How to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month at Work & at Home in 2020

Like many things in 2020, celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month may look a little different this year. But being inside your house doesn’t have to be bland or boring. In fact, with a little imagination and my help, it can be quite the opposite!

Today we’re going to Travel & Feast our way through the gorgeous country of Mexico. So whether you’re home or anywhere in the world, let’s celebrate! Here’s a roundup of what to do, eat and watch to bring a taste of México to the comfort of your own home.

Today we are taking a virtual journey into the heart of Mexico. We’ll make stops in many parts of the country. From the city to the coast, villages, the wilderness and the desert. Along the way you’ll experience stories about the people, culture and customs.

Before we dive in, let’s orient ourselves to where we are in the world. Mexico is a country in southern North America, just south of the United States. It is one of the chief economic and political powers in Latin America. And, the country with the world’s largest Spanish-speaking population. Its official name is los Estados Unidos Mexicanos — the United Mexican States, which refers to Mexico’s 31 socially and physically diverse states.

Explore Art in the Big City

We start our journey through Mexico in the city. Here you will find huge metropolitan cities and the heart of Mexico’s vibrant art scene. Outside, you’ll see amazing street art and murals. Inside the museums you can enjoy incredible works from Frida Kahlo, Jose Clemente Orozco and Rufino Tamayo.

Many museums around the world are now viewable online. So you can see some amazing Mexican artwork right from your home. You can enjoy the great works of Dr. ATL, Gabriel Orozco and Diego Rivera up close and personal. So spend an hour or a whole weekend exploring these amazing houses of art and history.

The Palace of Fine Arts

The Palace of Fine Arts exhibits 17 mural works. Artists include: Diego Rivera, Manuel Rodríguez Lozano, Roberto Montenegro, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Rufino Tamayo and Jorge González Camarena.

Museum of Modern Art

The museum has 4 rooms and three galleries. Among its collection are pieces by artists such as Frida Kahlo, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Emir Jair, Roberto Montenegro, José Clemente Orozco, Louis Henri Jean Charlot, Juan Soriano, Juan O’Gorman, Diego Rivera, among others.

Museum of the Mayan Town

The museum exhibits monolithic pre-hispanic sculptures of Yucatan, Campeche and Quintana Roo. It also holds ceramic and architectural elements that tell the story of this town.

Museum of the Northern Cultures

This museum houses one of the most beautiful archaeological collections of ancient Mexico. This collection was recovered from the excavations of Paquimé. There are also items from the region known as the Great Chichimeca.

Templo Mayor Museum

An 8-room museum that exhibits objects from 110+ offerings discovered in temples. Templo Mayor, dedicated to the deities Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli, and two rooms feature .

Mexico’s National Museum of Anthropology

This museum houses archaeological pieces from all the peoples of Mesoamerica. The objects that form the collection are a testimony of the ethnic diversity of the country. The museum’s art and archaeological remains highlight various aspects of Mexico’s indigenous cultures.

Frida Kahlo Museum

A museum, known as the Blue House, dedicated to Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. It houses works by the artist herself and her personal art collection. There are also objects on display that Kahlo used in her day-to-day life.

Learn to Do a Mexican Grito

Another form of art that you’ll find on the streets of the city is music. While you may be familiar with folk songs and mariachi music, today we want to focus on one sound in particular. The Mexican grito. The grito is the distinctive emotional, joyous howl you hear in many mariachi songs. If you want to get in the spirit, try performing a Mexican grito for yourself. The grito is a way to express joy or sorrow in a single breath, and it just feels good.

Music is an integral part of Mexican culture. It is one of the intangible elements that immediately takes you from El Norte to Mexico. There’s nothing like walking through the street and listening to music pouring out of every shop. Hearing the music — hearing the accents — hearing the language, it all creates the atmosphere.

There are tens of different styles to choose from — folk to mariachi to corridos and pop. Mexican music spans all genres and includes such greats as Vicente Fernández, Juan Gabriel, Thalía, Luis Miguel and the Tejano star Selena.

Bring the vibe of Mexico home with this playlist:

Learn to Write in Mayan

Next, we are going to leave behind the city. We’re moving on to the coastal region. You may be familiar with Mexico’s coast for its beautiful beaches and vistas. But, today we’re diving deeper into what they offer.

As we travel past the resorts and deeper into the country we’ll encounter remnants of Mexico’s ancient past. Mayan ruins.

