Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates and recognizes the contribution and influences of Hispanic Americans in the past and present and  can also be a time for people of Hispanic Heritage to celebrate and honor their culture. 

     From Sep. 15 through Oct. 15, Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates the 19.1% of the population in the United States, making Hispanics the nation’s largest ethnic minority. There are hundreds of inspiring Hispanic people in the world who have paved the way for people who feel they can not take that extra step into greatness. Whether these people started as everyday people or have always been known, they show others that a person’s background does not define how successful he or she can be, which can be anyone from actresses to astronauts to activists. 

     Jenna Ortega is an upcoming actress of Mexican and Puerto Rican descent. She gets her Mexican heritage from her father, a businessman, and her Puerto Rican heritage from her mother, a nurse. It was difficult for her to find a role as a child without acting experience. 

     Adding on to that, later in life she commented that casting directors rejected her often due to her “not having the look they were going for.” After persistence, she landed a small role in the sitcom “Rob.” Among the many films and TV series she has started, she also released a book in 2021 at the age of seventeen titled “It’s All Love: Reflections for Your Heart & Soul,” describing her life and career. 

     The novel also details the struggles of creating an acting career as a Latina in Hollywood. Ortega has been nominated for many awards and has won four. She is an inspiration to many young Latina girls, striving to represent the power of Hispanic women all around. 

     “Our skin tone doesn’t define what we can and can’t do. Young girls need to see this so that we can encourage them to embrace their intelligence and their differences,” Ortega shared in an interview with “Forbes.”

     Inspirational Latinas are not just restricted to Earth–they can also reach space. The First Latina woman to go to space, Ellen Ochoa, made a big impact on Hispanic people around the world. 

     Ochoa received her education at Stanford University with a master’s and doctorate in Electrical Engineering. Before her trip to space, Ochoa worked as a research engineer for Sandia National Laboratories and for the Ames Research Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 

     Ochoa was selected for the astronaut program by NASA in 1990. Her first mission was in 1993 when she was a Mission Specialist aboard the STS-56. Later in life, she was part of one of the first dockings to the International Space Station in 1999. Combining the four space missions she went on, Ochoa spent 40 whole days in space. 

     She then went on to become the director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, making her the second woman and the first person of Hispanic descent to hold the post. After retiring she became vice chair of the National Science Board and even received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Joe Biden in 2024. 

     Ochoa showed that no matter from where people come or what they look like, they can pursue their dreams. 

     Being a person of color in a world where most do not understand is hard enough, though some people may also be a part of communities who are in that same predicament. Sylvia Rivera, a civil rights activist for gay rights and transgender women, is Puerto Rican and Venezuelan. 

     Though she had a positive impact on the world, her life was not always just that. Rivera’s father left when she was a baby, and her mother died from suicide when she was only three, which left her grandmother to raise her–though the brutality does not end there. 

     Growing up she would try on girls’ clothing and put makeup on, which instigated beatings. With no hope left, Rivera ran away from home at the age of eleven to live on the streets of New York. While there she met a transgender activist, Marsha P. Johnson, who related to the struggles she was going through as a transgender person. 

     Rivera then participated in the infamous Stonewall Riots with Johnson, which was a series of fights between the police and gay rights activists in front of a gay bar called The Stonewall Inn. Though Rivera was involved in many of the gay rights groups, most of them were originally discriminatory against drag queens and ones of color in particular, which resulted in most transgender and genderfluid people being discouraged from participating in parades or other gay rights activist events. 

     People often say that they must fight for the right to be in the community, but in 1970, Rivera and Johnson founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, which focused on helping Transgender individuals, especially homeless ones. 

     Rivera, though struggling with her problems, always seemed to want what was best for her community, whether it wanted her or not. Today she is honored by her actions at the celebration of the Stonewall Riots. She paved the way not only for queer people but those of color. 

     Many students in the high school aslo have Hispanic heritage, whether their family is from Spain, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, or any of the Hispanic communities. 

     Holidays can be one of the most important things in a culture, involving traditions and bringing families together. 

     “As part of my culture, we celebrate Dia De Los Muertos or Dia De Los Reyes especially. It’s a very important day in Puerto Rico. I don’t know if it’s that day or the day after that there’s a huge celebration called ‘Children’s Day,’ and it’s to honor kids the same way that the three kings honored Jesus in the Bible,” junior Valentino Mueller-Figueroa shared. 

