From September 15th to October 15th Hispanics celebrate their heritage. Are you proud of your heritage? Do you show pride of where you come from?  Are you a silent witness of  your culture? Under the assumption that most of my readers have a bicultural family or some sort of bicultural experience, mainly Hispanic / American, I would like to ask you, "Do you celebrate Hispanic Heritage month? If so, how do you do it?" I will start answering with my own experience, I am Bolivian and I try to live my culture on a daily basis.  When is time to celebrate a special occasion I cook Bolivian food, or Dominican food since part of my American family has Dominican blood.  Being that I am the only Bolivian in an area of at least 90 square miles, I find it very hard to find activities to celebrate my culture. So yes I am a silent witness of my own culture and I tried to live it at home. I took this question to a Facebook Group of Bilingual Families, and I received all sorts of answers that allowed me to categorized how Hispanics celebrate our heritage.  The determined factor for how Latinos celebrate is where they live. The Metropolitan Latino.- Is more active but, they might organize or not organize activities.  They join the party. The activities are already organized for them.  They are more used to being Latino in an already Latino community.

• They attends to the already organize office celebration, usually is accompanied with a meal and dance.
• Families celebrate when their children's schools do.
• In bigger cities, people take the opportunity to attend folkloric events such dances, art expositions,  and traditional music that are held during this month.
• They attend to events organized by libraries, showing Latino movies, or reading aloud bilingual books.
• They speak Spanish at home, and even their children attend to dual immersion schools.

The not so metropolitan Latino.-

• They decorate their homes with their own country colors.  They want to make a statement.
• They organize the celebration in their children's schools and neighborhood library.
• They organize meals and invite friends to know more about their heritage.
• They speak Spanish at home on a daily basis.

Do not be offended, with this 2 groups I did not mean to label anybody or generalize Latinos, this was just using the answers I obtained.  Both groups are proud of being Latino and want to celebrate their heritage. After reading the answers  I felt convicted of why I live the way I do.  To be honest I let myself be absorbed by my husband's culture.  I do not know if I like it, because my children do not feel as Hispanic as I do. So I wrote a list of eight reasons why we should celebrate our Heritage, specially in times as these.

1. To give ourselves the opportunity to remember where we came from.
2. To show our generations where they came from.
3. To open doors of understanding with other cultures.
4. To break barriers of ignorance.  Discrimination is based in the lack of knowledge of other cultures.
5. Let your children and family (including the in laws) know how proud you are of your Latino roots.
6. Allows people to know how diverse Hispanics are.
7. Creates awareness of how diverse Hispanic culture is.
8. Enriches and gives opportunity to understand American culture.

I would love to add more reasons, could you think in more?  Do you celebrate your Hispanic Heritage?  Are you Hispanic? My friends at multicultural Kids Blogs are celebrating this month with a give away and you are welcome to participate. We are so excited for our sixth annual Hispanic Heritage Month series and giveaway! Through the month (September 15 - October 15), you'll find great resources to share Hispanic Heritage with kids, plus you can enter to win in our great giveaway and link up your own posts on Hispanic Heritage!

September 15 Embracing Diversity on Multicultural Kid Blogs: 10 Fun Facts About Dominican Republic

September 18 Spanish Mama: Nazca Lines - Exploratory Art Project

September 19 Hispanic Mama: Fun Ways to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with Your Children

September 20 Inspired by Family: 16 Great Children's Books About South America

September 21 Spanish Mama: Folk Songs in Spanish

September 25 Spanish Playground: Food from Latin America Infographic Picture Cards Activities

September 26 All Done Monkey: 60+ Hispanic Heritage Month Recipes to Try with Kids

September 27 Discovering the World Through My Son's Eyes: Hispanic Inspired Crafts for Kids

September 28 Kid World Citizen: 35+ Best Resources and Activities to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month

September 29 Pura Vida Moms on Multicultural Kid Blogs: Costa Rican Food - 9 Favorite Recipes

October 2 Discovering the World Through My Son's Eyes on Multicultural Kid Blogs: 10 Fun Facts About Puerto Rico

October 3 Mama Tortuga: 10 Most Used Medicinal Plants

October 5 Spanglish House

October 12 Tiny Tapping Toes

Don't miss all of the great posts from previous years as well: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016

Hispanic Heritage Month Giveaway!