The Maya are a diverse group of indigenous people. They have lived in parts of present-day Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. And, contrary to popular belief, the Maya did not vanish. Their descendants still exist on the same lands their ancestors did. And they continue to practice the same rituals from thousands of years ago.

The ancient Maya had one of the most sophisticated and complex civilizations in the Western Hemisphere. They were also very good at record keeping. From calendars, to mathematics and writing books. However, many of these things were destroyed by European missionaries.

What we do know is that the Mayan writing was a logosyllabic system. That means it had both phonetic symbols that represent sounds (like English). And, it had logogram symbols that represent whole words (like hieroglyphics).

You can try your own hand at writing in this ancient writing form. Use this Mayan dictionary to look up the syllables for your name or a simple phrase and translate it into Mayan.

Check out a Mexican Film

Another perfect way to explore the shores of Mexico is through a good movie. Films are the perfect way to get immersed in the look, sounds and feel of a new place. Mexico has hundreds of great films to choose from. A wonderful one that brings the city and the coast into your home is Roma (available on Netflix).

Roma

The Oscar-winning film was directed by Alfonso Cuaron and brings to life the Mexico of his childhood. It follows the story of Cleo, a domestic worker who cares for a family with four children in 1970s Mexico City. The film is a window into domestic life set against Mexico’s political turmoil of the 1970s. You get to go on a journey with Cleo through the city, the countryside and the coasts while following a riveting story.

I hope you all enjoyed our trip to the coast. We’re going to head farther inland now to the villages, or pueblos. These villages include some of Mexico’s most historic and naturally beautiful places.

To experience the villages, we’ll continue with another film that highlights Mexican culture. This time it’s one the whole family can love and learn from — Disney’s Coco. It’s a beautiful film that focuses on the Mexican Día de Muertos, or Day of the Dead.

Coco

Young Miguel dreams of being a musician despite his family’s generations-old ban on music. After defying his family he finds himself in the stunning and colorful Land of the Dead. While it’s a fictional story, it offers an accurate portrayal of many parts of Mexican culture. From the importance of family, to the look and feel of the town, it’s true to life. The styles of music, artwork and customs like ofendas, marigold flowers and alebrijes are also pulled from real life.

Get Crafty With Your Own Papel Picado

If you’ve already seen the movie Coco you may recognize this next item that is a staple in Mexican villages: papel picado. These are intricate banners used to decorate for celebrations in Mexico. You’ll find them at quinciñeras, weddings, Día de Muertos and Independence Day.

Papel picado, or pecked paper is a decorative flourish and folk art that originated with the Aztecs. They would chisel important cultural images into the bark of trees and plants. You can transform your home or backyard into a tiny pueblo with this distinctive Mexican decoration. Plus, if you have kids, they will love helping make them!

Papel Picado

Supplies

• Tissue paper in a variety of colors
• Scissors
• Twine or string
• Clear tape
• Template (optional)

Directions

1. First, cut your tissue paper into letter size sheets.
2. Using 4 sheets at a time, fold the tissue paper and printed template according to the instructions. Assemble a ‘book’ with the template sheet as the cover.
3. Secure the top of your book with a little masking tape. This is to stop the tissue paper slipping when you are cutting out the shapes.
4. You’re now ready to start cutting out your papel picado! I prefer using scissors to do this as they’re easier to handle. Especially a little safer if you have any little helpers.
5. Like making paper snowflakes, carefully cut out all the shapes on the interior of the template. Folding again when necessary (as shown) to access the ‘interior’ shapes. Then follow the template guide to cut around the edges.
6. When you’ve finished cutting, remove the masking tape from the top. Flatten out your book and remove the template cover. Be careful when separating the sheets of tissue paper as they can be quite fragile.
7. Repeat this process with another 4 sheets of tissue paper and the next template sheet. Once you have made 3 or four sets of papeles, you are ready to create your garland!
8. Unroll a length of masking tape and lay it out on a flat surface with the sticky side facing up. Place the papeles face down on the tape in alternate colors. The tops of the papeles should only cover half of the width of the masking tape.
9. Next, fold the tape over to create your garland as shown. To keep things simple, we recommend sticking no more than 5 or 6 at a time. To make a long garland you can stick two lengths together with a little more masking tape.

