Hispanic Heritage Month is currently underway, and this year’s theme is "Unidos, Somos Más” which means "Together, We are More". Each year Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated from September 15th to October 15th.
Unlike other recognition months, Hispanic Heritage Month starts in the middle of September to coincide with many Central American countries' independence days, including Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
Mexico’s Independence Day is September 16th.
Centuries ago, most of Colorado was a part of Mexico. The name Colorado originates from the Spanish language as the word for “colored red”, reflecting the red sandstone and soil that can be found throughout the state.
According to state statistics, Hispanic and Latino residents make up 23.3% of Colorado’s population.
In Adams County, Colorado 44 .7% residents are Hispanic or Latino.
On an upcoming episode of Real Talk with Micah Smith, Ricardo Cárdenas, associate director of customer experience for Anythink Libraries which serves Adams County shared some of the programming happening throughout the month and resources available all year long.
“We have Spanish story time that we’re planning at our Perl Mack location, we’re having a mariachi event at another location, we’re having arts and crafts that celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. We’re having a block party at our Brighton location,” Cárdenas said. “We do ESL programming, English as a Second Language, it’s a highly sought after resource in Adams County. We found that nobody was really offering that in Adams County. And so we started it at our Commerce City location about a year ago.”
Servicios de la Raza based in Denver also serves Latino communities and others all year long, providing needed resources.
“Servicios began in 1972 so it is 54 years old which is remarkable for a nonprofit. And its effort was multifaceted. It was going to, and did, emphasize such basic needs such as food healthcare, efforts in education,” Servicios de la Raza Board of Directors Vice President Dr. Luis Torres said.
Real Talk with Micah Smith airs Sundays at 5:30pm on Denver7, full episodes are available anytime here.
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