National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed in the United States from September 15th to October 15th each year. Starting in 1968 from a law signed by President Lyndon Johnson, it was originally observed for one week. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the month-long observance into law. This commemorative month recognizes the contributions and influence of Hispanic Americans to history, culture, art, and other achievements of the United States.
The starting date was selected to celebrate the five Hispanic countries that declared independence on September 15, 1821: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
Here are 7 ways you can celebrate this month with your family:
1. Art and Essay contest:
(Deadline September 24)
The Governor Ron DeSantis’ and First Lady Casey DeSantis’ Hispanic Heritage Month Art and Essay Contest’s 2025 theme is “Celebrating Florida’s Hispanic Heritage.”
The Hispanic Heritage Month essay contest is open to all students attending any Florida school in grades 4-12. Six winners will be selected: two elementary school students (grades 4-5), two middle school students (grades 6-8), and two high school students (grades 9-12). Each winner will receive a 2-year Florida College Plan scholarship provided by the Florida Prepaid College Foundation and a $100 gift card for school supplies.
Contestants must be Florida residents, attend school in Florida in grades 4-12 (including public, charter, private, home or virtual) and able to provide a Social Security Number. Each student may enter only one essay, written in English, no longer than 500 words.
There are many examples throughout our state’s history of Hispanic Heritage. Using your own words, write about a Hispanic Floridian who has had an impactful effect whose story should be shared. The subject of the essay should be a Floridian.
Click here for more information on how to enter.
2. Épocas de Mi Pueblo: Celebrating Community Heritage
September 27, 2025 | 10:00 am-1:00 pm. Join us for Épocas de Mi Pueblo: Celebrating Community Heritage at the Immokalee Pioneer Museum at Roberts Ranch! Enjoy a day filled with: Crafting & Bounce House Fun, Live Entertainment, Traditional Ribbon Hair Braiding, Decorate Your Paiz themed trunk, Free samples from Cultivate Abundance, and more! This event is FREE!
Limited spots available for Decorate Your Paiz—call (239) 252-2611 to reserve.
Come celebrate culture, community, and family fun!
3. Discover Florida Hispanic Heritage Facts
Click here for a timeline of Hispanic history, contributions, and influence in Florida.
4. Día de los Muertos at Marco Island Historical Museum
October 4, 2025 | 10:00 am-1:00 pm. Diá de los Muertos is a Central American tradition honoring ancestors. It occurs very close to Halloween but holds very different meanings and traditions. Come learn how to decorate calaveras (skulls), create offrendas (alters), and learn more about this tradition that is important to many indigenous American cultures.
This event is free and open to all ages. It is part of the Honrando Nuestra Historia series of events.
5. Marco Island Center for the Arts “Day of the Dead” Grass Wall
October 13, 2025 to November 14, 2025. This outdoor installation in the Art Center courtyard is part of ¡Arte Viva!
6. The Baker Museum at Artis—Naples
October 25, 2025 to February 8. 2025. With works that exuded cool elegance and sensuality, Tamara de Lempicka (1894-1980) helped define Art Deco. Capturing the glamour and vitality of 1920s postwar Paris and the cosmopolitan sheen of Hollywood celebrity, Tamara de Lempicka infused her paintings with a brilliant sense of fashion, design and the theatrical. This exhibition explores the artist’s distinctive style and unconventional life as she rose to the pinnacle of café society.
7. Aztec Dancers, A Living Tradition Exhibition at Immokalee Museum
October 28, 2025 to November 1, 2025 | 9:00 am-4:00 pm. Aztec Dancers is a photo exhibition by local photographer Lisette Morales, celebrating Danza Azteca Guadalupana as practiced in Southwest Florida. Documenting a year and a half of devotion, the series centers the Navarro family’s twenty-four year commitment to this sacred, syncretic tradition, presented each year from Día de los Muertos through Three Kings Day. Morales’s images honor the spiritual power, cultural resilience, and collective joy of Indigenous and migrant communities sustaining this vibrant ceremonial practice across generations and geographies.