Hispanic Heritage Month: How it All Started

Why would an ethnic group, or any group for that matter, choose to designate "a month" from September 15 to October 15? Why not just pick a full month and start on the first day? Well, there is an explanation for Hispanic Heritage Month courtesy of the Fact Monster web site. Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua all declared their independence on the date of September 15. Mexico's Fourth of July equivalent is September 16 and Chile's is September 18.

OK, that's settled. If you live in a community with any fair to significant proportion of Hispanic populace, you should be able to identify local events during days to come.

Now, for some more history:

-- In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson signed a U.S. Congress declaration to establish the first Hispanic History Week. Expansion to a full month (or halves of two months) took place in 1988.

-- Just whom to we mean when we say "Hispanic Americans?" In total, according to the Census Bureau, we now mean 44 million Americans, or 14 percent of the population, having surpassed African Americans as the nation's largest ethnic minority.

-- Census takers say can define the 44 million in this manner, based on nation of extended family origin: Mexico 67 percent, Puerto Rico 9 percent, Cuba 4 percent, Central and South American nations 14 percent, other nations 6 percent. (This doesn't count the 4 million residents of Puerto Rico itself, a U.S. territory.

- There are some unfortunate matters to history as well, such as the United States' use of empire-building brute force to seize what now is known as the Southwest. And today, of course, immigration policy and "English only" are among divisive issues. Some events in the Heritage Month will focus on these topics, but in general the tone is more celebratory.

In terms of culture, Hispanics today are part of our salad bowl of a nation.(Not to be trite, but "salad bowl" is intended to show how each item retains its own flavor within the mix, as opposed to the "melting pot" view in which various flavors are watered down.)