Building a Hispanic Heritage

Between September and October of each year and coinciding with the holiday of Mexican Independence and ending with the celebration of the “Encounter of Two Worlds”, in the United States, we celebrate “NATIONAL HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH” a nationally recognized observance which has been enacted into law. 

Today, to speak of the significant Hispanic presence in this country is to speak of something obvious. The National Census Bureau indicated that there are fifty three million Hispanics, as of July 1st of 2012, residing in this Nation in addition to the three million people residing on the Island of Puerto Rico.

Hispanic presence in the life of this Nation is not a recent phenomenon. In fact, Hispanics have been here even before the arrival of the pilgrims. Since 1550, men like Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, together with other explorers, traveled and explored the width and length of the territories which today constitutes the American Union. Hispanics had established themselves in what today is called “Florida”, many years before the British founded Jamestown. Without a doubt, Hispanics have made a mark in the history of this Nation. We have participated in many of the heroic deeds during its formation and have greatly contributed to the overall development of the United States. 

Because of our substantial and growing numbers, subjects such as immigration or the legalization of undocumented immigrants are today on the front pages of the media; and rank amongst the principal preoccupations of the institutions which have in their hands the destiny of this Nation. 

It is important to note that there are three U.S. Senator and thirty House representatives of Hispanic origin in Congress. This speaks loudly to the undeniable Hispanic contribution in today’s North American society. 

Our presence here is a reality, but the mere simple existence of a large population does not give authority. Authority comes from authorship of our own destiny; we must be protagonists and not simply spectators of our own historical and social destiny within this Nation. Only then would we have gained respect and recognition from others. 

It is not enough that we are many, big numbers give not true rights; what is needed and urgent is for us to shape the quality of our contributions. 

We must define our existence as Hispanics in this Nation in a meaningful way by integrating the Hispanic Community into the greater American Life and to have social, religious, political, economic, cultural and academic influence in the life of this Nation. 

During the celebration of HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH, we allow ourselves the opportunity to reflect and truly understand our present situation and its challenges; and to be on the alert about the best way we can develop a future as a Hispanic Community and be of influence and contribute to the everyday life of the American Union. 

Some of the questions we must ask of ourselves are as follows: 

•  Why can’t we have a well lead, organized, reasonable and respectful debate on immigration? 

• What relationship (and recognition) is there between our enormous purchasing power (nine hundred billion dollars a year) and our competent and competitive presence in the economy and the commercial life of the United States?

• Knowing that the future is formed in the years of childhood, what can be done about the high percentage of drop-outs amongst the children and youth of Hispanic origin? At the same time, what can be done to address the many Hispanic youth also plunge into the world of gangs, the use of drugs and alcohol, and other forms of vices and violence in very large numbers? • While academic preparedness amongst Hispanics born and raised in our country is on the increase, great numbers of us still have very low standards of living and live in poverty. How can this be addressed?

• How do we integrate into the working world of this Nation the massive influx of illiterate youth who are in the possession of little formal education in Spanish, let alone English? These youths have arrived from extreme poverty in their home countries and become easy prey to the culture of consumerism and materialism and can easily cast aside their altruistic or transcendent values resulting in truncated ideals. How do we keep our youth from becoming perfect targets for those who traffic in human misery?

• It is important today to raise the question of where are the Christian values that have inherited. Such as humanism, integral development, solidarity, spirituality. 

The work that is in front of us is difficult and requires conscious, responsible and generous participation of all Hispanics. Hispanics need to develop internally the required leadership to thrust ourselves as a voice in the building of the present and future of this Nation. 

This effort implies a focus on encouraging our youth to obtain a higher degree of education; to develop skills in organization and respect for one another and the ability to develop a higher degree of communication with the dominant culture, so that together we can make this society more viable and humane. In a Nation which proclaims freedom, there are still many situations of slavery and licentiousness.

In a Nation which claims to be the empire of rights and law, there are many situations of injustice and abuse to the most elemental rights of man. We can still verify many inhumane situations, all within a society which preaches respect for the human being. 

We Hispanics must take the lead in the rebirth of a new American society, truly tolerant and fraternal. We should be proactive protagonists in the emergence of a new society which will finally discover the integrated and harmonious values of the whole American Continent. Such a society that discovers the true value of American Union --that is “Pan-Americanisn” will become a Society that is richer as a result of the diversity of nations, with its diverse ethnicities, histories, languages and cultures but also become united in one territory. We become a society with the same aim to be happy, with the common goal to be prosperous people, more humane and humanized, with fewer borders and divisions and more solidarity. 

