Hispanic Heritage Month
- multiculturalhearts
- Sep 19
- 9 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
This past weekend, our town celebrated its inaugural Día de la Familia, celebrating the beauty of the Spanish-speaking countries represented in our town. I met artists from Mexico and Puerto Rico, tasted arepas from Venezuela, listened to festive music and noticed many Spanish-speaking countries' flags adorning the front of the stage.
President Lyndon B. Johnson initiated a week-long celebration of Hispanic cultures represented in the United States in 1968. Twenty years later, in 1988, President Ronald Reagan extended the celebration to one month. The official dates for Hispanic Heritage Month are September 15th to October 15th. Why did they choose these dates? Many countries in Latin America celebrate their independence days in September, including Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua on September 15th, Mexico on September 16th, and Chile on September 18th.
I had the opportunity to experience Chile's Independence Day celebrations during college when I studied abroad there for the fall semester, my senior year. I attended a fair with traditional food, including empanadas de pino filled with meat and egg. There I saw a young boy dressed up as a gaucho, the Chilean cowboy. My Spanish class also attended a concert that featured the gaucho. Finally, you can see below something I bought from the street of a Chilean flag and the United States' flag together.
After college, I had the opportunity to visit Mexico City, the capital of Mexico. I visited the plaza there, where each September 16th, everyone gathers together to celebrate Mexico's independance from Mexico, and they all shout, "¡Viva México!"- Live Mexico!
Plazas are open areas where people can congregate. Reflecting on our celebration in my town, our Hispanic Heritage Celebration took place in an open plaza as well. This is a newly built plaza, and it invites families and friends to come together and gather for food, conversation and fun. I also visited plazas when I traveled to Venezuela one summer for missions. Many families today have immigrated to the United States from Venezuela as well recently, and it has been a blessing to get to connect with them.
On Saturday, there were also food trucks from Mexico and Venezuela. While the tortilla and taco are common to Mexico, the arepa is the staple food in Venezuela. If you have seen the movie Encanto, you may have noticed mini arepas that they eat in Colombia. In Venezuela, the arepas are a bit larger and are filled with delicious meat, black beans, avocado, and sweet plantains. Have you tried them? An arepa is made of white cornmeal and has a bit of a sweet flavor to it. You can see below on the food truck arepas filled with frijoles negros, or black beans, carne, or meat, and jamón, or ham. I like the pabellón, which has carne, frijoles negros, sweet mini fried plantains, and avocado.
It was a delight to talk with young artists from Puerto Rico and Mexico. The artist from Puerto Rico wore a shirt with a coquí on it, which is a tiny frog in Puerto Rico that is about the size of a penny or the tip of your finger. She explained to me that the design of the coquí on her shirt was the indigenous design called the Taino coquí. The Taino were natives to Puerto Rico prior to the Spaniards inhabiting the land.
I have lived in Florida and taught in Kissimmee, Florida, which is considered the "mini Puerto Rico" because many Puerto Ricans reside there. It was a joy to teach children from Puerto Rico and many other Spanish-speaking countries. Living in Florida, I did see and hear frogs more often, in fact sometimes several would hop along the sidewalk at once. However, I have not had a chance to visit Puerto Rico and hear the coquí. I imagine the chorus in the evenings to be like the chorus of crickets in Indiana. It gets its name from the sound it makes, "co-quí." I included this fun fact in my children's book, Good Morning, Luna/Buenos Días, Moon. It was fun to hear the artist from Puerto Rico share a story of a tiny coquí getting stuck to her shirt. That made the storybook character come alive for me, and is one of the joys of getting to meet people from other countries and travel the world one conversation at a time in my hometown. I also learned that the design of the coquí on her shirt was from the indigenous tribe that lived in Puerto Rico prior to the Spaniards coming to the island.
Alexa's artwork showed places in Puerto Rico, one which included a door in Puerto Rico with the Puerto Rican flag. Her other art was colorful abstract art that resembled Picasso's artwork to me. You can check out Alexa's beautiful artwork at https://www.alexasbarrerasart.com/.
The young artist from Mexico crochets colorful traditional dolls, handbags, phone cases, flowers and more. Her company is called "Limoncita." She shared that her company's name comes from her family's last name, "limon." The "-ita" is added to the of a word for affection or to mean "small." The word "limoncitas" literally means small limes. I remember my friend from college always had bag of small limes to season her food. The lime flavor is often added to meat, carne asada, which is cooked on the grill in Mexico, pollo, chicken, ceviche, and more.
One of the joys of meeting families from Latin America is that they immediately treat you with cariño, or care. This care from the heart is perhaps the most valuable gifts that families from Mexico, Central America and South America bring to our country. I am grateful to meet folks from Mexico, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Peru and Venezuela who are full of cariño at a local church where we are sharing laughter and fun as a part of English Language classes. There are five levels of English, and I am enjoying being a part of the basic class. Language to me is fascinating. There things in English I don't notice until I am teaching them, or observing them through the lens of someone learning the language, whose language has a different word order and pronunciation. Learning about one another's languages brings about joy, curiosity and fun. My heart feels grateful for the love that these folks share. Their hearts are full of grace, gratitude, laughter and care for one another and for everyone they meet. I am so thankful to get to know them.
