Welcome to Hispanic Heritage Month 2014

Mon Sep 15th 2014 by abagond

Welcome to Hispanic Heritage Month 2014! In the US it runs from September 15th to October 15th.

Thanks to everyone who suggested a topic! Based on your suggestions and some ideas of my own, here are the posts I am thinking of doing:

White Hispanics
Afro-Hispanics
Chicanos
Race in Mexico
Race in the Dominican Republic
Che Guevara
Asian Latin Americans
The terms Hispanic / Latino / Chicano
Gipsy Kings: Bamboléo
Rafael Trujillo
Mexico before 1519: a brief history
Latin America: a brief history
Garifuna people
Frida Kahlo
California: a brief Chicano history
Arizona: a brief Chicano history
US Black-Hispanic race relations
Asian Peruvians
Amara La Negra
zoot suit riots
Manifest Destiny
William Walker
Rita Hayworth
Potosi
cocaine
Mock Spanish
Mexican mass deportations
Gloria Anzaldua
Bartolome de Las Casas
Mexican War
Day of the Dead

One for each day! But because I do not post every day and will do posts on non-Hispanic topics too, I will probably wind up doing ten or so of these. I will put in links as the posts go up.

After the month is over I will do an umbrella post on Hispanic Americans.

If you have any useful links or books on these topics, add them in the comments below.

For this month I will be reading, at least in part:

Rodolfo Acuña, “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos” (2004) – If you read only one book on Chicano history, this is the one! Acuña is a highly respected Chicano historian. His book is now in its seventh edition. Banned from Tucson schools, so you know it must be good!

Eduardo Galeano, “Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent” (1971) – this left-wing history of Latin America from 1492 to 1970 was banned by the military dictators of Argentina, Uruguay and Chile. When writer Isabel Allende fled Chile, she took a bag of dirt from her garden and two books. This was one of them. Hugo Chavez gave Barack Obama a copy when they first met (pictured below). The New York Times calls it “the canonical anti-colonialist, anti-capitalist and anti-American text” in Latin America. It was read throughout Latin America, Africa and Asia and taught at US universities. Galeano wrote it in 90 nights in 1971 after four years of research, but now, in his old age, finds it cringeworthy!

See also:

Posted in stuff | 27 Comments

27 Responses

on Tue Sep 16th 2014 at 08:25:01 jefe

I was really looking forward to a post on the background / history of Hispanic American Heritage Month. Is it related to Black History month? Is it a law or an executive proclamation?

Any chance we might see a couple of guest posts too? 😛

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on Tue Sep 16th 2014 at 09:03:53 v8driver

Is there a reason it doesnt start on the first?

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on Tue Sep 16th 2014 at 09:57:07 jefe

@v8driver,

I also want to know more of the background of the month, eg, why it is 15 Sep – 15 Oct. Wikipedia does not explain.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Hispanic_Heritage_Month)

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on Tue Sep 16th 2014 at 10:05:56 abagond

The strange dates are so that it can take in Mexican independence day (September 16th) and Columbus Day (October 12th).

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on Tue Sep 16th 2014 at 11:32:44 Anne

Looking forward to reading your posts. Do you think you will ever do something on the history and culture of the Caribbean?

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on Tue Sep 16th 2014 at 14:18:53 jefe

The strange dates are so that it can take in Mexican independence day (September 16th) and Columbus Day (October 12th).

That is good to know. Do you know enough to do a post on the background / origin of National Hispanic Heritage Month?

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on Tue Sep 16th 2014 at 15:13:03 King Kat

Just want to add a few to the list to do with film and tv,
Ferando Arau-Despierta America
Eliseo Subiela- Man Facing Southeast
Luis Bunuel- Los Olvidados and La Joven, Bunel is not Mexican but made movies there. La Joven is not about Mexico but it’s worth watching, also amusing to see how some people misunderstand Bunel’s work, 🙂
Also, Orfeu Negro, Black Orpheus, a favorite movie of President Obama’s mother according to his book.

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on Tue Sep 16th 2014 at 15:45:42 Ebonymonroe

Yaaay! Great pick Aba.

@Abagond

How do you research all these things? Do you already know all of this or do you have to run out purchase 1 million books and read like a mad man for a time to post on so many different topics? Because this a lot of stuff, man.

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on Tue Sep 16th 2014 at 17:10:55 Welcome to Hispanic Heritage Month 2014 | Mixed...

[…] Welcome to Hispanic Heritage Month 2014! In the US it runs from September 15th to October 15th. Thanks to everyone who suggested a topic! Based on your suggestions and some ideas of my own, here ar… […]

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on Tue Sep 16th 2014 at 17:10:59 Welcome to Hispanic Heritage Month 2014 | Mixed American Life

[…] Source: abagond.wordpress.com […]

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on Tue Sep 16th 2014 at 20:09:26 Ebonymonroe

Yaay, Rita Hayworth.

