Hispanic Heritage Month is a time to celebrate the contributions of Latinas and Latinos in the United States. It is also a time to recognize how their history, culture and traditions have shaped the nation. Whether you’re an educator or a parent, there are many ways to teach about the rich heritage and legacy of Hispanic people in the U.S., from historical figures like sex artist Frida Kahlo to Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. The Newsela Social Studies collection provides articles that can be used in any classroom to help students learn about the people and events that make up this important part of American history.
One of the challenges of recognizing Hispanic heritage is that just one descriptor – Hispanic, Latino or Latinx – doesn’t capture the spirit and cultures that bind the vast majority of Americans with ancestry from the 22 nations and territories that comprise Latin America. For instance, the term Hispanic erases the centuries of pre-Columbian history and culture that existed in what’s now the western portion of the United States and Latin America, and it alienates indigenous and Afro-Latino communities whose experience with the Spanish colonization is often very different from the white-dominated histories recounted by most Hispanic heritage stories.
The term also fails to honor the fact that many Hispanics are multiracial, and some even identify as more than one race. In 2022, more than 27 million people identified as Latino, a number that could increase significantly in the future as more children are born to parents with mixed identities and as new census forms will make it easier for families to select more than one race when responding to the survey.
For this reason, many Latinos have chosen to use the more inclusive term Latinx – or its non-gendered versions Latina and Latine – to describe themselves and their communities. It’s not a new term; it was popularized in the 1990s by sociologist Cristina Mora, who argued that the term better captured the complex and nuanced ways that Hispanics in the United States are connected to each other and to their shared ancestry with people from across the Americas.
Nevertheless, the term Hispanic continues to be widely used by government agencies, universities and media outlets. It is not a perfect term, but it is an important starting point for learning about the diverse people who identify as Hispanic in the United States. As National Hispanic Heritage Month gets underway, it’s a good time to consider what Hispanic means for you and your family.