ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Hispanic Heritage Month begins today and runs through Oct. 15, and the city has three events on the calendar, all in October.
The Hispanic Heritage Celebration Dance is Friday, Oct. 9, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Leonard "Chick" Armstrong Recreation Center, 25 W. Reed Ave., the former Cora Kelly Recreation Center. The community dance is open to all ages and includes music, refreshments and cultural displays. Admission is $5 and registration is required.
Two events follow on Saturday, Oct. 10, and both are free.
The Alexandria Library's Hispanic Heritage Fiesta runs from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. in the reading garden at Beatley Library, 5005 Duke St., with music, crafts, face painting and food. Live music comes from The Mystic Warriors, a group that performs Andean folk music on ancient flutes and panpipes alongside contemporary instruments, drawing on the traditions of the Quechua and Aymara peoples of Bolivia and other pre-Inca civilizations. No registration is needed, and the fiesta moves indoors if it rains.
The celebration at the Patrick Henry Recreation Center, 4653 Taney Ave., runs from 3 to 7 p.m. and closes out the month. The city says it will include food, local vendors, live music and games.
Why the month starts mid-September
Sept. 15 is the independence anniversary for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Mexico's follows Sept. 16, marking El Grito de Dolores, the 1810 call to arms that began its war for independence from Spain. Chile's is Sept. 18 and Belize's is Sept. 21.
The observance began as Hispanic Heritage Week in 1968, under legislation written by Rep. Edward R. Roybal, a Mexican American congressman from Los Angeles, and signed by President Lyndon Johnson. It was expanded to a month under President Ronald Reagan in 1988.
Hispanic residents are the country's largest racial or ethnic minority, more than 70 million people, or about a fifth of the U.S. population, according to the census.
The terms are not interchangeable. "Hispanic" is a federal label for people from Spanish-speaking cultures, including Spain. "Latino" reflects ties to Latin America and takes in countries such as Brazil, where the primary language is Portuguese. Some communities mark the month as Latino or Latinx Heritage Month for that reason.
In Alexandria
Alexandria's Hispanic and Latino population traces to countries across the Americas, with some families here for generations. Beginning in the 1980s, a large community from El Salvador settled in the Arlandria neighborhood now known as Chirilagua, named for a city in El Salvador.
The city published a cultural history of Arlandria-Chirilagua in 2021 and maintains a set of oral history videos from members of the Hispanic community. Both are on the city's Hispanic heritage page.
The neighborhood's name comes from its proximity to Arlington and from the Salvadoran municipality many residents came from. Alongside Spanish, Visit Alexandria notes, visitors may hear Mam, a Mayan language spoken in Guatemala and Mexico.
Visit Alexandria has also compiled a guide to Latino-owned businesses around the city, among them Veronica's Bakery, the Peruvian restaurant Huascarán in Arlandria, El Pulgarcito, Casa Rosada Artisan Gelato, Via Volcán coffee and White Lily Shoppe.
Event details are at alexandriava.gov/HispanicHeritage.
Ryan Belmore is an Alexandria resident and the founder and publisher of The Alexandria Brief. Send tips, feedback, and story ideas to ryan@alexandriabrief.com.
