Hispanic Heritage Month: How to Honor & Embrace Your Child's Birth Culture

As adoptive and prospective adoptive parents, especially if you are parenting a transracial adoptee, you should be familiar with the term “racial mirror”...a person whose identity matches yours, and can reflect your own experiences back to you. Racial mirrors are crucial in parenting transracial adoptees and should be present in your everyday lives - even if it’s just in the books you read or shows you watch in your home.

First celebrated in 1968, Hispanic Heritage Month now spans from September 15th to October 15th as a way to honor the history, culture and contributions of our American Citizens and their ancestors who came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America. This began as a week-long celebration under President Lyndon Johnson, and was expanded by President Reagan to be a month-long celebration.  September 15th kicks off National Hispanic Heritage Month for good reason - it celebrates the anniversary of independence for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Not only is this month a way to celebrate the important contributions of Hispanic and Latin culture, adoptive parents have an incredible opportunity to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month within their family and bring their adoptees’ culture into their own home.

While providing racial mirrors while parenting an adoptee who is transracial is a lifelong responsibility, Hispanic and Latin American Heritage Month offers a month-long celebration of bringing racial mirrors into your home, and celebrates your child’s culture and ethnicity… and we came up with several ways to help!

7 Ways to Honor & Embrace Your Hispanic Child's Birth Culture

Read Relevant Books

Go to your local library and check out books about Hispanic culture, or books that have Hispanic characters. When children can see themselves represented in characters, books become a powerful tool to create connection to their birth family, culture or heritage. These are some of our favorite books featuring Hispanic culture or characters!

• Mango, Abuela, and Me - Telling the story of Mia and her Abuela, this is an endearing tale that speaks loud and clear about the love that binds families across the generations.
• Alma - Having 6 names as a little girl is overwhelming, but after hearing the story of all her names, Alma thinks they are just right! This book opens the door for kids curious about their names and origin stories.
• Where Are You From? - With themes of self-acceptance, identity, and home, this powerful, lyrical picture book will resonate with readers young and old, from all backgrounds and of all colors—especially anyone who ever felt that they don’t belong.
• Coquí in the City by Nomar Perez - A heartfelt picture book based on the author-illustrator's own experiences, about a boy who moves to the U.S. mainland from Puerto Rico and realizes that New York City might have more in common with San Juan than he initially thought.
• La Catrina: Emotions – Emociones - this book introduces little ones to emotional expressions and their first English and Spanish words―and teaches them to recognize feelings like emocionado (excited), triste (sad), and confiado (confident).

Learn a New Language

If your kiddo is of Hispanic or Latin descent, learning Spanish together can be a powerful and educational way to connect them to their birth family and heritage. Even at a young age, there are fun, educational resources to begin teaching kids a new language.

• Dinolingo is an online platform for kids ages 3-14 that empowers them to learn Spanish (and 50 other languages!) through games, videos, songs, flashcards and worksheets.
• Endless Spanish is a free app for kids to be introduced to the Spanish language with the help of the adorable Endless monsters.
• Los Libros children’s books like La Catrina: Colors, Contando con Frida, and La Vida De Selena, have both english and spanish translations all in one adorable book.

Learn About Hispanic Traditions

Dia de Los Muertos, Day of the Dead, is celebrated on November 1st and 2nd, when spirits of the dead are able to return home and spend time with their loved ones. This can be a great way to connect your kiddo to an important tradition in their culture, and is also pretty easy to celebrate in your own home - Dia de Los Muertos decorations are readily available this time of year! 

• The 2017 Disney Pixar hit Coco, follows Miguel on his journey to meet his idol and get his ancestors' approval to play music. This entertaining and heartwarming movie explains the history and importance of Dia de Los Muertos…and has an incredible soundtrack! Coco helps show that Dia de Los Muertos isn’t a day to mourn, but to celebrate the afterlife.
• The Mexican Museum, in partnership with The Smithsonian Institution, has an entire website dedicated to Dia de Los Muertos…filled with history, education, art, and lots of fun ideas on how to celebrate in your own home through crafts and activities.
• Children’s books like Dia de Los Muertos take kids on a journey to “join the fun and festivities, learn about a different cultural tradition, and brush up on your Spanish vocabulary, as the town honors their dearly departed in a traditional, time-honored style.”

Find a Hispanic Festival or Celebration in Your Area

Check out your local events, especially if you’re in a bigger city! So many local communities host annual festivals during this month, making them a great opportunity to immerse yourself in Hispanic culture, celebrate with your family - and get some great food!  If you can’t find a local event, here are some other great ways to celebrate at home!

• The Smithsonian has a list of upcoming events, both in person and online that you can join as well as other resources to learn more about Hispanic culture and Hispanic Heritage Month.

See the Sights

Did you know that you can take a virtual tour of some of Mexico and Latin America’s most famous sights, all from the comfort of your own home? This is a fun and interactive way to see places you might only get to see in books and movies.

• Virtually visit the Mayan pyramids https://www.airpano.com/360photo/Chichen-Itza-Mexico/
• Take a tour of Machu Picchu https://www.youvisit.com/tour/machupicchu?pl=f
• Take a trip down the Amazon Basin https://www.google.co.uk/maps/about/behind-the-scenes/streetview/treks/amazon/
• Explore the Pyramids of the Sun https://www.youvisit.com/tour/panoramas/teotihuacan/85155?id=36553

Cook a Traditional Meal

Nothing brings a family together more than cooking together! Use this month to really learn about Hispanic food, the history behind it, and what makes the food so special!  Who knows, maybe this will be a new regular event in your home!  Here is a list of great kid-friendly activities in the kitchen.

Have a Family Movie Night

Encanto took the big screen by storm not only for its stunning imagineering, and enchanting soundtrack, but most importantly for bringing Hispanc and Latin representation to Disney.  Not only did Encanto offer Hispanic representation through its characters' appearances, but also the thoughtful and accurate representation of Colombian culture.  If you missed Encanto, now is an incredible time to watch it with intention and absorb everything Encanto has to offer.  Also on our list of must-watch movies this month is Coco, another Disney Pixar hit with an incredible soundtrack and glimpse into Hispanic culture.

For older kids, immerse yourselves in a new documentary like Mija: A Disney Original Documentary, which captures the story of two daughters of undocumented immigrants trying to make it in the music industry. As part of PBS’ Documentary Series, Latin Americans explores the diverse and rich experiences, history and culture of the LatinX community.

For a list of recommended movies and shows to watch this month (or anytime!) with your kids, check out 20 Kids’ Movies & Shows That Celebrate Latino Culture.

However you choose to celebrate your child’s ethnicity and bring their culture into your home - just make sure that you do!

Everyone benefits from better representation and where better to start, than at home. Honoring a child’s culture is one of the best ways to show respect to the child and their family. It takes work, but it’s worth it.