Latin@ Heritage Month

from the Macalester Public Knowledge Base

Latin@ Heritage Month is a politically contended celebration of latin@ heritage during the months of September and October in the United States.

During this period, Chican@ and Latin@ community organizations take to the streets to celebrate a variety of issues, from the independence of several Latin American countries, including Mexico, to La Raza, to the lives of various Mexican-American and Latin@ civil rights and labor leaders in the United States.

[edit] History

In 1970, at the height of the civil rights movement and the rise of youth-led nationalist groups, such as the Black Panthers, Young Lords Party, M.E.Ch.A, the American Indian Movement, the United Farm Workers Union, president Richard Nixon of the United States promulgated the National Hispanic Heritage Week by public law 90-498, in a brief notice in a government publication, in the interest of "celebrating the independence days of Mexico and five other Central American nations" during the second week of September.

The Nixon administration's intention was to create rifts within the various social movements. In describing the week as only including Mexico and five other nations from which there was minimal immigrant presence, and knowingly ignoring other national origins in which activism was more marked, Nixon painted the latin@ movements as Mexican-American or Chicano driven.

Furthermore, by creating these government-sponsored spaces

incorporating white identifying minorities as "part of the movement" to the general public.