Hispanic Heritage Month gets justifiable criticism, but it’s still worth celebrating. Here’s why

It happens like clockwork: At least one corporation ends up apologizing during Hispanic Heritage Month because their campaign intended to celebrate Latinos ends up offending them. That proclamation was significant because “it asserted that we are here and are part of this nation,” said G. Cristina Mora, associate professor of sociology at UC Berkeley and author of “Making Hispanics: How Activists, Bureaucrats, and Media Constructed a New American.” “We’re not just bystanders and immigrants, but part and parcel and have created the history of the U.S.” Twenty years later, new legislation expanded Hispanic Heritage Week to a month, keeping Sept. 15 as the start date and ending on Oct. 15. We were taught a version of history that didn’t include us.” Working to expand a week into Hispanic Heritage Month “made me real proud, that we were doing a good thing,” he said. There’s no conquest.” But cynicism and shortcomings aside, Hispanic Heritage Month is an opportunity for Latinos to learn their history, the good and the bad. That knowledge “hasn’t seeped down, so we may as well use Hispanic Heritage Month to correct that,” Mora said.