Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month
Happy Hispanic Heritage Month! September 15th through October 15th is Hispanic Heritage Month, a time to honor the histories, cultures and contributions of Hispanic-Americans to the US. This month we are highlighting some of the incredible Latinas who have shaped U.S. history.
Ada Limón
Last year, Ada Limon became our nation’s first Latina Poet Laureate of the United States. She is also the first to be reappointed to a historic two-year term rather than the traditional one-year term. Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden noted that Limón’s six poetry books show her to be a poet whose “accessible, engaging poems ground us in where we are and who we share our world with. They speak of intimate truths, of the beauty and heartbreak that is living, in ways that help us move forward.” Mexican American Limón believes that poetry is a way to “reclaim our humanity.”
Andrea Salinas
Last November, Andrea Salinas became Oregon’s first Hispanic member of U.S. Congress of the 6th Congressional district. The daughter of a Mexican immigrant and first-generation American, Andrea represents Oregon’s 6th Congressional District. She helped pass Oregon’s Reproductive Health Equity Act, stating, “Latinas told us they wanted contraception care, preconception care, prenatal care, postpartum care and they wanted abortion access and they wanted to make their own decisions around that with no government interference.”
Carmen Rubio
In spring 2020, Carmen Rubio became the first Latina on the Portland City Council and the second woman of color elected. Rubio oversees Portland Housing Bureau, the Bureau of Development Services and the Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. She also heads Prosper Portland, the city’s economic development agency. Before serving on Portland’s City Council, she was the Latino Network’s executive director for ten years. She is the first from her family to graduate college and is the granddaughter of immigrants who came to this country as migrant workers.
Dolores Huerta
Dolores Clara Fernandez Huerta has spent the majority of her life advocating for better working conditions for farmworkers and ethnic minorities. Since co-founding the United Farm Workers in 1965, Huerta's determined and inspiring leadership has led to instrumental changes for women, immigrants, and workers across the country. Throughout her long life she has been a steadfast champion whose direct action and powerful advocacy has raised women’s issues and helped to elect more Latinas into political office.
Photo from NPR
Ellen Ochoa
April 8th, 1993 was the historic day that the world saw the first Latina, Ellen Ochoa, travel to space, a space usually frequented by white men. She spent nine days researching the Earth’s ozone layer, exploring on the Discovery shuttle and was the first to play a flute in space. Throughout her career, Ochoa has logged almost 1,000 hours in space and also became the first Hispanic director and second female director of the Johnson Space Center in 2013.
Ilena Ros-Lehtinen
In 1989, Ilena Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) became the first Cuban-American elected to Congress and she was also the first woman to chair the House panel for Foreign Affairs Committee. As a sponsor of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which protects domestic violence Survivors and prosecutes the abusers, she has had a lasting impact. She was the first Republican Congressperson to publicly support marriage equality. Throughout her career, Ilena Ros-Lehtinen advocated for education, marriage equality, and paved the way for other women to run for public office.
Jessica Vega Pederson
In 2013, Jessica Vega Pederson stepped into office as Oregon’s first Latina in the Oregon House of Representatives, serving the East Portland area (House District 47). After years of service to her community, she continued her dedicated advocacy and this past January became the first Latina to serve as Chair of Multnomah County. The granddaughter of Mexican-immigrants, Jessica has spent her life advocating for Latinos in her community, such as advocating for paid sick leave, pay equity, and raising the minimum wage to improve the lives of women and working families in Oregon.
Karol G
Launching her career as a teenager in Medellin, Columbia, Karol G won the Latin Grammy for Award for Best New Artist in 2018 and hasn’t looked back. With her fourth album, Mañana Será Bonito (2023), Karol G became the first woman to ever debut at number one on the Billboard 200 chart with a Spanish-language album. This past summer she also became the woman with the most entries ever on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart. Photo from NBC News.
Maria Hinojosa
Pulitzer Prize winner and creator, executive producer, and anchor of Latino USA, the longest running Latino podcast in the world, Maria Hinojosa is a trailblazing journalist. During her report as the first Latina to anchor a PBS FRONTLINE report, she was the first journalist to explore immigration detention facilities and their abuse. She has won four Emmys for her work and created her own media company, Futuro, with “the mission to create multimedia content for and about the new American mainstream in the service of empowering people to navigate the complexities of an increasingly diverse and connected world” (from LatinoUSA.org). Photo from WDET.
