This article was initially published in 2020. It has since been updated.
Hispanic Heritage Month is a great time to learn more: For some, more about your own heritage, or for others, perhaps another culture.
The month runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 every year. The observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson, and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988, according to the Library of Congress.
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The month is intended to celebrate the histories, cultures and contributions of people whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.
We found the following photos in an archival Getty Images album called “Influential Hispanic-Americans.” Some are recent and some might provide a trip down memory lane.
Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957) sits in a hotel bed with a plate of Lucia cakes and a cup of coffee on her lap after winning the Nobel prize for literature in 1945. (Getty Images)
Dennis Chavez, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, who has been appointed to succeed the late Sen. Bronson Cutting as Senator from New Mexico, is pictured at his desk in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images)
Dr. Severo Ochoa is shown in his New York University Medical School Laboratory in 1959. In October of that year, it was announced that he and Professor Arthur Kornberg were joint recipients of the Nobel Prize for Medicine. Dr. Ochoa, of Forest Hills, Queens, NY, was born in Spain. (Getty Images)
Dr. Antonia Novello, nominated to be the new surgeon general, testifies before the Senate Labor and Resources Committee. When she went on to be confirmed, Novello, a pediatrician born in Puerto Rico, became the first woman and first Hispanic to serve in the post. (Getty Images)
Noted Mexican-American journalist Ruben Salazar (shown in undated file photo) was killed while covering a riot that broke out at the national Chicano Moratorium Antiwar Demonstration. Salazar was news director of KMEX-TV, a Los Angeles Spanish language TV station, and wrote a weekly column for the Los Angeles Times. (Getty Images)
A scene from the Broadway musical "West Side Story." Shown from left to right are Lynn Ross, an unnamed actress, Chita Rivera, and Carmen Guitterez. (Corbis via Getty Images)