     Though most Hispanic people who live in America celebrate American holidays, they may also add their traditions and flairs to them. All holidays have traditions to them, though the celebration of them differs from each culture. 

     “We typically celebrate all of the holidays that are celebrated in the United States,” sophomore Mia Carmona said. “We might just have our traditions for that holiday.” 

     Holidays can also vary from culture to culture, not just between ethnicities. Student Annia Castillo was born in Columbia, where they celebrate a certain holiday in December. 

     “One of the biggest holidays we have is Siete de Velas or Seven of Candles. We celebrate it on December 7, and it’s like a Catholic celebration, and it is very important,” Castillo said. 

     Even though they can be seen as meaningless celebrations, holidays can be the most important part of the year. Feeling accepted and represented at school, not just by peers but by teachers, can change whether someone enjoys being there or not. There are so many things school faculty can do to make their school more diverse and friendly.

     “The whole Hispanic Heritage month that BTA does, that I participate in, is very nice. I loved having the film festival last year. It was just really nice seeing a lot of people interested in not only my culture but in other Latin American countries, too,” Carmona said. 

     Showing off Hispanic cultures can bring other ethnicities to become interested in learning more about the history of their fellow students. When a teacher takes the time to understand and show care to their students’ personal lives and culture, it can make the students feel more comfortable and safe in that environment. 

     “When I was in eighth grade, I told one of the Spanish teachers about the Seven of Candles, and she gave each of my teachers a candle that they put on their desk,” Castillo said. 

     Though pop culture has become more diverse and representative, there are still many things in the media that misrepresent cultures and ethnicities. 

     “Well we are for sure one of the most underrepresented populations,” Mueller-Figueroa stated, “especially in the United States. There’s not a lot of Hispanic anything unless you go to places where there are very heavily concentrated Hispanic people. Even then, like for example, in movies and TV shows, there are not a lot of Hispanics, and if there are they’re usually made to be more of a side character, and they’re very whitewashed, so it’s not entirely accurate.” 

     Misrepresentation can lead to false stereotypes about a group of people. Underrepresentation is even worse, burying culture in the media. 

     “I feel like every country deserves to be represented more, and I feel like we always see the bad things. Mexicans specifically just have a bad reputation here in the United States. I wouldn’t say that the way we are represented is accurate, though sometimes it can be true. I just wish that people would understand that not everything you see in the media is true,” Carmona said. 

     Discrimination not only happens online but can be expressed right to someone’s face. Mueller-Figueroa’s everyday life often is affected by others and their judgements.

     “Sometimes on the street, it’s not as common here in Ohio depending on where you go, but people will give me weird looks a lot, especially when I’m with my mom. Sometimes you feel singled out, and even though someone may not be trying to single you out, they still do,” Mueller-Figueroa stated.

     Maybe if a student does not necessarily look like they are from their ethnic group, but their parents do, they may not experience this hate unless they are with their parents. 

     “I feel like a lot of the times when I hear about it or experience it, it’s not mainly towards me. A lot of people tend to comment on my parents. My parents are immigrants, so they came from Mexico to the United States, so when I tell people that it’s a very sensitive topic, some people look at me, and they think badly of me, but I genuinely don’t think it’s a bad thing,” Carmona said. 

     The biggest thing people of smaller ethnic groups want is for others to just understand their culture. By understanding it, people can respect and appreciate the history and practices of others. 

     Carmona shared how she felt about acceptance in the world and her life: “Just understanding that we’re all kind of different but at the end of the day, we’re all just humans. Just celebrate our differences.”

Source: Stohion/Jennifer Ostlund

Ty Phillips / Staff Writer

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Not only should people stop yelling to stop miscommunication, but also, some hard-of-hearing people may have heightened sensitivity.  “We have longer hairs on our ears, making a lot of things overwhelming,” Sayre said. “Often when I have my hearing aids in I will be having a conversation with one person, and if I hear another conversation I will respond to that one.”  People often think being Deaf is a disability, but this is not the case for everyone. Some Deaf people see being deaf as a “gift” that allows them to connect to the world in other ways. Hearing people may think that just because a person is hard of hearing they can talk about that person.   “There is this girl in my class who would talk badly about me when I was standing directly next to her,” Sayre explained. “She assumed that I wouldn’t be able to hear her just because I wear hearing aids.” Being kind is something that people tend to forget when it comes to disabled people.