¡Hola! Celebrate National Hispanic
Heritage Month in Philadelphia!
Mexican flag raising, City Hall, 2015. Photo Credit: Al-Día News.
Philadelphians can celebrate our city’s Latinx heritage all year long as one of our great city’s many global heritages! We also note special events which will occur during National Hispanic Heritage Month in Philadelphia, September 15th - October 15th, 2021, to mark this heritage.
Why celebrate this month? The city of Philadelphia recently raised the flag of Mexico on September 15th at City Hall, to commemorate the beginning of this country’s independence movement against the Spanish colonial government on September 16th, 1810.
What about the words “Hispanic,” “Latino,” “Latina,” and “Latinx”? What’s the difference? “Hispanic” generally covers people who connect their heritage to countries where Spanish is spoken, while “Latino” (male) and “Latina” (female), and the newer fully inclusive-term “Latinx” all refer to people whose heritage originates anywhere in Latin America.
In 2018, Miguel Antonio Horn, a Philadelphia sculptor, spoke with GPA’s Will Becker about his education and career in a rich global and local context. He has exhibited his large-format sculptures around Philadelphia, as well as Canada and Mexico. After completing his apprenticeship with Javier Marin in Mexico City, Horn returned to Philadelphia so that he could “reconnect with the local community.”
Mural Arts Philadelphia (MAP) has partnered with many organizations to bring understanding through visuals arts projects focused on Latinx history, life, and culture throughout our city. One example is the Latinx Heroes mural (2017) at Julia de Burgos Elementary School in the Fairhill neighborhood which shows Latinx community leaders. Another MAP program has been The Trust Project which includes a visual display of a poem created from Harrowgate and Kensington residents’ ideas and memories.