National Hispanic Heritage Month honors the achievements, contributions, culture, and history of Hispanic and Latinx American people. The month-long celebration begins on September 15 commemorating the anniversary of independence for five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
The commemoration kicked off in 1968 as a week-long event. It expanded to four weeks in 1988 to reflect Mexico's, Chile's and Belize's Independence days and now ends October 15.
The Latinx population reached a record 62.1 million people (or 18.7%) in the U.S. in 2020. Over the past decade, the Latinx population has slowed as the annual number of births to Latina women has declined and immigration has decreased, especially from Mexico. (ADL)
NPR's Alt.Latino podcasts on Apple, celebrate the Latinx arts and culture.
NPR reporters Ira Glass and Miki Meek from This American Life, spent 8 months to get to the bottom of what really happened when undocumented workers showed up in one Alabama town. Our Town is a two part series based on over 100 interviews.
Over the course of several weeks in March 1968, thousands of mostly Latinx students walked out of public schools in Los Angeles in protest because their schools did not offer equal educational opportunities for Mexican American students and did not honor those students’ identities and culture. This series of protests is known as the East LA school “walkouts” or “blowouts.”