Bring the Butterflies Home

Things are going to get a little bit more wild from here on out. We’re leaving behind the cities and towns and heading into the wilderness.

Mexico isn’t just cities, towns and barren deserts, it’s one of the most biodiverse areas in the world. Mexico is home to 10–12% of the world’s biodiversity. Mexico ranks first in biodiversity for reptiles with 707 known species. It ranks second in mammals with 438 species. And it is fourth in amphibians with 290 species, and fourth in flora, with 26,000 different species.

Many North American animals migrate to Mexico in the winter. If you live in the US, you can support animals that also call Mexico home by giving them safe havens here.

One of these animals are butterflies. Butterflies have experienced habitat loss because grasslands have been turned into crop fields. You can help by planting milkweed.

Milkweed is an essential plant for butterfly larvae, specifically Monarch butterflies. It is the only plant that the larvae will eat. And, fall is the perfect time to plant your milkweed to establish it before winter.

There are many varieties of these fragrant flowers to choose from. And they are a magnet not only for butterflies but other pollinators, like bees. Check out this page from the American Meadows to find out when, where and how to plant your milkweed.

Enjoy a Mexican Hot Chocolate

Tons of delicious things were introduced to the world by Mexico and Latin America. Chocolate, tomato, maize and corn, vanilla, avocado, guava, chayote, jícama and nopal, to name a few.

We’ve come this far and haven’t talked about one of the things many of us know and love Mexico for — its delicious food. So today I’d love to highlight a dish you can make at home to bring the flavors of Mexico to your kitchen.

Mexican Hot Chocolate

Ingredients

• 2 bars of Mexican drinking chocolate (Abuelita by Nestlé or Ibarra)
• 1 liter of milk or water
• 4 cinnamon sticks for garnish

Preparation

1. Pour your milk of water into a tall narrow pot over very low heat.
2. Add 2 bars of chocolate (approximately 6 ounces).
3. When the chocolate starts to dissolve gently move it with a molinillo or whisk until it fully dissolves, about 20 minutes.
4. Once all of the chocolate has fully dissolved, vigorously froth the drink with the molinillo or whisk for 10 minutes to develop a frothy creamy texture. You can also use a blender or immersion blender to froth the beverage.

Try a Tequila Cocktail

Our final stop on our tour is in the deserts of Mexico. Out here in the wild we meet two more wonderful Mexican ingredients.

A trip to Mexico isn’t complete without tequila. True tequila must come from the area surrounding the city of Tequila, Mexico and is made only from the blue agave plant. Its cousin, mescal comes from many varieties of agave.

Tequila can be enjoyed in many ways, from sipping it neat to wonderful cocktails. While lot of people dash to margaritas when they hear tequila, today I want to share a beverage that is truly the cocktail of the Mexican people — the paloma. The paloma, which means “dove” in Spanish, is popular all across Mexico and is also damn delicious.

Paloma

Ingredients

• 2 oz. tequila
• 1/2 oz. lime juice
• Salt
• Ice
• Grapefruit or lime wedge
• 4 oz. grapefruit soda (ex. Jarritos, Squirt or Fresca)

Directions

1. If you’d like a salt rim, pour the salt into a small dish. Moisten the rim of a tall glass with a grapefruit or lime wedge. Invert the glass into the salt, turning it as needed, to coat the rim.
2. Fill the glass with ice. Pour in the tequila and lime juice, and stir to combine. Top with the grapefruit soda, stir, and garnish with the grapefruit or lime wedge.

Bite into a Cactus

The other ingredient from the arid lands of Mexico is nopal, or prickly pear. There are many varieties of nopal that are eaten in Mexico. Today, I want to share one with you that you can enjoy right here at home.

Nopal is known for having all sorts of health benefits and for being super tasty. They can be enjoyed cooked or fresh. To select one, look for cleaned paddles at a local Hispanic grocery store.

An easy preparation to try nopales is a smoothie. Dice up the nopales and mix it with your favorite fruit, frozen pineapple, banana, or avocado. Then mix in fresh orange juice, lime juice or milk.

Pineapple & Nopal Smoothie

Ingredients

• ½ cup nopales, spines removed, cleaned, and diced
• 1 cup frozen pineapple
• ½ cup fresh squeezed orange juice
• ¼ cup water

Directions

1. Place all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
2. Serve right away!

Want more tasty adventures like this to places around the world? Join me in Travel & Feast!