All over the world, Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated. It is important to many people, however, there are still a lot of people that do not realize the importance of it. Some fun ways that our school celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month in the RayPec Spanish department are decorating classrooms, doing assignments about Hispanic heritage, and even watching videos daily throughout the month.
Many families celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month and find the importance in knowing their culture. Even though this month is widely celebrated there are still many students that do not realize the importance of Hispanic Heritage Month, or even that there are fellow classmates that find it important to learn.
Junior, Stephanie Aguilar, explains why she was encouraged to start learning spanish, “Most of my family members speak spanish so I wanted to be able to communicate with them” said Aguilar.
The school celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month in many different ways including watching videos, doing assignments, and talking about the importance of it.
Mrs. Coleman, a Spanish teacher at RayPec explains how she talks about Hispanic Heritage Month with her students “ We celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month in various ways, depending on the course. In Spanish 1, we talk about Mexican Independence day. In Spanish 2, we watch shorts videos over important hispanic figures who have helped shape our society and left a lasting legacy. In Spanish 3, we do a few different activities about Hispanic Heritage”, said Coleman.
The hispanic culture is spread throughout RayPec by the many hispanic families that are a part of the district. Hispanic Heritage Month is important to many people and yet a lot of the school does not even realize when they should be celebrating it.
Aguilar tells us when Hispanic heritage month is, “Hispanic Heritage Month is from September 15, to October 15”, said Aguilar.
There are many different ways that people can celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, one of the best ways to celebrate it is talking about it.
Spanish teacher, Mrs. Price, shares how Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated in her classroom, “We read about what it is and watch videos or read articles about important Latinos.” said Price.
Spanish is spoken all over the world and learning Spanish can really benefit people in their everyday lives. One example would be in jobs involving customer service. People that speak only Spanish and struggle to speak English can have a lot of trouble trying to communicate with people, so being able to speak Spanish can be very beneficial.
Aguilar talks about how she uses spanish in her daily life, “while working, guests come in and struggle speaking english and it is very helpful to be able to communicate with them”, said Aguilar.
Even if students do not have any Spanish background it can still be important to talk about. Even if it is just talking about it once.
Price tells us how Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated best, “You remember and celebrate people who have contributed to society who are of Latino descent – athletes, activists, scientists, government officials, artists, etc. You can also celebrate the culture of those people–food, art, crafts, dance, language, etc.” said Price.
Hispanic Heritage Month can stay widely celebrated the more people begin to talk about it. It is important in many ways and very important to continue learning about.
Coleman explains the importance of Hispanic Heritage Month, “Hispanic Heritage Month is important for various reasons. The hispanic population is the second largest population in the United States. It’s important that we are celebrating the history, cultures, and stories of our fellow Americans. Oftentimes, the stories of important hispanic people are left out of history books. However, the contributions they’ve made to science, art, literature, and civil rights must not be overlooked. Hispanic Heritage Month is all about learning about these people and their impact and legacy they’ve imparted on the United States and the world at large.” Said Coleman.
Hispanic Heritage Month has been celebrated for a long time. It has even grown since it has first started and has now become a very widely celebrated month.
Price shares how long Hispanic Heritage Month has been celebrated, “It’s been going on since the 1960’s, though it wasn’t a whole month until 1988. We’ve talked about various aspects of Hispanic Heritage Month as long as I’ve been teaching here. It’s the culture and people behind the language we teach.” said Price.
There are also many ways that Hispanic heritage is shown or displayed all over the world. Showing these things all around the world helps keep people interested in talking about it.
Coleman shares some ways she knows that Hispanic Heritage is displayed, “There was a Latino Arts Festival here in KC on Sept. 25th. Coming up, there will be Fiesta Hispana, which is sponsored by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Greater Kansas City. The festival celebrates Hispanic culture which features great music, food, dancing and exhibits” said Coleman.
Talking about Hispanic Heritage by watching videos and doing assignments about it are just a few ways that the RayPec Spanish department celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month. It is important for people to start to notice and learn about. The hispanic culture is celebrated all over the world and is very important to many people.