305.868 Hispanic Heritage Month: Multiple Ways to Learn & Celebrate

Today begins the celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. In 1968, President Johnson first declared a week for observing the culture, history and contributions of Hispanic Americans and their ancestors. Twenty years later, President Reagan extended the time period to a month.

The date, September 15th, is Independence Day for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Mexico celebrates September 16th and Chile's day is the 18th. The month also encompasses what used to be the Columbus Day holiday on October 12th, in honor of the Italian who flew under the Spanish flag on his adventure to the New World. October 12th is also known as Día de la Raza in many Latin American countries.

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There are SO many sources for information, actvities, lessons, biographies, books. I am including some of the major collections and highlighting a few things included in each, but be sure and take an indepth look at each site....there is SOOOOOO much!

Library of Congress including Diego Rivera paintings, Spanish missions, images, teacher resources...

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Smithsonian including the Latino Center that includes music radio files, bilingual materials...the Treasures of Mexico...a Puerto Rican carnival, information about lowriders, stories of Latinos' achievements...

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Scholastic's celebration which includes famous Latinos of today and in history, interviews on the meaning of heritage, teacher resources...

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National Register of Historic Places...

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Education World's list of activities including some common Spanish words in English, some stats for graphing exercises, a list of famous people, lesson plans...

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For more biographies...Hispanic American Hall of Fame...

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Mexican folklore: legends, sayings beliefs...

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Understanding Hispanic/Latino culture. history thru children's literature including a list of books...

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and please check out La Bloga for all things about current Latino literature and authors...great reviews, wonderful list of author links.

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P.S. To the Librarians in my sphere of influence---try using the keywords Hispanic and Latino to see all the wonderful resources you have available...it will blow you over!