For the Hispanic community to be able to reach adulthood in this society, it needs to engage in a deep reflection of its history. The celebration of HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH should not pass as a simple “fiesta”; but should be a call for a serious commitment from all Hispanics with the aim of constructing a true, great and noble “hispanicity” in the life and development of this Nation. If we do this, we will no longer be drifting at the mercy of those who do not accept us, who exploit us, or in the worse case scenario, want us to be without identity or completely assimilated to the culture of this great Nation that still needs to discover the beauty of Hispanics. 

How great it is that HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH exists! For while there is much we have accomplished there is still much more left to be done!!

National Hispanic Heritage Month

On September 17, 1968, the Congress of the United States authorized the President of the United States (then Lyndon B. Johnson), to proclaim National Hispanic Heritage Week. This proclamation urged the people of the United States, especially the educational entities, to observe the week with appropriate ceremonies and activities. President Gerald R. Ford, in 1974, issued a proclamation that particularly urged schools and human rights organizations to participate fully in the celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Week.

Twenty years later, on August 18, 1988, President Ronald Reagan reiterated Ford’s call for a broader recognition of all residents of Hispanic origin. To this end, the Congress approved Public Law 100-402, extending the celebration for a period of 31 days, to be known as NATIONAL HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH, (from September 15 to October 15 of each year). The United States continues that month-long celebration of the culture and traditions of the residents of this country who have roots in Spain, Mexico and the Spanish-speaking countries of Central America, South America and the Caribbean, and honors the accomplishments of the Hispanic or Latin community who reside in this nation.

As a Hispanic community, we remember and enjoy festivities revolving around our origin, history, culture, the values of our identity and reality in this nation. It is a privileged time each year in which we review our Hispanic state in this nation: our common objectives (where they exist), our efforts, activities, desires, longings, and ideals; our participation in the history and progress of the country; and, above all, the accomplishments that our Hispanic presence has achieved in the overall concert of this great nation’s life.

The Hispanics of several generations have proceeded from the many different corners of Latin America. We have brought with us the richest and most varied cultural expressions, (originating from our historic associations with Spain or Portugal), and most especially, our Catholic faith. We constitute a veritable multitude in this nation. The National Census of the year 2000 found 56 million persons of Hispanic origin living in the United States, making us the largest minority, representing 15% of the total population.

Our numerical growth greatly increases, at the same time, the problems that we as a community must face and resolve equally increase. Looking beyond ourselves to the rest of the very diverse population of the United States, we see the issues that result from our multiculturalism in every field of life: academic, economic, political, cultural, artistic, athletic, religious, etc.

Some of the great problems we face include: a lack of understanding of our own inner being; a knowledge of who we are and of our Hispanic communities (which lack integration and unity); our limited or absent sense of belonging to the Hispanic community present in the United States; our lack of leadership and of interrelationship between the leadership of our varied communities; our lack of common objectives (especially political); the absence of a common vision which could give strength in a unified struggle to reach common goals and achievements in the life and growth of this nation. We don’t even share a common name to define and identify us as a community in relation to the rest of the nation.

Consequently, the recent study done by the PEW Hispanic Center reveals that:

Most Hispanics or Latinos prefer not to be called either “Hispanics” or “Latinos”.

• Approximately 51% of Hispanics in the nation prefer to be identified according to their country of origin.

• Only 49% of those surveyed said that they identify themselves as a Hispanics and/or Latinos.

• Barely 21% said they preferred to be described as Americans.

• 79% of those surveyed said that if they had to do it again, they would come to the United States.

Moreover, in the last five years, in particular, the immigration debate in the United States has been poor, embarrassing, unfavorable and unfair to the Hispanic community. We have been mistreated, legalization processes have been hindered, and social opportunities have been denied, preventing the Hispanic community from being integrated into the national life of this country.

This failure in immigration policy, especially with regard to the Hispanic community present in this nation, gives rise to many different theories, but is due in large measure to our lack of unity, internal understanding and cohesion, as well as the shortage of Hispanic leaders who should represent our needs, concerns, longings, urgencies, and desires.

Given the large number of Hispanics, it is of the utmost importance to both the Hispanic community and the nation, that we not be assimilated, thus losing our identity, but to be integrated with all of our historic riches and our cultural and Christian values within all the fabric of the United States.

