ICYMI: National Hispanic Heritage Month Recap

In case you missed it, we have been posting resources and interesting info on our social media pages over the past four weeks in celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month (NHHM). Read a little bit about NHHM and then scroll through to see a recap of all the awesome information we've shared.

About

Each year, Americans observe NHHM from September 15 to October 15, by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. The observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover a 30-day period starting on September 15 and ending on October 15. It was enacted into law on August 17, 1988, on the approval of Public Law 100-402. The day of September 15 is significant because it is the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16 and September 18, respectively. (https://www.hispanicheritagemonth.gov/about/)

1. For our educator friends: HispanicHeritageMonth.gov has a whole page dedicated to teachers with ready-to-use lesson plans, student activities, collection guides, and research aids. Tons of primary sources from the Library of Congress, National Archives, Smithsonian Institution, and more!
2. The Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape at the Library of Congress contains nearly 700 audio recordings of writers reading from their works, including Gabriel García Márquez, Zee Edgell, Gabriela Mistral, Octavio Paz, and Jorge Luis Borges. This collection represents 32 countries with readings in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Náhuatl, French, English, Aymara, Zapotec, and Dutch.
3. Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957) received the Nobel Prize for Literature "for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world" (nobelprize.org). She was an educator for many years, a champion of women’s rights in Chile, and served as Chilean consul in Europe. Listen to an audio recording of Mistral reading from her collected volumes: Ternura, Lagar, and Tala (in Spanish):
   
4. “Asked to serve their country in a time of war, Hispanic Americans displayed loyalty, bravery, and persistence in the face of adversity. Some, especially those of the World War II generation, were familiar with discrimination back home but saw their service as affirming the ideals of democracy. From Charles Rodriguez, who fought with Merrill’s Marauders in WWII Burma, to Jose Mares, a teenager who survived incredible hardship as a POW during the Korean War, here are nine inspirational stories from the archives of the Library of Congress Veterans History Project.”

1. Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz was born during the time of Spanish colonial rule in Mexico. She taught herself to read and write at a very young age. She started writing poetry at 8 years old and she knew Greek logic and learned to write in an Aztec language as a teenager. She entered a convent and became a nun so she could keep her freedom to study, write and read. She wrote plays, poems, stories, religious texts and is said to have collected the largest library in the New World. Her key theme was knowledge and how important it was for women to have access to learn and study. Her supporters wanted her to focus on religious writings and leave the philosophical and political ideas alone to which she responded by writing a letter titled “Answer to Sister Filotea,” which is considered her most famous text. This letter is considered the first feminist text of the New World and in it, she defends the right of all women to learn and study. Her former convent is now a university that bears her name and her face is on Mexican coins and paper currency. (Sourced from Rad Women Worldwide by Kate Schatz).
2. The Smithsonian Latino Center will be opening its first gallery at the National Museum of American History in 2021! Named the Molina Family Latino Gallery, the gallery will feature 4,500 square feet of bilingual stories for all audiences, plus rotating exhibitions featuring multimedia activities, objects and first-person narratives will be complemented by participatory experiences and viewer-generated content.
3. Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced that husband-and-wife team Emilio and Gloria Estefan are the next recipients of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, becoming the first recipients of Hispanic descent, and the first married couple to receive the award. In their more than 30-year career, on top of creating a unique style of Latin rhythm with their Cuban-infused music, the Estefans have also focused on entrepreneurship, community activism, and forwarding the careers of Latino artists.

1. Born on September 30, 1950, in Mexico City, Mexico, Laura Esquivel began writing while working as a kindergarten teacher. She wrote plays for her students and children's television programs during the 1970s and 1980s. Her first novel, Like Water for Chocolate, became internationally beloved and was made into an award-winning film. Her other titles include The Law of Love and Between the Fires.
2. Modesto Cartagena is the most decorated Hispanic soldier of the Korean War. He served in the 65th Infantry Regiment, an all-Puerto Rican regiment known as "The Borinqueneers," during WWII and the Korean War. It was in the Korean war that he would earn the nickname "One Man Army". He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart Medal among others.
3. In 2017, the Library of Congress (LOC) launched an 8-part podcast series titled “La Biblioteca,” which explored the LOC’s rich collections that focus on the cultures of Spain, Portugal, Latin America, and the Hispanic community in the United States. Episodes include chats with contemporary authors, scholars and other experts on LOC collections and initiatives that pertain to the Luso-Hispanic world.
4. "Peruvian-American author Marie Arana is not only senior advisor to the U.S. Librarian of Congress, but also the director of the National Book Festival. Her latest, Silver, Sword & Stone tells the stories of three contemporary Latin Americans embodying the forces of exploration, violence, and religion across thousands of years of vivid history."
   Watch an interview with Arana at the Library of Congress 2019 National Book Festival: 

Our Reference Librarian hand-picked some great reads to help you celebrate the month. Read about them in her blog post: Book Recs for Hispanic Heritage Month

1. Sonidos de la Frontera is an exhibition that highlights the Strachwitz Frontera Collection of Mexican and Mexican American Recordings, which is comprised of over 125,000 recordings spanning the 20th century. The exhibit uses a tiny fraction of the music in combination with material from more than a dozen of the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center’s archival collections to discuss significant moments in Mexican and Mexican American music history.
2. Check out this online exhibit by the Smithsonian Institution! “The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire" explores the foundations of the Inka Road in earlier Andean cultures, technologies that made building the road possible, the cosmology and political organization of the Inka world, and the legacy of the Inka Empire during the colonial period and in the present day.”
3. “The FBI harassed her. The U.S. government deemed her an un-American communist. The Immigration and Naturalization Service nearly deported her. But Luisa Moreno dedicated herself to civil rights and to improving working conditions for laborers, especially Latinas.” Visit "American Enterprise," an online exhibit of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
4. The 17 essays in “American Latinos and the Making of the United States: A Theme Study” examine US nation building from the 16th to the 20th centuries, look at the ways Latinos have created their religious, artistic, recreational, and culinary lives in the United States, highlight the role of Latinos in fostering/sustaining American economic life, and discuss the stories and struggles for equality in all aspects of American society.

Thanks for following along with us this past month! We hope you have learned something new about the histories, cultures, and contributions of Hispanic Americans and that you've enjoyed exploring the resources we've shared.