September 24, 2024 Sigrid Peterson
From September 15 to October 15, the United States officially celebrates Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month, an opportunity to celebrate the diverse contemporary experiences, identities, histories and contributions of Hispanic and Latino Americans and people living in the United States.
PBS Wisconsin invites you to explore these unique stories and celebrate with us. This celebration begins with understanding that the labels Hispanic and Latina/e/o/x cannot fully encompass people whose roots span an incredibly diverse and vast region, from what is now the Southwestern United States to the southernmost tip of South America.
This is why you will encounter people who identify themselves variously as Hispanic, Latino, or Latina (or Latino of any gender, Latinx), by country of origin (Mexico, Honduras, Chile, Nicaragua, etc.), and/or by one of the hundreds of indigenous cultures, and/or by any combination of individual ethnicities in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Hispanics and Latinos/o/a are the fastest growing population in the U.S. This September and October, PBS Wisconsin will feature broadcast and streaming premieres as well as programming and resources that celebrate the diverse Latino communities that enrich our state and country.
What’s New This Month on Broadcast and Streaming Platforms
Hispanic Heritage Award
The evening will celebrate the recipients of the 37th Annual Hispanic Heritage Awards. The evening will feature performances and appearances by Hispanic and Latino artists and visionaries. It will stream on Friday, September 27th.
Roberto Hernández: Working in La Comunidad
The latest in PBS Wisconsin Education’s ongoing Wisconsin Biography series is the story of Roberto Hernandez (1944-1994), a Latino civil rights activist and key figure in the broader struggle for racial and ethnic equality in Milwaukee.
As a Mexican American student at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the 1960s and 1970s, Hernández worked with a diverse group of Milwaukee activists on the educational and social needs of the city’s Latino population. They fought to expand WI-Milwaukee’s outreach resources to support Latino student success, expand bilingual education, and support the fight for fair housing and better employment conditions. Today, the Roberto Hernández Center at WI-Milwaukee continues the work he and his fellow activists began in southeastern Wisconsin.
Produced by PBS Wisconsin Education for use in the classroom (grades 3-6), Hernández’s new animated biography not only tells his story in both English and Spanish, but also comes with a suite of classroom learning resources, including discussion questions, a historical image gallery and a new Wisconsin Biography eBook.
Additional Programming
University Place
Our virtual lecture hall series includes several episodes that explore the past and present of Wisconsin’s Latino community.
In his lecture at University Place, Dr. Sergio Gonzalez, now an assistant professor of history at Marquette University, discusses how Mexican citizens and Texas-born Mexican Americans were recruited to work in Wisconsin’s agriculture, industry, and transportation industries in the mid-20th century as part of Mexican immigrant labor in Wisconsin. He also historically situates Milwaukee’s first Mexican community and explains how anti-immigrant and racist sentiment in the workplace and in neighborhoods gave rise to mutual aid and ethnic pride.
Latino Documentary in Wisconsin
Latino Wisconsin shines a spotlight on the state’s fastest growing population and documents the impact Latino Wisconsinites are making in their communities. They’re bringing vibrancy and growth to rural towns and urban centers, revitalizing struggling main streets, filling classrooms and developing a new generation of leaders for our state. Latino Wisconsin showcases the resilience of Latino Wisconsinites who have thrived despite decades of structural racism and anti-immigrant sentiment and emerged as a vital force reshaping the future of our entire state.
Adelante!
PBS Wisconsin is grateful to our partners at Milwaukee PBS for inviting us to stream their monthly series, “¡Adelante!”
Hosted in Spanish by Andrea Rivera de Vega and subtitled in English, the show amplifies the voices and celebrates the complexities of Latinos across Wisconsin. A recent episode featured an interview with Julia Arata Fratta, Mayor of Fitchburg, Wisconsin, who emigrated from Argentina and has lived in Fitchburg since 2004.
Recent episodes of “¡Adelante!”, in partnership with Marquette University’s Civic Dialogue Program, focus on new immigration policies and the upcoming election in November.
voice
In 2024, Latino Public Broadcasting launched a new season of VOCES on PBS. This acclaimed documentary series showcases emerging and established filmmakers and delves deep into current issues affecting Latinos. In “From Here, From There (De Aquí/De Allá),” VOCES profiles Luis Cortés Romero, the first undocumented attorney to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
PBS Wisconsin Food
Latin food is as diverse as the geography and ethnicity of the people who make it: This month, Beatriz Alvarez contributed a fantastic “ABC’s of Latin Food” to PBS, and PBS Food encourages you to use our recipe filter to find Caribbean, South American, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Salvadoran, Dominican, and Ecuadorian dishes you can make at home.
Decolonization Dinner
“Decolonizing Dinner” explores how reconnecting with traditional Indigenous food practices preserves traditions and identity and combats the historical and contemporary erasure of Indigenous culture. Featuring Chef Sujhey Beisser of Five Senses Palate, Chef Elena Terry of Wild Bearies and Chef Anthony Gallarday of Tavo’s Signature Cuisine.
Check out more Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month content from PBS Wisconsin and PBS Food at Wisconsin Life and Wisconsin Foodie.
Latin Sounds
PBS Wisconsin Education’s Re/sound: Songs of Wisconsin project, a partnership with the Wisconsin School Music Association (WSMA), invites students to develop connections between music, identity, culture and emotion. It includes video interviews with Wisconsin musicians, performances, audio files and an educator guide for use in English and music classes (grades 4-8).
On this edition of Re/sound, Wisconsin musicians Richard Hildner Almacanchi and Juan Tomás Martínez will showcase how they weave their experiences, travels and cultures together to create diverse music, performing “El niño que quiere jugar” (The Child Who Wants to Play), a song inspired by Richard’s experiences with his son and a child’s instinctive sense of play.
Both artists also appeared on an episode of PBS Wisconsin’s “30 Minutes of Music Hour” in 2018, performing with the Latin fusion ensemble “Golpe Tierra.”
Check out PBS Wisconsin’s Concerts on the Square: Viva Tiempo Libre and The Cavern Sessions: Ozomatli for more great Latin music from PBS Wisconsin.
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Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month is a reminder to work every day of the year to elevate these diverse voices and center them in our understanding of American culture, politics, art, history, and making. Find more Latino stories all year long across PBS platforms and the PBS Wisconsin Voices collection.
Latino PBS Wisconsin Voices Hispanic Heritage Month Latina Latino
