National Hispanic Heritage Month begins.

National Hispanic Heritage Month, which began as National Hispanic Heritage Week in 1968, celebrates the culture of U.S. citizens with roots in Spanish-speaking countries such as Spain, Mexico and many nations of Central and South America and the Caribbean. As of July 2004, people of Hispanic descent are the largest ethnic minority in the United States, comprising about fourteen percent of the total population. Sixty-five percent of the U.S.'s Hispanic population is of Mexican background. Hispanic Americans continue to make important contributions to the U.S. Among the many famous Hispanic Americans are labor leader Cesar Chavez, actor Antonio Banderas, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Luis Walter Alvarez, astronaut Carlos Noriega and baseball player Alex Rodriguez. As of 2004, there were over 38,500 Hispanic doctors and 53,400 Hispanic chief executives of businesses.

September 15th was chosen as the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month because it is the anniversary of independence for five Latin American countries—Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Mexico also declared its independence on September 16, and Chile on September 18. Events celebrating the culture and history of these countries, including festivals, films, dance, music and food are offered by organizations all over the country throughout the month.

Xpeditions
Xpeditions also offers three lessons about geotourism in Honduras: Geotourism: Honduras as a Working Model (9–12), Geo-friendly Travel: Destination Honduras (6–8) and Geotourism: Friendly Destinations (3–5).

Xpeditions offers maps of each of the Latin American countries that celebrate independence on this day:
Map of Costa Rica
Map of El Salvador
Map of Guatemala
Map of Honduras
Map of Nicaragua

EDSITEment
The EDSITEment Feature National Hispanic Heritage Month (K–12) provides information about National Hispanic Heritage Month, as well as related lesson plans and Web sites.

EconEdLink
One out of every two people added to the U.S. population between July 2003 and July 2004 were Hispanic. As the Hispanic population grows in the United States, more and more resources, such as ATMs, telephone help lines and signs in public places, are offered in both English and Spanish. The EconEdLink lesson Little Star's Problem (K–2) centers on an online story offered in both English and Spanish.