News from around the web.
Go to Source
—

Hispanic Heritage Month begins on Sept. 15, the anniversary of the 1821 declaration of independence for the Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

September also is marks the independence days of Mexico (16th), Chile (18th) and Belize
(21st).

President Lyndon Johnson approved Hispanic Heritage Week in 1968. Twenty years later,
President Ronald Reagan expanded the observation to cover a 30-day period ending Oct.
15.

The month celebrates the long and important presence of people of Hispanic descent
in North America. The Spanish fortress of St. Augustine, Fla., founded in 1565, is
the first continuously inhabited European settlement in North America. The Spanish
explored the US Southwest in the 16th century and founded Santa Fe, NM, in 1610.

The website Our American History/La
Historia de Nuestra América relates the part the Spanish and Hispanic Americans
played in the American Revolution—a role I have to admit I’ve never learned much about.

You can research Hispanic roots with help from our Hispanic
Heritage Toolkit, which has articles including

• Spanish
  genealogy glossary
• Mexican
  research resources 
• tips
  for finding Mexican parish records
• Central
  and South American Archives

…and more.

In ShopFamilyTree.com, you can snap up our digital research guides to Mexican
roots and Spanish
and Portuguese roots.

If it’s language tips you need (maybe for reading records or visiting your ancestral
homeland), try our Everything Guides to learning
Spanish and learning Brazilian
Portuguese.