Rosie Hidalgo
This summer, Rosie Hidalgo was confirmed to be the first Latina Director of the Office on Violence Against Women at the U.S. Department of Justice. For over 25 years, Rosie has advocated to end gender-based violence including serving as a special assistant to President Biden and senior advisor on gender-based violence at the White House Gender Policy Council. The daughter of Cuban-immigrants, Rosie has advocated for Survivor rights around the world including establishing and coordinating a community-based domestic violence program in the Dominican Republic. Photo from NBC News.
Sonia Sotomayor
Puerto Rican Sonia Sotomayor is the third woman, first woman of color, the first Hispanic, and first Latina to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. This proud Nuyorican grew up in a public housing project in the Bronx and then went on to graduate from Princeton and Yale Law School. Since getting sworn in 2009, Sotomayor has consistently ruled to uphold civil rights like same-sex marriage and the Affordable Care Act.
Sylvia Rivera
Known for putting the ‘T’ in 2SLGBTQIA+, Sylvia Rivera was a Venezuelan-Puerto Rican trans woman who advocated for the queer community, ethnic minorities, and the houseless. Alongside Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia created the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) to provide homes for houseless trans folks in New York. The Sylvia Rivera Law Project was named in her honor and still advocates for the safety and rights of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community today. Photo from NBC News.
YWCA Workshops During Hispanic Heritage Month
Retaining a Diverse and Inclusive Workforce
Friday, September 22nd, 2023, 1pm-4pm PST
Online via Zoom
Course Description: The foundation of an organization’s success lies within its recruitment practices and its retention strategies. In order for an organization to attract workers whose identities span across the social spectrum, requires a change in the organization’s practices, culture, and values—and is greatly underscored when it comes to retaining talent. As the world of work is framed within White Supremacist structures, most organizations have operated within such characteristics (intentional or unintentionally) for decades. To diversify the landscape of representation within an organization, employers must invest in staff cultural competency, organizational cultural-responsiveness, dissect White Supremacy Culture, and be willing to deeply examine its power structures. Beyond, an organization needs to activate and maintain change in order to receive, create and implement with, support, and nourish workers of marginalized experience in order to truly develop an inclusive workforce.Through reflection, language distillation, and conversation, attendees in this workshop will develop tools to nuance organizational recruitment processes and practices, analyze retention strategies, and activate true inclusive movement in order to develop a social equity analysis that will set the frame to recruit, retain, and include folks of marginalized experience.
Register at the link below!
Exploring Social Identity Development: Privilege, Oppression & Social Position
Monday, October 9th, 2023, 4pm-7pm PST
Online via Zoom
Course Description: In this workshop, participants will be exposed to Social Identity Theory and Racial Identity Development Theory. We will define, name, and explore our social identities, how they are contextualized by privilege and oppression by way of power. This workshop will be a mix of lecture, large and small group discussion and individual reflection exercises.
Register at the link below!
Community Events Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month
El Grito Community Celebration
Saturday, September 16th and Sunday, September 17th, 11am-11pm
Moda Center
By Consul of Mexico
The two-day event will host a variety of culturally-specific colorful, and energetic performances such as baile folklórico and mariachi. Towards the end of day one, witness the official Ceremony of el El Grito, an homage to “El Grito de Dolores” that symbolizes the revolt for the independence of Mexico from the Spanish crown. Day two is a day to enjoy more performances, live music, dance, festivities, food, vendors, and community resources.
Saturday, September 16th, 2:00pm-7:00pm
Shute ParkCentro Cultural is honored to host this event, presented by the City of Hillsboro. This family-friendly event will feature mariachi, and ballet folklorico performances, Latin American gastronomy, artisanal vendors, a car show, community resources, and much more
Watch "Coco" to Celebrate Latino & Hispanic Heritage MonthSaturday, October 7th, 4:30pm-6:00pm Hillsboro Futsal and Soccer Academy: 330 SW Walnut St. Hillsboro, ORMake sure to bring a blanket or chair to enjoy the show. This movie will be shown in Spanish with English subtitles.About "Coco": Despite his family's generations-old ban on music, young Miguel dreams of becoming an accomplished musician like his idol Ernesto de la Cruz. Desperate to prove his talent, Miguel finds himself in the stunning and colorful Land of the Dead. After meeting a charming trickster named Héctor, the two new friends embark on an extraordinary journey to unlock the real story behind Miguel's family history.