants from Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic seek economic opportunities.
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Directed by David Belton, Sonia Fritz, Narrated by Benjamin Bratt, Produced by Nina Alvarez, Ray Telles, John J. Valadez, Daniel McCabe, WETA Productions, Bosch and Co., Latino Public Broadcasting, In Latino Americans: The 500-Year Legacy that Shaped a Nation, Episode 4 (Arlington, VA: Public Broadcasting Service, 2013), 54 minutes
Perils and Promise
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Examine the past 30 years, as a second wave of Cubans and hundreds of thousands Salvadorans, Nicaraguans and Guatemalans flee to the U.S., creating a debate over undocumented immigrants that leads to calls for tightened borders, English-only laws and efforts to brand the undocumented as a drain on public resources. Simultaneously, the Latino influence is booming in business, sports, media, politics and entertainment. Latino Americans become the largest and youngest growing sector of the American population.
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Directed by David Belton, Sonia Fritz, Narrated by Benjamin Bratt, Produced by Nina Alvarez, Ray Telles, John J. Valadez, Daniel McCabe, WETA Productions, Bosch and Co., Latino Public Broadcasting, In Latino Americans: The 500-Year Legacy that Shaped a Nation, Episode 6 (Arlington, VA: Public Broadcasting Service, 2013) 53 mins
Prejudice and Pride (1965-1980): The Latino Americans
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In the 1960s and 1970s a generation of Mexican Americans find a new way forward, through social action and the building of a new "Chicano" identity. The movement is ignited when farm workers, led by César Chavez and Dolores Huerta, march on Sacramento. Through plays, poetry and film, Luis Valdez and activist Corky Gonzalez create a new appreciation of the long history of Mexicans in the South West. In Los Angeles, Sal Castro leads the largest high school student walkout in American history. In Texas, activists such as José Ángel Gutiérrez, create a new political party and change the rules of the electoral game. By the end of the 1970s Chicano activism and identity transformed what it meant to be an American.
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Produced by PBS. 53 mins
The Whole Enchilada
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In recent years over a million Latin Americans in search of a better life have surged into the U.S. -- conventionally and illegally. The U.S. has undergone arguably the most dramatic demographic and cultural shifts in its history and Latinos are expected to emerge as a potential American majority by 2050. The Whole Enchilada details how this growth has resulted in acute growing pains: conservative commentators railing against porous borders and complaining about illegal Latinos taking jobs away from Americans; an increase in hate crimes against Latinos, specifically in the infamous murder in Patchogue, N.Y.; extremely high unemployment in Latino communities; and young Hispanics joining gangs.
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Produced by Australian Broadcasting Corporation (New York, NY: Filmakers Library, 2010), 28 minutes

Websites, Articles, and Resources

Heritage and History Month Events
Online events from the Smithsonian
Hispanic Month
The Hispanic Musem & Library
The Hispanic Society of America was founded in 1904 by Archer Milton Huntington (1870-1955) with the object of establishing a free, public museum and reference library for the study of the art and culture of the Spain, Portugal, Latin America, and the Philippines.
La Casa de La Raza
The mission of La Casa de la Raza is to “develop and empower the Latino community by affirming and preserving the Latino cultural heritage, providing an umbrella for services and by advocating for participation in the larger community.”
Latino Americans
From PBS.org
Latino Cultures in the US
From Google Arts & Culture
The Mexican Museum
The mission of The Mexican Museum is to voice the complexity and richness of Latino art and culture throughout the Americas, and to engage and facilitate dialogue among the broadest public.
MOLAA: Museum of Latin American Art
The Museum of Latin American Art expands knowledge and appreciation of modern and contemporary Latin American and Latino art through its Collection, ground-breaking Exhibitions, stimulating Educational Programs, and engaging Cultural Events.
National Hispanic Cultural Center
In Albuquerque, New Mexico
National Hispanic Herritage Month
This Web portal is a collaborative project of the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
NPS.gov- Hispanic Heritage Month
From the National Park Service find articles, videos, and national parks highlighting Hispanic Heritage.
Pew Reasearch Center: Hispanics/Latinos
Find articles,data, and statistics from the Pew Research Center.

