Hispanic Heritage Month 2023 isn’t about Spanish culture, it’s about us, the Americans of the Americas who come together in the United States, and especially New York City, the capital of the Latin world.
We meditate on Hispanic Heritage Month every year, because as New Yorkers traveling constantly in the Caribbean and Latin America, our understanding of what it means to be Latin keeps evolving. We are much more than Hispanic.
The Name “Hispanic Heritage Month” Ignores the Diversity of Latin Communities
Most people’s concept of Hispanic is based on their own heritage, education, and life experience. But if you live in Latin America, especially in the Caribbean, it quickly becomes obvious that we are a mix of everyone.
Generally, we are various blends of Indigenous, European, and African peoples and cultures. But we are also Jewish, Arab, South Asian and East Asian.
You may call us “Hispanic,” but we can be any of the above. Some families have one child who looks Indigenous, one who looks European, and one who looks African – all from the same parents. We really are a mix.
Indigenous Peoples Are Part of Our Hispanic Heritage
As Americans, we have a strange concept of Indigenous because after European diseases killed 90-95% of Native Americans, the US Army followed up with a genocide. It’s often said that we died out, but we actually married in. Colonizers stopped counting us in their census and said we no longer exist.
We are still here. North of the border, there are few Indigenous families, but south of the border, we are mostly Indigenous. Most Latin American countries consider themselves to be a mix of Indigenous and European.
Lately, families have been recognizing their own Indigenous heritage which had always been denied in the past. Some have had the weird experience of being taught in school about Indigenous traditions, telling the teacher that’s exactly what we do at my house, and being told that you can’t be Indigenous because you’re all dead.
No we are still here.
The European Diaspora is Part of Our Hispanic Heritage
Many Latin countries are defined by the language and culture of their last colonizer, but that ignores layers of history. The first Americans were all Indigenous from Asia. Then the Spaniards and Portuguese came. The riches they stole brought French, English, and Dutch colonizers. Some places suffered multiple colonizers over the years. There was nothing nice about being colonized. It was heaven for a few, but hell for most.
The French and Haitian influence are often understated. Saint-Domingue (which became Haiti) was the richest French colony. The violence of the Haitian Revolution caused a diaspora across the Caribbean, including to New Orleans. By 1810 half of New Orleans was of Haitian descent. From there we get blues, the root of American music, leading to jazz, country, rock, and more American popular culture.
The French also influenced Caribbean Carnival, which comes from Trinidad and Tobago. Spanish colonizers feared that they didn’t have enough people to prevent other Europeans from taking the islands. So they offered land to Europeans who would swear to the Spanish king and church. Entire plantations including both the French and African Diaspora moved from Haiti and other Caribbean islands to Trinidad. The African Diaspora used to mock the French masquerades at Mardi Gras. When abolition came, the masquerades went wild as an expression of freedom. New York Carnival with its West Indian Day Parade, is an expression of Trinidad Carnival.
The French even had an influence on Puerto Rican bomba. The Cepedas of Santurce, San Juan, the first family of bomba Puertorriqueña, say their tradition came from a French plantation in Mayagüez on the western side of Puerto Rico. In some parts of Puerto Rico, people speak a mix of Spanish and French that is hard to understand. Puerto Rico was never French, but the French influence is all over the islands.
Germany was not a colonizer, but there is a German influence in the Caribbean. Many were Jewish Germans who brought Jewish intellectualism to their families. Some of their children did amazing things.
Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869) of New Orleans was the first internationally recognized American pianist. He was also the first classical composer to notate the rhythms of Congo Square in New Orleans and other Latin rhythms on his travels through Latin America. He died in Brazil. Gottschalk was Jewish German English French Creole (Haitian descent). You wouldn’t call him Hispanic, but he is definitely Latin.
During the Harlem Renaissance, Arturo Schomburg of Puerto Rico became one of the world’s preeminent collectors of Black Arts. His collection was the basis for the New York Public Library Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and he was its first curator.
This year, we discovered the Irish influence on Latin America. Irish came to the Americas as both human slavers and indentured servants. Many fought in the Latin American wars of independence, and some played decisive roles. Bernardo O’Higgins is one of the founding fathers of Chile.
The African Diaspora is Part of Our Hispanic Heritage
A lot of American and Latin culture originated in African Diaspora communities, and its often mixed with Indigenous culture.
The African Diaspora’s contributions to American culture are immense. Cuban rumba, Haitian méringue, Dominican merengue, Puerto Rican salsa, Brazilian samba and American blues, gospel, ragtime and country music all originate in African Diaspora communities. This is where much of the popular music and dances of the Americas comes from.
In the Americas the African Diaspora is often mixed with Indigenous peoples. To escape colonial abuse, Indigenous peoples melted into the mountains and the wilderness. When African Diaspora communities later made the same escape, the two communities mixed together.
In some regions the dominant culture today is more Indigenous, like in Mexico. In others, it is more African, like in Brazil, but we are mixed together.
The Jewish and Arab Diasporas are Part of Our Hispanic Heritage
Jewish communities are everywhere around the world, and always benefit the regions where they live, including New York City.
There is less awareness of Arab Latins, but there is a strong influence. Arab merchants ran the Monsoon Trade between East African and India, and managed trading around the African coast and across the Sahara Desert. This introduced Islam into Mother Africa.
When European human slavers kidnapped Africans to the Americas, they brought Islam too. Dutty Boukman, one of the early leaders of the Haitian Revolution, was called “Boukman” because he was a man of the book, the Koran. He was an Islamic priest. I had a Dominican Puerto Rican friend who told me he spoke Arabic. I asked why and he said he was taught to pray in Arabic. That means Islam survived 500 years at home in the Caribbean.
Gospel and the blues have North African influences. The blue note and melisma (warbling on one note) come from North Africa. The pandereta hand drum used in Puerto Rican plena is originally an Arab drum.
Phoenicians, the ancient Lebanese, were great mariners who may have gotten as far as what is now Nigeria. There were more recent Lebanese migrations into Colombia and Brazil.
The Asian Diaspora is Part of Our Hispanic Heritage
South Asians and East Asians are both part of Latin communities.
South Asians came as indentured workers after abolition. Trinidad has a South Asian plurality (not a majority, but the biggest group). That gave us good Caribbean curry and soca music which is a blend of South Asian, African, and Indigenous traditions.
Chile and Brazil have Japanese communities that have made important contributions to the culture of those countries.
Manila, Philippines was the Asian end of the Pacific Galleon route. There was mixing in both directions.
Chinese came to the United States to build the western part of the Transcontinental Railroad. Californians turned violent against them, so many moved to the Caribbean and built the railroads there. Another part of that original community moved to New York City and founded Manhattan Chinatown. In Latin American Chinese blended in. Even the Puerto Rican Jíbaro, mountain farmers, have some Chinese heritage.
Hispanic Heritage Month 2023
The point of all this is that we are not only Hispanic, we are incredibly diverse.
Diversity is a sign of a healthy ecosystem. Latin Americans are a healthy community. According to the CDC in 2014, Hispanic Americans have a longer life expectancy than average Americans including the European Diaspora, and the difference is growing. Why? We are pretty certain that it’s because we have strong families. Humans need connection, and Latin families are strongly connected.
So happy Indigenous, European, African, Jewish, Arab, South Asian and East Asian Heritage Month! Or just Happy Hispanic Heritage Month!
To learn more about the official government version of Hispanic Heritage Month, visit hispanicheritagemonth.gov