The Catholic Church in the United States is being enriched by the increasing number of faithful Hispanics. The nation’s current debate of the immigration laws offer the Church to be “Mother and Teacher” to the Hispanic community and is given the opportunity to advocate for a reform of the laws that are more just and humane. The leadership offered by Archbishop Jose Gomez of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and Chairman of the Immigration Committee of the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, is most promising in helping to achieve a body of laws that will reflect the values of liberty and justice which are the foundation of our nation.

A Heritage that Involves All of Us

In each decade, by order of the Congress of the United States, a national census is taken of the population. The most recent census from the year 2010 resulted in figures which especially catch our attention in this month of Hispanic heritage. This involves all of us; the entire society of the United States of America with all its political institutions, as well as the cultural, social, economic, religious entities, etc…, the Hispanic residents in this nation and the Latin American nations from which we have come.

According to this census, 50.5 million Hispanics reside in the United States, without counting the undocumented Hispanics. A figure that means that the Hispanic community resident in the United States make up 15% of the total population of this nation.

Let’s take a look at the growth of the Hispanic American Community in the United States, since the census of 1990 which counted 22.4 million Hispanics; that of the year 2000 counted 35.3 million Hispanics, and now the current census shows an increase in Hispanic American Citizens to 50.5 million, indicating rapid and massive growth – since the last one - of 43%.

In addition, the average age of the Hispanic population is 27 years, whereas the average age of the rest of the United States population is 47 years, which indicates that the Hispanic population is an obvious injection of youth – and with it, strength for work and progress - for the entire society of the United States.

Here are some other figures from the last census (2010):

• In California there are 14 million or more Hispanics.
• In New York there are 3 million or more Hispanics.
• In Florida there are 4 million or more Hispanics.
• In Texas there are 9 million or more of Hispanic origin.

Breaking this down into nationalities gives us the following:

• Mexicans total 31.8 million, the equivalent of 63 % of the Hispanic population resident in the United States.
• Puertoricans make up 4.6 million, or 9.2 %.
• Cubans are 1.8 million, or 3.5 %.
• Those from El Salvador are 1.6 million, or 3.3 %.
• Dominicans are 1.4 million, or 2.8 %.
• Guatemalans are 1.0 million, or 2.1 %.
• Colombians are 0.9 million, or 1.8 %.
• The rest of the nationalities not specified here make up 14.3 % of the Hispanic population that resides in this nation.

What do these statistics mean –these numbers and percentages, enormous, important and striking in themselves-– in the overall picture of the United States, society in general (with all its institutions), as well as for the Hispanic American Citizen here and for those citizens of Latin American nations?

For the United States of America, the increased Hispanic presence represents a great challenge bringing with it unsuspected índices of progress in all fields of this great nation if –from all the social institutions— there is an adequate response to the enormous challenges that this presence demands. Yet at the same time, the presence of the Hispanic community in the USA can imply great problems if the societal responses from the USA to the challenges of what we could call “the Hispanic phenomenon” are not prompt, worthy, accurate, just or respectful.

If in fact there is general agreement that it is necessary to integrate the community of Hispanic origin within the United States society, it is also true that the institutions (political, religious, cultural, economic, etc…) of this nation, should avoid interpreting “integration” as meaning “assimilation” and “absorption” by the “dominant culture” in order to achieve uniformity of all in such a way that the Hispanics lose the riches of our own identity, our own culture, our own roots, our social and historical origins or, the other extreme of those who oppose the concept of integration, giving place to discrimination, a ghetto mentality, exploitation, persecution and other social evils contrary to a Christian, democratic and liberal view of society, the principals of which have been honored in this nation from its historical beginnings.

The Hispanic American Citizen, while growing in the number of residents in this nation needs to grow in social awareness and in participation, in education and in social and political formation, and should grow in leadership and in all aspects that allow it to have voice and vote in the decision making processes that determine the present and forge the future of this nation.

The institutions, communities and religious denominations in general, and of the Christian churches in particular, present in the United States of America, should work to promote the Hispanic presence as a blessing, a sign of enrichment and growth in the faith, in fraternity, in unity, in justice, in solidarity, in equity, in fellowship and in participation.

For the Hispanic community is called to contribute to the development of this nation, not only with economic growth through work or taxes, but also – and above all – with the values of the Gospel and Christian humanism within our being, in our identity and our history, since the earliest Catholic evangelization present in our origins as Hispanic-American nations. Values, that are completely contrary to individualism, to selfishness, to utilitarianism, to an emphasis on appearances, to an easy way out, to pragmatism, to relativism, to subjectivism, to comfort, to consumerism, to hedonism, etc., all of which are so much a part of the current postmodern and “light” mentality.