Hispanic Heritage Month OP-ED: ‘We Are Americans, Like Our Continent’
Photo courtesy of Stateside Affairs
OP-ED
BY DR. PATRICIA CAMPOS-MEDINA
I just returned from a trip to Mexico City, Mexico where I was leading a team of investigators and labor leaders on a series of roundtable discussions and strategies on the future of the U.S.-Mexico Free Trade Agreement.
I arrived in Mexico City during the 700-year anniversary of the founding of the capital of the Mexican Empire, Mexico City. It was a weekend of cultural celebrations, music and dance on the old plaza of the national cathedral, a massive, impressive place reminiscent of the great plazas of Rome and Madrid.
I was excited my sons got to experience this beautiful celebration of the thousands of years of Mexican culture; an amazing history of a people who built magnificent pyramids and invented the calendar we still use today.
We toured the old city of Teotihuacan and visited the Mexico National Museum of Anthropology, a museum that contains significant archeological and anthropological artifacts from Mexico’s pre-Columbian heritage.
During both tours we learned that the Mexican empire at its peak, expanded from north America (Utah and Nevada) all the way to the eastern part of El Salvador where I was born, San Miguel. The name of “mi pueblo,” Chirilagua, translates into “The River of Three Stars” in ancient Nahuat, a Mayan language spoken in that part of El Salvador until the turn of the century.
About five years ago I did my DNA test, and it told me a bit about my own history; my descendants came from the Mayan tribes of Central America (the Pipil, the Lencas, the Olmecas) who mixed with European colonizers from Southern Spain, who also had traits of blood from North Africa. As I walked the streets of Mexico City, I could identify with the culture of Mexico; with the food, with the traditions, the music and the idioms.
Salvadoran culture and Mexican culture are similar because we came from the same people, the Mayan people.
As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, let’s remember to celebrate what unite us, what connect us; our culture, our food and our traditions.
But most importantly, let’s remember that despite of where we were born, or weather our ancestors came from Spain generations ago, or we are descendants of African slaves, we now reside in the United States of American, and we believe in this country’s democratic values and in its promise of opportunity for all.
Despite of where we were born, South America or the islands of the Caribbean like Puerto Rico or Dominican Republic, or we were born right here in New Jersey or Texas, we all have the same dreams for our families and children. We want them to succeed and to thrive in our local communities, state and country.
The U.S. is our country; we have set roots here by building our lives, our businesses and our dreams and by giving back to our communities by voting and by belonging in neighborhoods.
We are not strangers on this land. We are all connected by our love of country, our cultural heritage of the native people who for thousands of years lived in the American continent. As as the songwriter Jonathan Acosta states, “We are Americans, like our continent.”
Feliz Mes de la Herencia Hispana.
NOTE: Dr. Patricia Campos-Medina is a labor and political leader. Follow her on social media @DrCamposMedina
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