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HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH September 15 - October 15

 

 

Department of Social Studies

TBA, District Director of Humanities

516 434-4045

  

During National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 to October 15) we recognize the contributions made and the important presence of Hispanic and Latino Americans to the United States and celebrate their heritage and culture. 

Hispanics have had a profound and positive influence on our country through their strong commitment to family, faith, hard work, and service. They have enhanced and shaped our national character with centuries-old traditions that reflect the multiethnic and multicultural customs of their community.

Hispanic Heritage Month, whose roots go back to 1968, begins each year on September 15, the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Mexico, Chile and Belize also celebrate their independence days during this period and Columbus Day (Día de la Raza) is October 12.

Hispanic Heritage Teaching Resources

Teaching resources from the Smithsonian Institution’s education foundation

Hispanic Heritage Month

Basic information about Hispanic Heritage Month and links to other online resources

Hispanic Heritage Month

Activities provided by the History Channel 

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month!

Lesson ideas for celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month from Education World®

 

Hispanic Heritage Month -  Recommended Reading List

 

Elementary (K-Grade 2)

Martina the Beautiful Cockroach: A Cuban Folktale

Carmen Agra Deedy

Doña Flor

Pat Mora

Juan Bobo Goes to Work

Marisa Montes

From the Bellybutton of the Moon and Other Summer Poems

Francisco X. Alarcón

Pablo's Tree

Pat Mora

Chato and the Party Animals

Gary Soto

Mama & Papa Have a Store

Amelia Lau Carling

Snapshots from the Wedding

Gary Soto

In My Family

Lomas Garza, Carmen

Rainbow Tulip

Pat Mora

Xochtil and the Flowers

Jorge Argueta

The Spirit of Tío Fernando

Janice Levy

Hispanic Scientists: Ellen Ochoa, Carlos A. Ramirez,
Eloy Rodriguez, Lydia Villa-Komaroff, Maria Elena Zavala

Jetty St. John

Angels Ride Bikes: And Other Fall Poems

Francisco X. Alarcon

Get Ready for Gabi: A Crazy Mixed Up Spanglish Day

Marisa Montes Illustrated by Joe Cepeda

Gracias Thanks

Pat Mora, Illustrated by, John Parra and written by Pat Mora

Nacho and Lolita

Pam Munoz Ryan

Gathering the Sun: An Alphabet in Spanish and English

Alma Flor Ada

The Storyteller’s Candle/La velita de los cuentos

Lucia Gonzalez and Lulu Delacre

Book fiesta!: Celebrate Children's Day/Book Day; Celebramos El dia de los ninos/Eldia de los libros

Pat Mora, illustrated by Rafael Lopez


 

Elementary (3–5)

Under the Royal Palms: a Childhood in Cuba

Alma Flor Ada

My Diary from Here to There

Amada Irma Pérez

Magic Windows

Carmen Lomas Garza

Hands-on Latin America: Art Activities For All Ages

Yvonne Y. Merrill

Where the Flame Trees Bloom

Alma Flor Ada

Amazing Hispanic American History

George Ochoa

Charro: The Mexican Cowboy

George Ancona

Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez

Kathleen Krull

Family Pictures

Carmen Lomas Garza

The Bossy Gallito

Lucia Gonzalez

Calling the Doves/El Encanto De Las Palomas

Juan Felipe Herrera

Under the Royal Palms: a Childhood in Cuba

Alma Flor Ada

Learning About Determination From the Life of Gloria Estefan

Meanne Stazzabosco

Ivan Rodriguez

Tony DeMarco

Alicia Alonso: First Lady of the Ballet

Sandra Martin Arnold

The Biographical Dictionary of Hispanic Americans

Nicholas E. Meyer

Famous Hispanic Americans

Janet Morey

Ellen Ochoa: The First Hispanic Woman Astronaut

Romero Maritza

Return to Sender

by Julia Alvarez

Book Fiesta!: Celebrate Children’s Day/Book Day; Celebremos El 
día de los niños/El día de los libros

illustrated by Rafael López, written by Pat Mora

The Day It Snowed Tortillas: A Classic from the American Southwest

Joe Hayes

How Tia Lola Came to Stay

Julia Alvarez

Poet and Politician of Puerto Rico: Don Luis Munoz Marin

Carmen T. Bernier-Grand

Tales Our Abuelitas Told: A Hispanic Folktale Collection

Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy, Illustrated by Leyla Torres, Susan Guevara, and Felipe Davalos

Maximilian & the Mystery of the Guardian Angel: A Bilingual Lucha Libre Thriller

Xavier Garza

The Dreamer

Pam Munoz Ryan


 

Middle School (6–8)

César Chávez : Crusader for Social Change

Brenda Haugen

When I was a Boy Neruda Called Me Policarpo

Poli Délano

Cool Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Growing Up Latino in the United States

