Hispanic Heritage Month is a celebrated period of time that happens between September 15th and October 15th. It is a month-long celebration that started back in 1968 but originally only lasted a week, which is a stark contrast to the present day, whereas now the celebration period lasts thirty days.
The sole purpose of Hispanic Heritage Month is to honor the impact of people of Hispanic descent in the United States. The individual who officially created Hispanic Heritage Week was former President Lyndon B. Johnson. Alongside officially announcing it within the United States, he also asked teachers to create an extra curriculum that was celebratory of the accomplishments of Hispanic people. After Johnson’s presidency was over, it was soon Ronald Reagan’s turn to alter the representation of Hispanics’ nationwide by expanding the week-long celebration into a month. From that point on, every United States President has issued a proclamation acknowledging Hispanic Heritage Month.
The main reason for the starting date of September 15th is due to five countries having that date as their Independence Day, including El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. Mexico (September 16th) and Chile (September 18th) also celebrate their Independence Day later during Hispanic Heritage Month.
The United States’ government officially used the term “Hispanic” in the 1970s, after the U.S. census had started, and with this, twenty percent of the nation’s population recorded within the census system is identified as the “Hispanic” population. And as of today’s date, sixty-two percent of the overall U.S. population of Americans has Mexican descent, which also makes at least twenty-five percent of the population’s children Hispanic as well.