The amount of people who seem totally oblivious to the fact that Hispanic Heritage Month kicks off today, or that it even exists, is actually astounding.
I find myself in awe with the amount of carelessness that even some of my activist white friends display when not bothering to even concern themselves with knowing that the people they oftentimes stand on behalf of at rallies, actually have a month where we get to celebrate our vast communities.
This is why Hispanic Heritage Month is necessary. I was raised in a primarily Latinx city, Miami, which boasts having 70-something percent of the population at our command. I remember that migration meant learning a lot of new things; one thing I learned was that I was Hispanic and I also learned that we had a month to celebrate all of what that meant. In my primarily Latinx elementary school, composed of mostly immigrants, Hispanic Heritage Month meant that we got to become even more Latinxs, for a day. We brought our various countries dishes and we all dressed in our respective festival outfits. Hispanic Heritage Month meant food and trajes tipicos. Hispanic Heritage Month did not mean much more than that, for me.
But then I moved to Nashville, and I felt a need to assert my Latinidad in The South. Lest I forget, because when you find yourself surrounded by another culture you have to do everything in your power to hold onto your own culture or you will lose it. On the one hand, the population of Latinxs is about 4 percent here, so Hispanic Heritage Month meant I got to see and celebrate our growing numbers despite what felt like erasure in Nashville. And one the other hand, if we are talking about racial issues we are usually only talking about white and black racial tensions. In The South nothing else seems to matter to anyone, and we are all Mexican. Hispanic Heritage Month meant that I got to remind myself that I was more than one monolithic community but also revel in our badassery as a whole.
Now as an adult, Hispanic Heritage Month means that I get to hold in tension the fucked up categorization of entire communities into one title that not all of us have consented to being called: Hispanic. But also acknowledging that on this month I get to perform unapologetically my entire being and I get to call out anyone who does not know, because in their privilege they do not have to know, that on this month we celebrate the Indigenous diaspora that is Latinidad in North America, specifically the United States.
I call Hispanic Heritage Month La Raza Month, and even Latinx Month. I call this month whatever the hell I need to call it, because although I oftentimes reject Hispanic as a categorizing term I fully embrace the necessity of this month. Hispanic Heritage Month is the month I remind you and myself that we are powerful and resilient. Hispanic Heritage Month is the month I get to celebrate all of our accomplishments, despite attempted genocide and colonization. Hispanic Heritage Month is the one-month out of the year where I get to remind you, boldly, that we matter and that we exist.
It is becoming “trendy” to adhere to a Latinx audience. Companies are branching out with their “Hispanic divisions” and marketing is being targeted toward us in a very aggressive way. And Hispanic Heritage Month can oftentimes feel convoluted in the subversive tactics to get you to consume and be consumed, as both a desirable client for companies but also as a desirable ethnicity, in general. Yet at the core of this month there is survival written all over it, and there are those of us who need this month, so Hispanic Heritage Month is our saving grace.
Hispanic Heritage Month is a necessity, and a lot of institutions are beginning to acknowledge that very real need. And as we stand in acknowledgement of our entire existence, remember that Hispanic Heritage Month is not about one community but rather is it about realizing and accepting how vast and complex our varied cultures are within the Latinx narrative.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
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We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
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With love, rage, and solidarity,
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