Hate to get stereotypical as a woman and deviate from what should be intellectual discussion, but . . ..

@Phoebeprunelle

If I remember rightly, you’re a fellow vintage junkie. Have you mastered the Rita pin curl set? Her stylist should have been given an award, “the brush out” alone it takes hours, sculpting all those detailed opposing waves. And the clockwise and each of the anti-clockwise pin curls have to be set in such small sizes for heavy volume, that alone is another ridiculous time consumer. Her stylist said she got it down to about 45 minutes, I just can’t understand how. (Lifts head and holds back of her hand against her forehead.)

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on Tue Sep 16th 2014 at 22:43:48 abagond

King Kat

https://abagond.wordpress.com/2009/02/16/black-orpheus/

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on Wed Sep 17th 2014 at 03:23:09 gro jo

“Orfeu Negro, Black Orpheus, a favorite movie of President Obama’s mother according to his book.” A movie made by a Frenchman retelling a Greek legend using Brazil’s carnival as stage! How is that Hispanic ?

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on Wed Sep 17th 2014 at 04:33:25 Eldridge S

It’s appalling how there has been such a relentless effort, in The US especially, to completely divorce Latino history from African & Native & Asian American history, all of which are completely interwoven parts of the exact same narrative. The centuries-old divide & conquer tactics are in full force.

I was only able to piece any of this together years after rejecting the public non-education that was inflicted on me in the Southern Virginia Bible Belt of the 80’s & early 90’s. I always knew I was receiving an inferior education, but then realized that I (as well as everyone I grew up with) was actually a victim of a propaganda campaign on par with anything Hitler or Stalin or Chairman Mao ever came up with.

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on Fri Sep 19th 2014 at 06:41:21 Notable Links: 9-19/14 | BROTHA WOLF

[…] Welcome to Hispanic Heritage Month 2014 […]

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on Mon Sep 22nd 2014 at 15:25:04 jefe

@Eldridge S,

Just wondering about your public schooling — I went to school about 10-15 years before you, and history stopped right at WWII. They didn’t even cover the US internment camps for Japanese Americans. Did yours cover the Civil Rights or the Vietnam war? How did they teach the Civil War? Did they use the token approach in teaching non-Anglo US history (ie, the contribution of unique individuals to Anglo American history)?

Nothing in my high school education discussed, for example, Jim Crow or sharecropping, or the Great Migrations even though they were already past tense. There was no discussion of Brown v. Board, perhaps, as it were, my school system underwent a massive desegregation initiative.

I did not learn that stuff until after I finished high school.

However, I did learn in high school about how communism was a failure, evidenced by the tens of millions who died in the Great Leap Forward.

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on Sat Sep 27th 2014 at 04:05:53 Sorry, you're wrong

You really are a bigot, aren’t you? This blog is simultaneously sickening and comical.

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on Sat Sep 27th 2014 at 04:06:42 Sorry, you're wrong

Be sure to reference the “white devil” in your post. Otherwise, the author will label you a racist.

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on Sat Sep 27th 2014 at 10:07:33 abagond

@ Sorry

How am I being a bigot? Where did I say anything about “white devils”?

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on Sat Sep 27th 2014 at 13:53:02 buddhuu

Interesting list, abagond. Looking forward to reading.

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on Sat Sep 27th 2014 at 15:20:28 Herneith

White devils! Satisfied?

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on Sat Sep 27th 2014 at 18:05:34 mpeasee

I wonder why Eduardo Galeano’s disavows “The Open Veins of Latin America”. The NYT articles say’s that he did not feel qualified to write on the subject and that the book was written poorly. So, either our colleges across the country (widely taught on university campuses since the 1970s, in courses ranging from history and anthropology to economics and geography) are inept in recognizing poor research and writing. Or, he is a ‘true’ radical who wishes to leaves his statements as questions as not to appear as dogmatic. Or, the sorrow of history is to heavy for him to re-visit. Any thoughts on this?

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on Sun Nov 2nd 2014 at 17:01:18 Mary Burrell

Today is the Day of The Dead celebration it is such a cool looking festivity.

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on Wed Sep 2nd 2015 at 14:32:01 jefe

Any plans to do anything for Hispanic Heritage month this year?

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on Wed Sep 2nd 2015 at 16:58:26 abagond

@ Jefe

Nothing formal.

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on Tue Oct 13th 2015 at 15:11:24 Michael Barker

@ Mirkwood

Your boy Bernie is better then Trump on immagration but even he doesn’t quite get it.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2015/07/30/3686282/bernie-sanders-immigration/

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on Fri Sep 16th 2016 at 22:32:06 sableindian

I participate yearly. I focus outside the US mainly because internationally many people are clueless. My main focus is African heritage and history of Afro-Latinos. I enjoy visiting the other webpages that have alternate information. Once this is over, I hope into the afro-Native community outside of the US and focus on history also. Happy National Hispanic Heritage Month!! If you want, you can stop by my FB page: Jiji Solomon

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