September 15 kicks off Hispanic Heritage Month, running through October 15. If you’ve ever wondered why it starts mid-month instead of the first, there’s a real reason behind it. September 15 is the independence day for five countries at once, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Mexico’s independence day follows on the 16th, Chile’s on the 18th, and Belize rounds it out on the 21st. The whole month grew out of a week-long observance signed into law back in 1968, then expanded to a full 30 days in 1988.
You don’t have to trace your own roots to Latin America or Spain to have a reason to celebrate this cultural heritage month. Hispanic and Latino culture runs through Bryan-College Station in ways that are easy to take for granted; in the food, the music, the neighbors, the businesses that have been here for generations. Taking a month to slow down and actually notice that is worth doing, whatever your own background.
Locally, there’s real substance behind it too. The Hispanic Forum of Bryan-College Station has quietly become one of the more impactful organizations in town, awarding more than $175,000 in scholarships to local graduating seniors just last year. That’s real money sending real kids from this area to college, and it happens every summer without much fanfare.
This year, there’s plenty on the calendar if you want to actually get out and celebrate. Just a heads up, there are two separate community groups both hosting events, so double check which one you’re headed to:
Fiestas Mexicanas of B/CS kicks things off with a Cultural Event on Friday, September 4, 5 to 8pm at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Conference Center on the TAMU campus. Their Festival & Parade follows Sunday, September 6, noon to 9pm, in Historic Downtown Bryan.
BCS Fiestas Patrias, a separate organization, opens with Camino a Fiestas Patrias on Friday, September 4, 6 to 9:30pm at 105 S Main St. Their Parade and Festival land the following Sunday, September 13, with the parade running 11am to 1pm and the festival continuing 1 to 9pm, also in Historic Downtown Bryan.
Two Fridays, two Sundays, two downtown celebrations. If you’re the type who likes a good parade, you could genuinely catch both.
Want to go deeper on the history side? The Texas Education Agency keeps a solid page of Hispanic Heritage Month resources, covering everything from the Handbook of Tejano History to Texas Historical Commission materials on how Hispanic heritage shaped the state we’re all living in today.
However you spend the month, whether that’s dancing at a parade, digging into some Tejano history, or just trying a local taco spot downtown, we hope you’ll rest your shells with us while you’re in town for it.