Honoring Latinx pride while holding the pain of now
A time meant to celebrate our culture, our ancestors, our languages, and our joy.
And yet… it’s hard to fully feel it this year. The country and the world feel like it’s going to shit for some of us. Between school shootings, ICE raids and deportation, banned books, attacks on education, and attacks on trans folks…It’s a fucking-lot! And to make it worse, some of us are processing the fact that some of our family and loved ones are on the other side, having voted for this to happen and maybe even cheering it on.
It’s Hispanic Heritage Month.
And if you’ve been feeling like: “How can I celebrate when so many of us are hurting?”, you’re not alone. I’m feeling it too. The heaviness, the anger, the guilt, the dissonance.
But I constantly remind myself this:
Celebrating our culture doesn’t mean ignoring what’s happening.It means remembering who we are, especially when the world wants us to forget.
Pride Is Resistance
To honor our culture in the face of injustice is resistance.
To speak Spanish or Spanglish out loud in a room that expects silence is resistance.
To laugh, dance, eat, create, and show up fully as you are is resistance.
We don’t celebrate because everything is perfect.
We celebrate because we refuse to let oppression erase our joy, our voices, or our traditions.
So How Do We Hold Both?
Here are some steps I return to when I feel caught between pride and pain:
1. Honor Your Feelings First
You don’t have to “just be grateful.”
You don’t have to “stay positive.”
Let yourself grieve, rage, and rest. Pride doesn’t require perfection. It requires presence.
Reflection prompt:
What’s weighing heavy on me right now? What do I need to name or release?
2. Celebrate What Feeds Your Spirit
Culture isn’t a performance, it’s lived, daily.
You can:
- Cook your family recipes
- Blast música that moves you (Your girl likes Snow Tha Product AND some Chente)
- Tell your children family stories
- Reclaim your language, whatever that means to you
- Spend time with your chosen comunidad
These are acts of pride. Small doesn’t mean insignificant.
3. Tell the Full Story
Our culture is not just trauma. But it’s not just joy either.
We hold both.
You can talk about how your family has survived and also name how that survival came at a cost.
You can love your roots and critique the parts that harmed you. You are not betraying anyone by doing this!
Celebration is deeper when it’s honest.
4. Take One Action Toward Justice
Celebration can also look like:
- Donating to mutual aid supporting immigrant families
- Sharing mental health resources with your community
- Calling your representatives (I know, I know)
- Supporting Latinx authors and artists
- Hosting or joining community healing circles
- Asking your employer how they’re protecting your undocumented or queer coworkers
It doesn’t have to be big. Just meaningful.
5. Make Room for Collective Joy
Joy is a collective practice. It grows when it’s shared.
So dance with your kids and your friends
Cry with your comadres.
Plan a potluck (and invite me)
Tell stories…La Llorona season is coming up.
Light a candle for those who can’t be here and laugh in their honor.
We weren’t meant to carry all of this alone.
Final Thoughts
You don’t have to choose between anger and joy, and you don’t have to justify your sadness or your pride.
This Hispanic Heritage Month, let’s stop pretending everything’s okay, and still find ways to honor our cultura, our resilience, and our right to thrive.
Because even in the heaviness, our joy is sacred. Our stories are power. Our pride is medicine.
If this resonates with you, I invite you to subscribe to this blog for more reflections, mental health tools, and updates on offerings rooted in cultura and collective care. I’m on Instagram, too!
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