09/15/2025
Today is the first day of Hispanic Heritage Month! 🌟
The University of New Mexico Health and Health Sciences is proud to celebrate and acknowledge Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15th to October 15th. Hispanic Heritage Month honors the cultures, achievements, and contributions of Latina/Latino/Latinx/Latine and Hispanic communities. It also serves as a time to reflect on issues affecting Hispanic and Latino communities and to honor their cultural heritages as they are interwoven into our nation’s history and its future.
Hispanic Heritage Month begins on September 15th, which is the anniversary of independence for several Latin American countries, including Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Additionally, the countries of Mexico, Chile, and Belize celebrate their independence days within the same week.
As of July 1, 2023, 65.2 million people in the U.S. ethnically identify as Hispanic or Latino, which makes communities of Hispanic or Latina/Latino/Latinx/Latine origin the largest ethnic minority in the country – 19.5% of the total U.S. population. To bring this point closer to home, our state of New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanics in the U.S., with almost 50% of the New Mexico population identifying as Hispanic.