Arte Publico Press
From the University of Houston- Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project is an international project to locate, preserve and disseminate Hispanic culture of the United States in its written form since colonial times until 1960.
Bexar County Spanish Archives
The Bexar County Spanish Archives contain the single most important primary sources for the earliest history of Hispanic Texas and consist of over a quarter million pages of hand-written manuscripts and printed documents of the Spanish colonial era and the Mexican State of Coahuila y Texas.
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San Antonio, TX
Handbook of Texas: Mexican Americans
From the Texas State Historical Association
Hispanic Archival Collection
Houston Metropolitan Research Center
Hispanic Heritage Travel Guide
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From the Texas Historical Commission
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2021
Hispanic Houston
News, events, and community organizations around Houston
Hispanic Research Collection
University of Houston
HMRC- Hispanic Digital Collection
Select materials from the Hispanic Archival Collections of the Houston Metropolitan Research Center
IHCH - Institute of Hispanic Cultural Houston
The Institute of Hispanic Culture of Houston (IHCH) is a non-profit organization founded in 1965 by a group of professionals living in Houston that joined together to preserve and disseminate the richness & values of Hispanic Culture with the community of Houston, TX. IHCH serves the community by providing different educational, cultural and networking activities in collaboration with local universities, the Texas Commission of the Arts, Houston Arts Alliance, the Miller Outdoor Theater, and other private organizations and sponsors.
Latinx Community Archivist
From the Austin History Center
Texas Time Travel: Hispanic Heritage
Find travel guides, historic sites, and events.
Texas Time Travel: THE INDEPENDENCE TRAIL REGION
Information on sites, events and historic highlights close to Houston.
U.S. History Collection: Mexican Americans
Primary Source Collections Online list provide by Sam Houston State University

"5 Facts about Hispanic for Hispanics Heritage Month"
From Pew Research
"15 Hispanic Heritage Month Facts"
From Women's Health Magazine- "These facts about National Hispanic Heritage Month will not only deepen your knowledge of this celebration, but enrich your life overall."
"15 Influential Hispanic Americans Who Made History"
From Biography.com, "We're celebrating 15 of the most notable Hispanic Americans whose influence has touched everything from pop culture to politics."
"22 Best Movies Celebrating Latinx and Hispanic Culture to watch in 2021"
From Women's Health Magazine
"24 Famous Hispanic Americans who Made History"
List from Readers Digest
"Afro-Latino: A Deeply Rooted Identity among U.S. Hispanics"
From Pew Research
"Discover Hispanic Heritage at these Historic Sites"
Interior and its bureaus preserve and interpret historic sites across the country. For Americans whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America, these places connect them to our nation’s shared history. From early explorers to modern day leaders, Hispanic Americans have influenced America’s culture and played an important role in society.
"Hispanica Heritage Month Begins with Tehani History Highlights"
From La Prensa Texas
"Hispanic Americans in the U.S. Navy"
Selected Biographies, digital resources, and readings from the U.S. Navy History
Hispanic Heritage Month (History.com)
From History.com- "Hispanic Heritage Month is an annual celebration of the history and culture of the U.S. Latinx and Hispanic communities. The event, which spans from September 15 to October 15, commemorates how those communities have influenced and contributed to American society at large."
"Hispanics"
National Institute of Health: Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Hispanics in the U.S. Army
Timeline of the history of Hispanics in the U.S. Army
"Key Facts about U.S. Latinos for National Hispanic Heritage Month"
Pew Research Center- data and statistics about Latinos for National Hispanic Heritage Month
"National Hispanic Heritage Month: Sept. 15-Oct. 15, 2021"
From the United States Census Bureau- "The timing is key. Hispanic Heritage Month — like its shorter precursor — always starts on September 15, a historically significant day that marks the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. The designated period is also a nod to those from Mexico and Chile, which celebrate their independence on Sept. 16 and Sept. 18, respectively."
"Spotlighting on Statistics"
From the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
"Top 8 Reasons Why and How We Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month"
From the Smithsonian- "Starting in July, Smithsonian educators receive phone calls and emails inquiring about resources that will help showcase these communities and their contributions to American society. So this year, we decided to answer those burning questions about why and how we should celebrate this month. And we decided to do it, in a top 8 listicle, because learning should be fun!"
"Why Celebrating LatinX Heritage Month 2020 Is A Wellness Form In Its Own! #LatinXHeritageMonth2020"
From Thrive Global- "When you are celebrating a culture of people, there is power in a celebration. For one, its the very ability of acknowledging the presence of a people, and their contributions to the human realm. In addition, it's also a way of showing a different side to certain regions of the world."

