National Hispanic Heritage Month

National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 to October 15) honors and celebrates the cultures and contributions of Hispanic Americans. The long history and many achievements of Hispanics in the U.S. are not well known. Walt Whitman got it right when he said, “I have an idea that there is much of importance about the Latin contributions to American nationality that will never be put with sympathetic understanding and tact on the record.”

At a time when immigration and English-only movements can be divisive topics, let’s remember that Spanish was the first European language spoken in North America, beginning in 1513 when Ponce de Leon arrived. The oldest continuously occupied European settlement in our country is St. Augustine, Florida, founded by the Spanish in 1565. The Pilgrims didn’t reach Plymouth until 1620.

In 1776, King Carlos III of Spain provided 1 million pounds to support the American colonies in their fight against the British, and he funneled additional funds to the cause through France. Three years later he declared war on England in a further show of support. Many historians believe that Spain’s financial assistance was more important to the American victory than France’s military efforts.

David Farragut, the first admiral in the U.S. Navy, was the son of Jorge Farragut, a Spanish immigrant who fought in the Revolutionary War. David enlisted in the Navy at the age of 10 and went on to lead the fleet of ships that captured Confederate ships to win the Battle of Mobile during the Civil War.

Why aren’t we taught our Hispanic history? A large part of our country was Mexican before it was American: people who lived in California, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona spoke Spanish long before they spoke English. Common words that we associate with the West – chaparral, bronco, adobe, mesquite, corral, and coyote are, in fact, borrowed from Spanish. The Spanish influence in our daily vocabulary is pervasive, but we ignore the large role that Hispanics played in creating the U.S. we know today.

This month is the time to say gracias, as we savor Mexican food, listen to Latin jazz, or enjoy a Major League Baseball game. If it weren’t for our Hispanic heritage and history, you might still be eating steak and kidney pie.

About the Author:

Janine Libbey is a partner at P & L Translations in Nashville, TN. She developed her expertise in multilingual communications, Hispanic marketing, and advertising working on some of the world’s best known brands. She has worked for a publishing company in Barcelona, a record label in Madrid, and ad agencies in Spain, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Hispanic market. Her interest in cross-cultural communications began in Guayaquil, Ecuador, where she was an exchange student at 16. She is fluent in Spanish and speaks with a distinctive Castillian lisp.