Every day, when we experience the world around us, we should acknowledge and celebrate the vital role Hispanic and Latine cultures have played in shaping the nation, our state, and Western. From all that’s been contributed to the arts, music, literature, food, business, and politics, Latine Americans have given willingly of themselves to shape our identity. So between September 15 and October 15 every year, we set aside National Hispanic Heritage Month, known at Western as Latine Heritage Month, to ensure those contributions don’t go uncelebrated.

In an effort to celebrate Latine cultures on a national scale, President Lyndon B. Johnson established Hispanic Heritage Week in 1968 to coincide with the days Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua all gained their independence between September 15 and 18. Twenty years later, President Ronald Reagan expanded the recognition to a month as a way of fostering a greater understanding of Latine culture and heritage. In order to broaden the umbrella under which we gather, Western adopted the Latine Heritage Month moniker.

Why Latine Heritage Month Is Important

Latine Heritage Month isn’t just a time to honor the past and appreciate what we have today. It’s also a time to consider how to best hold up and celebrate Hispanic culture and the way the Latine identity is inextricably woven into the nation’s tapestry as we move, as a people and as a University, into the future.