Business Journal of Hispanic Research
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Focuses on topics that relate to Hispanic business professionals, managers, and executives as well as executives, managers, diversity professionals and others who manage or work with Hispanic business professionals.
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Full Text: 12/01/2008 - 7/01/2010
Harvard Latino Law Review
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A forum for the scholarly discussion of legal issues affecting Latinos & Latinas in the United States.
Hispanic American Historical Review
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Articles on all aspects of Latin American history, extensive numbers of book reviews and lists of recently published books.
Hispanic Research Journals
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Presents research into the cultures of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America, from the Middle Ages to the present day.
Journal of Latinos and Education
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Contains analysis, discussion, critique, and dissemination of educational issues that impact Latinos.

If you are looking for primary sources based in Texas, click on "Texas" tab to find resources

Digital Public Library of America: Hispanics
From libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions across the U.S.
Hispanic/Latino Heritage
From National Archives
Hispanic Americans in Congress
From the House of Representatives
Latina(o) Cultural Heritage Archives
From California State University (CSU) Northridge, Oviatt Library
The PALABRA Archive
The PALABRA Archive at the Library of Congress dates back to 1943. Historically known as the Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape (AHLOT), this collection contains nearly eight-hundred recordings of poets and prose writers participating in sessions at the Library’s Recording Laboratory and at other locations around Spain and Latin America.

Resources for education, health and social security.

NIH Hispanic Resources
National Institute of Health: Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion - list of conferences.
Excelencia in Education!
Excelencia in Education accelerates Latino student success, enhancing our workforce, leadership, and economy.
Health of Hispanic or Latino Population
From the CDC
Hispanic-serving institution
List by state provided by Wikipedia
Hispanic Association of College and Universities
Today, HACU represents more than 500 colleges and universities committed to Hispanic higher education success in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Latin America, Spain and U.S. school districts.
Hispanic Month- College Resources
Scholarships, articles, and more from HispanicMonth.net
Hispanic Scholarship Fund
Founded in 1975, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF) empowers students and parents with the knowledge and resources to successfully complete a higher education, while providing support services and scholarships to as many exceptional students, Scholars, and Alumni as possible.
Hispanic Serving Institutions Division
U.S. Department of Education
Scholarships for Hispanic and Latino/a Students
Despite record enrollment numbers for Hispanic and Latino/a college students in recent years, many of these learners still encounter difficult challenges on the road to graduation. Financial aid, especially "free" scholarships and grants, are critical to Hispanic and Latino/a students impacted by rising costs of living, low wages, and statewide divestment in higher education.
Seguro Social
¿Qué debo hacer si recibo una llamada alegando que hay un problema con mi número o registro de Seguro Social?
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health
The Office of Minority Health is dedicated to improving the health of racial and ethnic minority populations through the development of health policies and programs that will help eliminate health disparities.
League of United Latin American Citizens
The Mission of the League of United Latin American Citizens is to advance the economic condition, educational attainment, political influence, housing, health, and civil rights of the Hispanic population of the United States.

October/November: Día de los Muertos Public Ofrenda

When:

Día de los Muertos is officially Nov. 1-2, but we're going to have the ofrenda up all week, Oct. 30 - Nov. 3.

What:

This is a public memorial to lost loved ones. Send in photos and/or stories you want to share -- we'll take care of printing out copies to display! You're welcome to leave items directly, too, but since this is a public display, don't leave anything you couldn't bear to lose.

Submit a Photo and/or Story

Día de los Muertos | Day of the Dead
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Get to know the history and celebrations for the Day of the Dead in the Hispanic diaspora.

About This Guide

Created by: Blaire Hiebsch

Other contributors: John Powell, Elaine Patton

First published: Sept. 2021

Hispanic Heritage Month