National Hispanic Heritage Month traditionally honors the cultures and contributions of both Hispanic and Latino Americans as we celebrate heritage rooted in all Latin American countries. During this month and throughout the year, the National Park Service and our partners, share history, heritage, and accomplishments of Hispanic and Latino Americans of past and present.
The Smithsonian Latino Center unlocks dynamic U.S. Latino stories that shape our national experience and identity. It empowers a greater understanding and deeper appreciation for the enduring contributions of Latinos to our country. It preserves a growing collection of diverse stories and experiences that reflect Latino presence in our history and culture, and convenes conversations, inclusively, about the stories and connections that continue to inspire generations to come.
Visit the website
Haykuykamuy! The Hispanic Reading Room at the Library of Congress welcomes you to Interconnecting Worlds: Weaving Community Narratives, Andean Histories & the Library's Collections. In this guide, with resources in English, Spanish and Quechua, we seek to facilitate research about Andean peoples, cultures, and knowledges through the themes of language, storytelling and literature, visual arts, and music.
Explore the Research Guide
We celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month to recognize the achievements and contributions of Hispanic American champions who have inspired others to achieve success. Discover documents, exhibits, films, blog posts and more from the National Archives and Presidential Libraries that highlight Hispanic culture.
Explore the site
Asked to serve their country in time of war, Hispanic Americans displayed courage and valor in the face of adversity. Familiar with discrimination back home, many saw their service as affirming the ideals of democracy. In this presentation, the Veterans History Project recounts their inspirational stories.
Read More about Hispanic American Veterans
100 Ways to Cross the Border
Post screening discussion with filmmaker Amber Bemak in person.
Celebrated Mexican/Chicanx performance artist Guillermo Gmez-Pea and his performance troupe La Pocha Nostra have spent their careers working with conceptual, social, and physical borders. With intimate access to the artist and his troupe, 100 Ways to Cross the Border unabashedly documents the impact of Gmez-Pea's work and his contributions to conversations on Latinx and Chicanx identity, politics, and border theory.
Alejandro Brittes Quartet, Masters of Chamam
Music from the board regions of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. The Alejandro Brittes Quartet from Brazil is an instrumental ensemble which performs contemporary renditions of chamam, traditional music from the border regions of Argentina and Brazil.
Live! at the Library: Danzn Class with Corazn Folklrico
In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, join a Danzn class taught by Prof. Manuel Cuellar (GW University) and Paulette Chavira, both members of the DC-based Corazn Folklrico dance group. This type of dance is accessible to all levels and ages and has recently seen a resurgence as a popular dance with younger generations in Mexico.
World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection by an international convention administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity".[1]
To be selected, a World Heritage Site is nominated by their host country and determined by the international committee to be a unique landmark which is geographically and historically identifiable, having a special cultural or physical significance, and be under a system of legal protection. For example, World Heritage Sites might be ancient ruins or historical structures, buildings, cities,[a] deserts, forests, islands, lakes, monuments, mountains or wilderness areas.[5][6]
A World Heritage Site may signify a remarkable accomplishment of humanity, and serve as evidence of our intellectual history on the planet or it might be a place of great natural beauty.[7] As of April 2024, a total of 1,199 World Heritage Sites (933 cultural, 227 natural and 39 mixed cultural and natural properties) exist across 168 countries. With 59 selected areas, Italy is the country with the most sites; this is followed by China with 57, and France and Germany with 52 each.[8]
The sites are intended for practical conservation for posterity, which otherwise would be subject to risk from human or animal trespassing, unmonitored, uncontrolled or unrestricted access, or threat from local administrative negligence. Sites are demarcated by UNESCO as protected zones.[1] The World Heritage Sites list is maintained by the international World Heritage Program administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 "states parties" that are elected by the United Nations General Assembly, and advised by reviews of international panels of experts in natural or cultural history, and education.[9]
The programme catalogues, names, and conserves sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common culture and heritage of humanity. The programme began with the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage,[10] which was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on 16 November 1972. Since then, 195 states have ratified the convention,[11] making it one of the most widely recognised international agreements and the world's most popular cultural programme.[12] To be considered, the properties must be under some form of state protection or conservation and be nominated by the host member country.
In 1954, the government of Egypt decided to build the new Aswan High Dam, whose resulting future reservoir would eventually inundate a large stretch of the Nile valley containing cultural treasures of ancient Egypt and ancient Nubia. In 1959, the governments of Egypt and Sudan requested the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to assist them to protect and rescue the endangered monuments and sites.
In 1960, the Director-General of UNESCO launched the International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia.[14] This International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia resulted in the excavation and recording of hundreds of sites, the recovery of thousands of objects, as well as the salvage and relocation to higher ground of several important temples. The most famous of these are the temple complexes of Abu Simbel and Philae. The campaign ended in 1980 and was considered a success. To thank countries which especially contributed to the campaign's success, Egypt donated four temples; the Temple of Dendur was moved to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Temple of Debod to the Parque del Oeste in Madrid, the Temple of Taffeh to the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden, and the Temple of Ellesyia to Museo Egizio in Turin.[15]
The project cost US$80 million (equivalent to $295.83 million in 2023), about $40 million of which was collected from 50 countries.[16] The project's success led to other safeguarding campaigns, such as saving Venice and its lagoon in Italy, the ruins of Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan, and the Borobodur Temple Compounds in Indonesia. Together with the International Council on Monuments and Sites, UNESCO then initiated a draft convention to protect cultural heritage.[16]
Based on the draft convention that UNESCO had initiated, a single text was eventually agreed upon by all parties, and the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on 16 November 1972.[17] The convention came into force on 17 December 1975. As of May 2023, it has been ratified by 195 states: 191 UN member states, 2 UN observer states, including the Holy See and the State of Palestine, and two states in free association with New Zealand, including the Cook Islands and Niue. Two UN member states, Liechtenstein and Nauru, have not ratified the convention.[11]
By assigning places as World Heritage Sites, UNESCO wants to help preserve them for future generations. Its motivation is that "heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today" and that both cultural and natural heritage are "irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration".[1] UNESCO's mission with respect to World Heritage consists of eight sub targets. These include encouraging the commitment of countries and local population to World Heritage conservation in various ways, providing emergency assistance for sites in danger, offering technical assistance and professional training, and supporting States Parties' public awareness-building activities.[1]
Being listed as a World Heritage Site can positively affect the site, its environment, and interactions between them. A listed site gains international recognition and legal protection, and can obtain funds from among others the World Heritage Fund to facilitate its conservation under certain conditions.[18] UNESCO reckons the restorations of the following four sites among its success stories: Angkor in Cambodia, the Old City of Dubrovnik in Croatia, the Wieliczka Salt Mine near Krakw in Poland, and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania.[19] Additionally, the local population around a site may benefit from significantly increased tourism revenue.[20] When there are significant interactions between people and the natural environment, these can be recognised as "cultural landscapes".[b]
Until 2004, there were six sets of criteria for cultural heritage and four for natural heritage. In 2005, UNESCO modified these and now has one set of ten criteria. Nominated sites must be of "outstanding universal value" and must meet at least one of the ten criteria.[7]
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