By Tabitha Bozeman
During National Hispanic Heritage Month 2026, which takes place from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, I have questions flooding my mind.
Most importantly: Who are we? As humans, I mean? As members of this community?
I have read so much literature through the years and so many times have thought about how lucky I am to have been born when and where and who I am — all things I have had zero control over or say in.
Literature has been one way for me to measure and grasp the changes and progress society has made. But more and more frequently, I have begun feeling like there have been fewer “Look how far we’ve come” moments and far too many “What on earth is happening?” moments.
This is when I try to not only, as Mister Rogers reminded us, look for the helpers, but to be a helper.
When I cannot fathom what someone else is experiencing, I think about Maya Angelou saying, “Each one of us has lived through some devastation, some loneliness, some weather superstorm or spiritual superstorm, when we look at each other we must say, I understand. I understand how you feel because I have been there myself. We must support each other and empathize with each other because each of us is more alike than we are unalike.”
Each of us is more alike than we are unalike.
We each need the same basic things to survive, and we each want the same basic things to thrive. But, somehow, there is always someone willing and able to do their best to create division because it suits their end goals.
There are always those who are easily led into turning a blind eye to injustice. There are those who are all too willing to pretend nothing is happening to anyone else, as long as it isn’t happening to them.
I often wonder how seemingly good, kind, loving and even religious people can be so callous, justifying horrific things as long as they aren’t the ones experiencing them.
I think Kurt Vonnegut Jr. nailed it when he said, “Be warned: If you allow yourself to see dignity in someone, you have doomed yourself to wanting to understand and help whoever it is.”
If we refuse to see and accept the human dignity of another human, or of another group, it is easy to feel nothing when they are treated poorly.
For those who truly believe in the words of Jesus, there are specific instructions as to how we are to respond in the situations we see happening every day.
Jesus very clearly states, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12); he commanded, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and ranked it as second in importance only to loving God (Matthew 22:39); Jesus also told his followers to “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,” showing that human dignity and how we treat others should not depend on how a person treats you, or how they enter the country, or how much money they make, or what language they speak, or the color of their skin.
When students disappear from the classroom because they or someone they love was picked up based solely on their accent or their skin, regardless that they are here legally, and I hear people make excuses, shrug it off, quote the Old Testament and generally feel superior because of their own nationality, I am mortified and saddened and disappointed.
Just because it hasn’t happened to the group you belong to does not guarantee that it never will.
It just hasn’t yet.
Happy National Hispanic Heritage Month.
May each of us remember we had absolutely no choice in where or when or who we were born — especially this month as we enjoy our cheese dip and tacos.
May our hearts and minds do better, regardless of our reading habits, belief structures or documentation status.
May we each remember that “We are one people, one family, the human family, and what affects one of us affects us all” (John Lewis).
After all, “There is nothing harder than the softness of indifference” (Juan Montalvo).
