Hispanic Heritage Month 2022

September 15^th - October 15^th is deemed National Hispanic Heritage Month. This tradition began as National Hispanic Heritage Week signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1968. To note, September 15th is the anniversary of the Cry of Dolores (early morning, 16 September 1810), which marked the start of the Mexican War of Independence and thus resulted (in 1821) in independence for the New Spain Colony (now Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Nicaragua).

National Hispanic Heritage Week was later amended to what it is today, National Hispanic Heritage Month, and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1988. While today marks the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month, FriendsPDX wants to fully acknowledge that the terms Hispanic and Latinx are not naturally occurring and instead placed upon the communities that they were invented to describe.

Here at FriendsPDX, we honor and recognize the many cultural backgrounds the youth we walk alongside live in and represent. We are proud to have Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Salvadoran, Dominican, Guatemalan, Colombian, Honduran, Venezuelan, Brazilian, Portuguese, Afro-Latinx, and Indigenous youth and staff members in our fold, just to name a few identities. To better represent and include the many cultures we're comprised of, our internal community event to celebrate this month is called Día de las Culturas. We can't wait to share more about it soon!