Lori Carlson, Editor

Crossing the Wire

Will Hobbs

Breaking Through

Francisco Jiménez

Under the Same Sky

Cynthia DeFelico

Struggling to Become an American

Robin Santos Doak

The Color of My Words

Lynn Joseph

Wachale! Poetry and Prose about Growing Up Latino in America

Ilan Stavans, Editor

Extraordinary Hispanic Americans

Susan Sinnott

Baseball in April and Other Stories

Gary Soto

Call Me Maria: a Novel

Judith Ortiz Cofer

Hispanic, Female and Young: An Anthology

Edited by Phyllis Tashlik

My Daughter, My Son, the Eagle, the Dove: An Aztec Chant

Ana Castillo

Cuba 15

Nancy Osa

Becoming Naomi León

Pam Muñoz Ryan

The Tree is Older than You Are

Edited by Naomi Shihab Nye

Facts of Life

Gary Soto

Flight to Freedom

Ana Veciana–Suarez

Among the Volcanoes

Omar S. Castañeda

The Smell of Old Lady Perfume

Claudia Guadalupe Martínez

Delores Huerta: Labor Leader and Civil Rights Activist

Robin S. Doak

Esperanza Rising

Pam Munoz Ryan

The Circuit: Stories From the Life of a Migrant Child

Francisco Jimenez

Journey of Dreams

Marge Pellegrino

Tropical secrets : Holocaust refugees in Cuba

Margarita Engle

The Dreamer

Pam Munoz Ryan

The Firefly Letters

Margarita Engle

César Chávez: A Photographic Essay

Ilan Stavans

Under the Mesquite

Guadalupe Garcia McCall

Hurricane Dancers: The First Caribbean Pirate Shipwreck

Margarita Engle

Dancing Home

Alma For Ada

El Caracol: The Story of Alfonso, Labor Camp Child

Yolanda Espinosa Espinoza


 

High School (9–12)

Journey of the Sparrows

Fran Leeper Buss

Jesse

Gary Soto

Yo!

Julia Alvarez

El Bronx Remembered

Nicholasa Mohr

Famous Hispanic Americans

Wendy Dunn, Janet Nomura Morey, and Carlos E. Cortes

Laughing Out Loud, I Fly: Poems in English and Spanish

Juan Felipe Herrera

How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents

Julia Alvarez

Bless Me, Ultima

Rudolfo Anaya

When I Was Puerto Rican

Esmeralda Santiago

Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young
and Latino in the United States

Lori Marie Carlson

The Shadow of the Wind: A Novel

Carlos Ruiz Zafón translated by Lucia Graves

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Gabriel García Márquez

American Chica

Maria Arana

Taking Sides

Gary Soto

Before We Were Free

Julia Alvarez

Riding Low on the Streets of Gold: Latino Literature for Young Adults

edited, with an introduction Judith Ortiz Cofer

Growing Up Inside the Sanctuary of My Imagination

Nicholasa Mohr

Curse of the Chupa Cabra

Rudolfo Anaya

Accidental Love

Gary Soto

The Importance of a Piece of Paper: Stories

Jimmy Santiago Baca

Crazy Loco

David Talbot Rice

Reaching Out

Francisco Jiménez

Voices in First Person: Reflections on Latino Identity

edited by Lori Marie Carlson

I, Juan De Pareja

Elizabeth Borton de Trevino

The Emerald Lizard: Fifteen Latin American Tales to Tell

Pleasant DeSpain

Kids Like Me

Judith M. Blohm, Terri Lapinsky Powells

Hispanic Surnames and Family History

Lyman DePlatt

The Hispanic America, Texas and the Mexican War, 1835 - 1850

Christopher Collier

The Last Summer of the Death Warriors

Francisco X. Stork

You Don’t Have a Clue: Latino Mystery Stories for Teens

Edited by Sarah Cortez

When I Am Singing to You

Rebecca Burke

The Distance Between Us: A Memoir

Reyna Grande

Latinnovating: Green American Jobs and the Latinos Creating Them

Graciela Tiscareno-Sato


 

Adult Reading

Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez

Richard Rodriguez

The Line of the Sun

Judith Ortiz Cofer

Empress of the Splendid Season

Ơscar Hijuelos

In the Time of the Butterflies: A Novel

Julia Alvarez

Never Through Miami

Robert Quesada

Down These Mean Streets

Piri Thomas

Our House in the Last World

Ơscar Hijuelos

The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love

Ơscar Hijuelos

Collected Fictions

Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Andrew Hurley

Shadow without a Name

Ignacio Padilla, translated by Peter R. Bush & Anne McCleane

By the Lake of Sleeping Children: The Secret Life of the Mexican Border

Luis Alberto Urrea

The Latino Holiday Book: From Cinco de Mayo to Dia de los Muertos--the Celebrations and Traditions of Hispanic-Americans

Valerie Menard

Latino Literacy: The Complete Guide to Our Hispanic History and Culture

Frank De Varona

Chronology of Hispanic-American History: From Pre-Columbian Times to the Present

Nicolas Kanellos

Everything you need to know about Latino History

Himilce Novas

Thirty Million Strong: Reclaiming the Hispanic Image in American Culture

Nicolas Kanellos

Strangers Among Us: How Latino Immigration is Transforming America

Roberto Suro

Women's Tales from the New Mexico WPA: La Diabla a Pie (Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Series)

Tey Diana Rebolledo and María Teresa Márquez

Just Like Us: The True Story of Four Mexican Girls Coming of Age in America

Helen Thorpe

The Eastern Stars: How Baseball Changed the Dominican Town of

Mark Kurlansky