President Lyndon B. Johnson first introduced National Hispanic Heritage Week in 1968 and on August 17, 1988, Congress passed a law to extend it into a month-long holiday. It was created to recognize the positive impact that Hispanic Americans have left on the country. "Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15, by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America (Those include Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, and Venezuela)," according to the official government website.

While Hispanic and Latino are used interchangeably by many, Hispanic is a term used to describe someone from a Spanish-speaking country, while Latino, Latina, and Latinx are used to describe a person from Latin American origin. For example, a person from the Latin American country of Brazil may consider themselves Latino but not Hispanic, since Brazilians speak Portuguese and not Spanish.