Giveaway begins September 15 and goes through October 15, 2017. Enter below for a chance to win one of these amazing prize packages! Some prizes have shipping restrictions. In the event that a winner lives outside the designated shipping area, that prize will then become part of the following prize package. For more information, read our full giveaway rules.

Grand Prize

From Mariana Iranzi: A digital copy of her new CD Primavera From Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer: A print copy of Cántale a tu bebé with music download - US Shipping Only From 123 Andrés: A copy of the CD Arriba Abajo (digital copy if outside the US) From Spanish Playground: Set of books, crafts, and toys from Latin America - US Shipping Only From Carole P. Roman: Set of If You Were Me and Lived In... books on Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, Peru, Portugal, and the Mayan Empire - US Shipping Only From Mister G: A copy of the new CD Mundo Verde/Green World (digital copy if outside the US) From World Music with Daria: Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Musical Craft and Coloring E-Book From Gus on the Go: Spanish Alphabet Print (US Shipping Only) & single-use promo code for Spanish for kids language app From Lectura Para Niños: A set of printable little readers, one for each letter of the Spanish alphabet. Designed to last the entire school year, with one new book each week plus several review weeks included throughout the set

1st Prize

From Mariana Iranzi: A digital copy of her new CD Primavera From Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer: A print copy of Cántale a tu bebé with music download - US Shipping Only From 123 Andrés: A copy of the CD Arriba Abajo (digital copy if outside the US) From Spanish Playground: Set of books, crafts, and toys from Latin America - US Shipping Only From Carole P. Roman: Set of If You Were Me and Lived In... books on Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, Peru, Portugal, and the Mayan Empire - US Shipping Only From Mister G: A copy of the new CD Mundo Verde/Green World (digital copy if outside the US) From World Music with Daria: Set of maracas and a Spanish fan - US Shipping Only From Gus on the Go: Spanish Alphabet Print (US Shipping Only) & single-use promo code for Spanish for kids language app

2nd Prize

From Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer: A print copy of Cántale a tu bebé with music download - US Shipping Only From 123 Andrés: A copy of the CD Uno, Dos, Tres, Andrés! (digital copy if outside the US) From Spanish Playground: Set of books, crafts, and toys from Latin America - US Shipping Only From Carole P. Roman: Set of If You Were Me and Lived In... books on Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, Peru, Portugal, and the Mayan Empire - US Shipping Only From Mister G: A copy of the new CD Mundo Verde/Green World (digital copy if outside the US) From Lee and Low Books: Martí's Song for Freedom/Martí y sus versos por la libertad; Rainbow Weaver/Tejedora del arcoíris; Mamá the Alien/Mamá la extraterreste; Marisol McDonald and the Monster/Marisol McDonald y el monstruo - US Shipping Only

 

3rd Prize

From Carole P. Roman: Set of If You Were Me and Lived In... books on Mexico, Brazil, Cuba, Peru, Portugal, and the Mayan Empire - US Shipping Only From Mister G: A copy of the new CD Mundo Verde/Green World (digital copy if outside the US) From Sarah Aroeste: A copy of the new Ladino/English bilingual picture book Ora de Despertar/Time to Wake Up - US Shipping Only From Arte Público Press: Picture books Esteban de Luna, Baby Rescuer! / Esteban de Luna, ¡rescatador de bebés!, The Little Doctor / El doctorcito, Dalia’s Wondrous Hair / El cabello maravilloso de Dalia, Grandma’s Chocolate / El chocolate de Abuelita, I Kick the Ball / Pateo el balón, Level Up / Paso de nivel, A Surprise for Teresita / Una sorpresa para Teresita - US Shipping Only

Bonus Prizes

We are giving away an extra copy of the CD Mundo Verde/Green World from Mister G (US Shipping Only) and up to 10 digital downloads of this brand new album: Watch a video of the title track!

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