National Hispanic Heritage Month: Why Now ‘More Than Ever’ Businesses Should Celebrate

National Hispanic Heritage Month (NHHM) celebrates Spanish and Latino history and culture. According to National Museum of the American LatinoThe month, which runs from September 15 to October 15, gives “special recognition to the many contributions to U.S. history and culture, including important advocacy work, living arts, popular and traditional foods, and much more.”

Work is a key part of this celebration, given both the long history Hispanic and Latino-led union activism and the current demographic structure of the American workforce, which is becoming increasingly diverse.

“It is always important to acknowledge and celebrate the diversity of our country,” said Miriam De Dios Woodward, founder president and CEO of De Dios Consulting, which helps companies grow by engaging with the Latino market. “NHHM is really an opportunity to recognize our employees, but also our customers, small business owners and community members around us, given the population statistics.”

Celebrating an important part of the American labor movement

NHHM is more than 50 years old, having been initiated in 1968 at the behest of President Lyndon Johnson as a week-long celebration. It was expanded to a month by President Ronald Reagan in 1988.

These are not just random dates chosen on the calendar. September 15 is the independence anniversary of Latin American countries, including Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Mexico and Chile also celebrate their independence days on September 16 and 18. Belize celebrates its independence anniversary on September 21.

These days of independence laid the foundation for celebrating the role that Hispanics and Latinos played in the country’s labor movement. Significantly, in 1962 Cesar Chavez AND Dolores Huerta was a co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association (now the United Farmer Workers of America).

The aim was to draw attention to discrimination and poor working and living conditions of agricultural workers through peaceful acts of civil disobedience.

Historians consider the year 2000 a milestone for the Hispanic- and Latino-led labor movement: the California branch of the Service Employees International Union sought contracts for 6,000 Hispanic and Latino workers. “It was the biggest private-sector, immigrant organizing campaign since the United Farm Workers campaign in the 1970s,” Zaragosa Vargas, professor emeritus in the history department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said in a National Park Service document.

The Justice for Janitors campaign set the stage for millions of Latino immigrant workers to protest proposed immigration reforms and the right to work in the U.S. with a chance to become citizens in 2006. “These massive worker demonstrations constituted a new civil rights movement in America,” Vargas said.

Today we celebrate employee diversity

From a workforce perspective, NHHM is important because of the role that Latino workers currently play in the U.S. labor market—a role that is projected to grow.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statisticsthe percentage of Latinos in the labor force increased from 8.5% in 1990 to 18.0% in 2020. The BLS estimates that by 2030, Latinos will make up 21.2% of the labor force, or one in five workers. The bureau also projects that Latino workers will make up 78% of net new hires between 2020 and 2030.

“We’re everywhere,” De Dios Woodward said of the Hispanic and Latino employees. That means NHHM is “an opportunity to highlight and showcase the contributions of Latinos across the country,” she said.

It’s also simply good business, she added, and an opportunity to “elevate employees from an HR perspective.”

That could include tapping into support groups for Latino and Hispanic employees within the company to “learn a little bit more about the cultural differences that can help the organization,” she added.

Here are some programming ideas offered by the National Museum of the American Latino:

• Take a Look at Influential Latino Leaders
• Read books written by Latino authors
• Screen films featuring Latino/Hispanic actors and directors
• Participate in a community project that benefits the Latino community

Even if an employer doesn’t have a significant number of Latino employees, De Dios Woodward said, companies can reach out to other local businesses or retail partners that do. Not only does that promote inclusivity, it’s “a great way to attract Latino workers and help retain them,” she said.

These efforts are especially important now given the sometimes divided views on DEI efforts.

“More than ever, it’s an important time to simply recognize the contributions of the community, but also to use it as an opportunity to continue to build a global mindset,” De Dios Woodward said. “We can say all we want about DEI, but you can’t change the reality … that this country is becoming more diverse, and Latinos are driving a larger and larger share of that growth.”