Written by Vicky Mejia
Happy Hispanic Heritage Month from Goodman Theatre! This year we asked our staff to share their favorite Latine tradition and why they’re celebrating this month—and—throughout the year—is an important way to stay connected and proud.
Header by nambitomo from Getty Images.
Photo by Sergio Rodríguez on Unsplash
There’s not too much emphasis in my family to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, as that’s every day for us (haha)! But I do really enjoy the added visibility, and seeing other people enjoy and learn about our cultures.
In celebration of Mexican Independence Day, I usually try to make a dish with Poblano peppers. I can’t make Chiles Enogada yet (that’s pro-level Mexican cooking, lol), but that’s a pretty popular dish in Mexico during the month of September because it uses ingredients with colors of the flag (green peppers, white sauce, red pomegranate seeds).
Many Latin cultures really show off during Christmas, or other winter holidays like Three Kings Day or Las Octavitas (Puerto Rico). We really just love any excuse to eat and be surrounded by our families.
– Rebecca Cao Romero, Events and Rental Manager
Photo courtesy of Alberto Mendoza.
LA HORA LOCA (The crazy hour) is exactly what it sounds like! Any celebration that brings your family (blood or chosen) together, as the final stretch approaches, calls for an hour when everyone leaves it all out on the dance floor. It’s a reminder that time is fleeting, so there’s no better time than now to grab life’s streamers, cut loose, and go wild with your fullest heart while you still have it.
– Alberto Mendoza, Video Producer
Photo courtesy of Claudette Pryzgoda.
It really wasn’t until I moved to Chicago that I truly started celebrating Hispanic Heritage month to this degree, and even then, I really only celebrate Mexican Independence Day (which is why it was put in our internal Goodman scheduler). I live in Pilsen, so the rhythm of celebration is all around during this time of year for this holiday so it’s also easy to get swept up in the festivities.
So, it was Chicago’s Mexican community that really helped me lean into it, and I’ve enjoyed the sentimentality and reflection that it provides each year. It’s really cool to see how much more integrated into American culture Mexican culture and Latinx/e people are now. It’s nice to find community in a place that had such strong held narratives about who we were and are.
In that context, I love celebrating El Grito because it’s a nice commemoration of taking time, a day, to acknowledge who we are and where we come from, either by birth or by ancestral lineage. I’ve learned to love the many dimensions of who I am by loudly and comfortably putting a flag up, dancing to the cumbias, letting the imperfect Spanglish clumsily fall out of my mouth, and looking around and seeing the joy so many of my people have on this day. It can’t help but make you feel proud and privileged to able to honor and respect community in such Mexican ways. I love it. I love us. We’re loud, funny, and love living life. As many in Latinx/e communities say, soy de aquí y de allá.
– Claudette Pryzgoda, Production Office Coordinator
Photo courtesy of Raquel Torre.
Hispanic Heritage Month is a time for conversation and dialogue, both the fun ones (that involve a lot of our collective pride) and the more complicated ones (that involve a lot of unpacking history). Growing up in Puerto Rico, October 12th is celebrated as the “Día de la Raza” (the Day of Race) in which we celebrate our cultural and racial diversity. Latinoamérica is not a monolith, and that’s a beautiful thing.
– Raquel Torre, 2024/2025 Maggio Directing Fellow
Photo by Robby McCullough on Unsplash (top left). Photo courtesy of Vicky Mejia (right). Photo courtesy of Jacob Thomas on Unsplash (bottom left).
I enjoy connecting with my Mexican heritage not just on during Hispanic Heritage Month but the whole year! I like to collect trinkets and décor that represent the traditions and common icons of Mexico. For example, in my office display I have a mariachi skull, a cactus, and a pottery dish I got from a Latine artist in Chicago. Another way my family and I stay connected to our roots is through our stomachs a.k.a food! Two of our favorite dishes we like to make on special occasions (like the celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month) are corundas, which are corn masa tamales steamed in a banana leaf and covered with red salsa and pork. It takes a while to make, but it is a labor of love. Not to mention mole is also a dish that’s a melting pot of the ingredients and spices that influenced Mexican cooking. The mixture varies for each region and people embrace it in a way of making it their own. It’s not Latine if it’s not a little spicy! (just kidding).
– Vicky Mejia, Digital Marketing Associate
Vicky Mejia is the Digital Marketing Associate at Goodman Theatre
