Millions celebrate national Hispanic / Latinx Heritage Month

Posted November 2020

By Rachel Cairns

Staff Editor

Millions celebrated Hispanic / Latinx and Heritage Month, Sept. 15-Oct. 15.

A Latino and Hispanic heritage month was established in 1968 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. When it was established, it was only a week long, from Sept. 15-22. That changed in 1988 when President Ronald Reagan extended it to Sept. 15-Oct. 15.

Hispanic / Latinx and Heritage Month is celebrated throughout the United States. It is in celebration of Latin American heritage and also people from Spanish speaking countries. With 20 Spanish speaking countries and 33 countries in Latin America, it offer lots of diversity and heritages to celebrate.

The reason that the holiday is from Sept. 15-Oct. 15 instead of from Sept. 1-31 is because most Latin American countries celebrate their independence on Sept. 15.

There are many mainstream people in the media who are of Hispanic or Latino descent. This includes Tony award winner Lin-Manuel Miranda, Grammy award winner Shakira, award winning musician and actress Jennifer Lopez, and many more.

A famous Latina painter that many people know of is Frida Kahlo. She is well known for her paintings and for her cameo in the Pixar movie Coco.

In addition, Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is Nov. 1-2, which because of Coronavirus has been changed significantly. Most families are doing drive thru type remembrances so that the tradition lives on.