I recently met a joy-filled sister-in-Christ from Uruguay, named Rosana, whose smile is contagious. Rosana exemplifies the importance of faith in God and the power of gratitude. She shared that she was grateful for the adventure, and you can feel that her strength and joy come from God. She saw coming to a new country and learning a new language as an adventure and challenged herself to learn English. She is fluent now. Her way of seeing life and learning a new language as an adventure is beautiful. She is an inspiration. Many times I meet adults who either want to learn Spanish or English, and I want to encourage each one that you still can when you have the ambition to do s,o and challenge yourself to find opportunities to practice. For example, you might go to la Tienda Mexicana and buy groceries that have labels in Spanish and speak to the cashier in Spanish. Just this week, I went in the store and found many items you can buy when in Mexico or Venezuela or Chile. For example, they have frijoles, or beans, and arroz, rice. They also have empanadas, tostones and arepas from Venezuela, pupusas from Honduras and El Salvador and more. Several countries are represented.
Mexican food varies from Costa Rican food, which differs from Venezuelan food. You might think all of the food is spicy, but south of Mexico, that is not the case. Food and drink vary from country to country.
Rosana shared with me that in Uruguay, they drink Yerba in a Mate container. This tradition is also in Argentina and Paraguay. The difference between Argentina and Uruguay is that in Argentina, they mainly drink the Yerba Mate in the afternoon, but in Uruguay, they carry their mate cup with them wherever they go to drink throughout the day. She showed me in gest that they have their pot of yerba tea underneath one arm and their mate cup/gourd in another.
Finally, it was a joy to also travel by conversation to Colombia and Costa Rica last week. There is a local museum I decided to stop in and check out. It was interesting learning about the unique artwork in the museum. Then, before I left I asked the gentleman in the museum shop his name. When he said "Diego," I paused, curious, and asked if he spoke Spanish. He said he did. He shared that his father is from Colombia and his mother is from Costa Rica. This opened up an interesting conversation about culture.
Diego recalled going to school in Costa Rica in sixth grade, visiting many beaches with his family, and seeing unique wildlife such as a sloth and monkeys, which I also was amazed to see everywhere- near the beach, on hotels, and in the forest.
It was a joy to talk about Costa Rica with Diego. I remembered the relaxed culture with its beaches, ziplining, and healthy culture intellectually and emotionally. The phrase "Pura Vida" is essentially like the African phrase "Acuna matata." No worries. There is a sense of community in Costa Rica.
My favorite experiences in Costa Rica were riding horseback on the beach and ziplining. I was grateful for my friend and I's fun guide, who went by "Mono" and who embraced the carefree life, made me laugh, and inspired me to be courageous to soar over the forest hooked to the zipline. It was also fun to eat a sweet fresh pineapple by the pool with my friend, Amy. Oh, to be 24 again! :) If you are in your 20s, this is the time to explore the world! They are memories that last a lifetime. :)
Costa Rica has fascinated me not only for its wildlife and beaches, but also for the fact that the country is thriving without an army to protect them.
I asked Diego about this. Diego explained that Costa Rica was given its independence. It did not have to fight for it. The Spanish government granted them their independence. He shared that the first president was a professor. It makes sense to me that the first president in Costa Rica empowered citizens to thrive and work together to support one another because as a teacher, my goal is to empower my students to create, think for themselves, excel, and prosper. I want them to believe and know that they are able to pursue their dreams.
Diego mentioned an important word, and that is trust. It comes down to trust. When there is trust, there is peace. When a leader chooses to trust those under him to do certain tasks, this gives them the autonomy to make decisions and thrive. Each person has value to the community, and they can feel this. Isn't it true that when even children are given the freedom to make decisions, they are more peaceful? We were not designed to be ruled. We were designed to support one another as we work the land and give God glory.
The discussion about Colombia was also fascinating. I have not traveled there myself, but I have met folks from Colombia and heard the country is beautiful so have wanted to visit.
Diego said he has visited Colombia, where his father's side of the family is from. He described it as a beautiful country with delicious food and an economic system that has been improving dramatically over the last two decades due to intentional efforts by leaders in the country. Diego mentioned that Medellín, which used to have the highest crime rate in the world, has now become a safe place to live and visit. Much of this is due to the use of gondolas.
Diego shared that his grandfather was an architect in Colombia and that his grandfather's friend, Sergio Fajardo, became mayor of Medellín in 2004. Under Sergio's leadership, the city began to shift towards peace and out of poverty. Diego explained that the gondolas helped to connect informal slums, which enabled people to connect to the city. In an online Newsweek article, I read that the intentional shift towards a safer community and bringing families out of poverty began in the mid-90s. This shows me that seeds planted today for change may take some time, but as Diego reflected on the city of Medellín, he said "change can happen in a lifetime." This testimony encouraged me that there is hope for humanity- that no matter the situation, there is a way towards peace and quality of life for every member of society.
What can we learn from the recent shifts made in Medellín, Colombia, and the peaceful culture of Costa Rica?
What is important to a family, community, and a country's values that allows each individual to experience peace, love, joy, and the abundant life that God created us for? For me, the greatest freedom is found in casting my cares on Jesus, which frees my soul to receive His love, peace, and joy. Jesus freely gave His life, and thus gave us new life in Him. God freely gives us this new life in Christ. Jesus Christ is the Prince of Peace, Lord of Lords, Kings of Kings, Savior of this world, and friend. Where have you seen or experienced the peace of Christ in your community this week?
What is your worldview? How has your worldview been impacted throughout your lifetime? What culture/s have helped to form your worldview? Has anything challenged your worldview recently?
From a Biblical perspective, I believe God designed us to thrive. He designed us for freedom, to work together for good and to care for the land in a way that glorifies Him, values people, and honors the land that He gave us to steward. What is the assignment God has given you here on this Earth? I once heard that we will also be given roles in heaven. That is fascinating to think about. Even here, I believe, when we lean into the Lord, we can co-create with our Creator as He gives us seeds of inspiration for our good and His glory.
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