Hispanic Heritage Month
Monday, September 17th by carlaSeptember 15 - October 15 has been designated Hispanic Heritage Month since 1988. It’s a time to celebrate the achievements and contributions of Hispanic Americans. The Library of Congress Community Center Exhibit this month features resources for teaching about Hispanic contributions to American life. Follow links to primary sources and a wealth of related resources. Scroll down for lesson plans on cultural rituals and oral history.
The Department of Labor offers links with additional information, and lists of famous Hispanic-Americans such as singer Christina Aguilera, baseball star Jose Canseco, and astronaut Ellen Ochoa, are also available at other sites online.
According to the U. S. Census Bureau:
- Hispanic-Americans are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States, projected to equal 24% of the American population by the year 2025.
- On average the U. S. Hispanic population is about 10 years younger than the U. S. population as a whole.
- The number of Hispanic-owned businesses grew 3 times faster than the national average between 1997 and 2002.
- More than 1.1 million Hispanic-American men and women have served their country in the armed forces.
- Approximately 11% of all college students are Hispanic.
During this month it seems especially appropriate to recognize Hispanic/Latino American authors whose works have entered the curriculum on a variety of grade levels.
September 17th, 2007 at 8:22 am
While teaching for years and years in a 97%-Hispanic high school and community college, I learned about, enjoyed, and assigned many really good Hispanic/Latino writers.
Rudolfo Anaya
Mario Suárez
Américo Parédes
Amado Múro
Philip Ortego
Nick Vaca
Genero González
Victor Villaseñor
Ron Arias
Gary Soto
Nash Candelaria
Ana Castillo
Denise Chávez
Sandra Cisneros
Sabine R. Ulibarri
and many, many more
Some good and some really good books I assigned and assigned from are these:
Bless Me, Ultima
North of the Rio Grande
Tierra Amarilla
Rain of Gold
House on Mango Street
Songs My Mother Sang to Me
Cuentos Chicanos
And we cannot forget some international giants such as Miguel de Cervantes, Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez (Nobel Prize in Literature, 1982), and Jorge Luis Borges. These last three are some of the writers whose works are read in Spanish literature and AP classes.
All these writers, past and present, have enriched our present-day culture so greatly. I feel I was privileged to have been teaching when many of them were just beginning to be published (in the 1970s and ’80s). Because of these writers, quite a number of my students’ eyes were opened to literature as a whole.