Hispanic Heritage Month

by Cristopher Rubio (Alpha Eta, Fall ’04)

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Here’s a bit of trivia for you: although it may seem like Hispanic Heritage Month is a pretty recent occurrence, its origins can be traced back to 1968 (no, really there’s actual proof) when Congress first commissioned Hispanic Heritage Week.  It became a full-fledged month in 1988 with the passing of Public Law 100-402.  If you would have asked me, I would have guessed that it started sometime in the 2000s, but I guess all the attention the month now garners is due to our community’s rapid growth.

So now that we know its origins, what else do we know about Hispanic Heritage Month?  Well, it commences September 15 (due to the various Latin American Independence Days in mid-September) and ends October 15. It gives us an opportunity to celebrate our culture (or really, our cultureS) on a more “mainstream” scale.  As a Fraternity, it gives us an opportunity to educate others about the beauty and diversity of Latina/os, Latin America, and Latin American history.

My only question is: Are we truly educating others about our community if we, as Lambdas, are not educating ourselves first?  I think that we can answer that question even more clearly after these last few years of our Hispanic Heritage Month National Programming Initiative.  These programs have not only given us the means to share our culture with others, they’ve allowed us to simultaneously learn more about ourselves.

But let’s not stop the learning process.  The learning, for us, doesn’t have to end on October 15.  We can, and should continue to learn about Túpac AmaruLa Raza Unida Party, and Roberto Clemente, among many others.  (I’ll spare you the corny, “Let’s make every month Hispanic Heritage Month” line. I think you get the idea.)  En la Unión Está la Fuerza.  +

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