National Hispanic Heritage Month

 

Hispanic Heritage Month is a month-long celebration of the history and culture of the Latino and Hispanic communities in the United States. Hispanic Heritage Month 2023 will occur on September 15, 2023, and end on October 15, 2023.  The event honors the ways in which such communities have inspired and contributed to American culture as a whole.

Hispanic Heritage Month originated as a celebratory week in June 1968, when California Congressman George E. Brown proposed it. The campaign to recognize the achievements of the Hispanic population gained traction during the 1960s when the civil rights movement was at its zenith and there was a rising awareness of the heterogeneous identities of the United States.

Brown, who represented East Los Angeles and a huge chunk of the San Gabriel Valley, both highly populated by Hispanic and Latinx populations, wanted to highlight the role that those groups have played throughout American history.

On September 17, 1968, Congress passed Public Law 90-48, which authorized and requested the president to issue annual proclamations designating September 15 and 16 to be the first days of the year.  

of National Hispanic Heritage Week and called upon the “people of the United States, especially the educational community, to observe such week with appropriate ceremonies and activities.” President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first Hispanic Heritage Week presidential