The United States opens on Monday the celebrations of the “national month of Hispanic inheritance” in a 2025 marked by migratory raids, which have hit this community strongly and feed the perception that Latinos have ceased to be seen as an essential part of the country.
The «month of Hispanic inheritance is commemorated from September 15 to October 15 to recognize the contributions and influence of American, Latin Americans and Latinos in the history, culture and achievements of the USA, UU.
According to the Census Office, the population of Hispanic origin in the United States exceeded 65.2 million people as of July 1, 2023, which makes it the largest ethnic minority in the country.
“We are going through one of the most difficult times for Hispanics in this country,” says Nicolás Kanellos, professor at the University of Houston. “We can say that in general all Hispanics in the United States, citizens or are not afraid of being arrested in a public place,” adds the professor in an interview with Efe.
The academic speaks from his own experience. He confesses that he is afraid that he or his son can be questioned only by the color of his skin in the streets of Texas, whose republican government has become one of the main allies of the administration of Donald Trump and his anti -immigrant policies.
He says that his son has already been the target of unjustified and racial discrimination based on the authorities of that state. “Now it is much more dangerous to be Latin than in the previous years,” values the teacher born in New York from Puerto Rican roots.
When comparing Trump’s immigration policy with those of past decades, Kanellos states that the current operations are “many more intense and dangerous” than those that occurred in the depression of 1929 or the operation ‘wet back “in the fifties, which aimed at Hispanics.
“What distinguishes and makes this era more dangerous are the methods that have been adopted because they identify with fascist regimes, such as using masked government agents, which take people in unmarked vehicles and immigrants are practically kidnapped,” says the professor.
In that sense, Janet Murguía, president of Unidosus, the largest national organization of the Hispanic community in the United States, says that it is lived in an era where the basic civil rights “of all, not only Hispanic”, are at risk. “That decreases confidence in our institutions and democracy,” the activist told Efe.
The economic and electoral impact
For Raúl Hinojosa, professor of Chicanos Studies at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), the celebration of the month of Hispanic inheritance will also be watered due to the economic impact that this community is suffering from Trump’s immigration policy.
The expert expects the growth of Latin GDP that had been registering in the United States will stop. A recent report by UCLA and Cal Lutheran found that this value in the case of Latinos in the country reached a historical record in 2023 with 4.1 billion dollars, positioning that year as the fifth largest in the world compared to other economies and surpassing India, the United Kingdom and France.
“Hardly in 2025 we will support this rhythm, which also affects the total economy of the country,” says Hinojosa.
To the difficult panorama is added the elimination of the Spanish language of government platforms, Nicolás Kanelos, founder of Public Press, which after almost five decades of operation has become the largest and largest Latin literature editorial in the country.
The professor blames these decisions to the “whitening” strategy of American society.
The list of challenges also counts the redistribution of congressional districts promoted by the Trump government, and that in the case of Texas, will affect Latin communities greatly, according to several demands filed against the law of that recently approved state.
However, Kanellos ensures that the history of Hispanics is longer in “these lands” than even that of the colonists founded by the United States. “They cannot erase our history from a pit, that is impossible.”
For his part, Murguía sends a message to continue the fight and claim the contributions of this community.
“We are not going to stay from crossed hands while they take away rights, we will not be silent … facing the future, we know that when our community thrives, the entire nation thrives,” he said.
