Annotations for People: Delgado-jane

It diminishes us. I believe that the contributions that we have to make and the ideas and the thoughts that we have to share have validity throughout the entire year.

Well, Maria, the reason I oppose the commemoration of this one month is because I think that it does a disservice to us Latinos. What it does is that it relegates us to this one month beginning in September and concluding in mid-October. And somehow the sense that I get is that that is the only time when people are interested in becoming acquainted with our art, our culture, hearing our diverse opinions on any number of things, whether it's in the social sciences, in the natural sciences, in education and in history. And I think what it does is it diminishes us. I believe that the contributions that we have to make and the ideas and the thoughts that we have to share have validity throughout the entire year.

Well, this was originally set up by the federal government and when it first began, it was a week and then it expanded to two weeks, and now we have a month. Subsequently, a lot of states follow suits and a lot of municipalities and about that point in time, the private sector joined in. I think it came on the heels of what had already been the observation of the Black History month in February and the sense that with the growing Latino population in the United States, we had to have a month for them too. And of course, now you know that we also have a month for the Asians and we have the month for women and so on and so forth. So it started out as a government thing and it's been quickly picked up by the private sector. It's interesting to note that the private sector spends a considerable amount of resources in commemoration of Hispanic Heritage Month. If those same corporations and industries were to take the monies that they spend bringing light to everything that they do for Latinos and how much they appreciate the Latino workforce and participation and gave those resources to a lot of our community-based organizations, non-for-profit organizations that are toiling day in and day out with the various issues that confront our community, that the contribution would be greater and that we would be better off.

I don't think it touches everyone. I think that, for example, with the corporate sector, they want to have the participation obviously of their employees, the individuals that they perceive to be significant members of the Latino community so that basically it's for the working class, the professional class, the up and coming mobile group that are the beneficiaries of these celebrations.

If I felt that this commemoration made a quantifiable difference in the status, even of those limited few that get to participate, meaning that if I thought it helped them in advance in their positions to be able to move ahead in whatever ways were important to them as a result, perhaps I would feel differently. But the quick and dirty samples and surveys that have been conducted demonstrate that ever since we've had the Hispanic Heritage Month, we really have not been able to measure any quantifiable leaps or advances for our people. And so it just seems as though here again, we are sort of easing others and making others feel good about the ostensible tribute that they're paying to our community. But if it doesn't amount to advancement and new opportunities for our people, then what's the use?

Si, como no, buen día Maria.