How to Teach Hispanic Heritage Month in Spanish Class
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Hispanic Heritage Month runs September 15 to October 15 — which means it starts during the second week of school, when teachers are still learning student names, setting routines, and trying to survive the back-to-school sprint. It’s the worst possible timing for a month that deserves real attention.
Most teachers know what happens next. September flies by. A bulletin board goes up. A music playlist gets shared. Then it’s October and the moment has passed.
The problem isn’t intention — it’s preparation. When the month arrives and you don’t have something ready, you default to what’s easy. What’s easy is surface level. What students deserve is something that actually connects them to the history, culture, and people behind the language they’re learning.
Art study is the answer to both problems. It’s fast to prepare, works at any level, and generates some of the richest student discussion of the entire year — because the artwork gives students something real to respond to. This post shows you how to use it.
What Hispanic Heritage Month Is — and What It Can Be
Hispanic Heritage Month was established to honor the histories, cultures, and contributions of Americans whose roots trace back to Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. September 15 is especially significant — it marks the independence days of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Mexico and Chile also celebrate their independence in September.
That context alone is a Spanish class lesson. Before any artwork goes up, students can map the Spanish-speaking world, connect independence dates to geography, and start building the cultural framework that makes the rest of the month meaningful.
The goal isn’t to cover Hispanic Heritage Month in a day. It’s to use the month as an entry point into the history, geography, and culture that lives inside the language students are learning — and to do it in a way that generates real Spanish production, not just cultural awareness.
Why Art Study Works for Hispanic Heritage Month
Most Hispanic Heritage Month activities are passive — students read a biography, watch a video, fill in a country map. These activities build knowledge but they don’t build language. Students consume information in English and produce very little Spanish.
Art study flips that. Students look at an artwork, react to it, discuss it, and form opinions — all in Spanish. The cultural content comes through the discussion rather than through a reading. Students don’t just learn about Diego Rivera’s murals — they argue about what the murals mean, who the figures represent, and what Rivera was trying to say about Mexico.
That’s the difference between cultural exposure and cultural engagement. Art study creates engagement. And engagement is what produces language.
Four Artists for Hispanic Heritage Month
These four artists cover a wide range of countries, time periods, and cultural contexts — each one generating a different kind of discussion.
Diego Rivera — Mexico
Rivera’s murals tell the story of the Mexican revolution and indigenous identity in visual language that every student can access. Display one section of a large mural and ask students what they see. The discussion builds quickly because there’s always more to notice. Rivera is also connected to Mexican independence — his murals were commissioned to build a new national identity after the revolution.
Best for: History, indigenous culture, Mexican identity, political art
→ Read the full post: Diego Rivera — Mexican Muralist
Frida Kahlo — Mexico
Kahlo’s self-portraits generate personal response more quickly than almost any other artwork. Students see a face looking directly at them and they react. Her work opens up discussion of identity, physical experience, cultural heritage, and what it means to make art out of personal pain. Kahlo is also one of the most searched artists in any Spanish class — students often already know her name.
Best for: Personal response, identity, Mexican culture, women’s voices
Fernando Botero — Colombia
Botero gives students a window into Colombian culture through humor and visual distinctiveness. His rounded figures generate immediate reaction — students laugh, lean in, and start talking before they’ve thought about the right words in Spanish. Botero also opens up discussion of Colombian society, Medellín, and the relationship between humor and social commentary in Latin American art.
Best for: Immediate engagement, Colombian culture, social commentary
→ Read the full post: Fernando Botero — Colombian Artist
Francisco Goya — Spain
Goya gives the month a Spanish perspective to balance the Latin American focus. His war paintings — especially The Third of May 1808 — are emotionally powerful and generate strong student reactions. Goya also opens up discussion of Spain’s role in Latin American history — the colonial period, independence movements, and the relationship between Spain and the Americas.
Best for: Spanish history, war, political art, connecting Spain to Latin America
A Simple Framework for the Month
Hispanic Heritage Month doesn’t need to be a separate unit. It can run alongside whatever curriculum you’re already teaching — one artwork per week, fifteen to thirty minutes of discussion per session.
- Week 1 — September 15:
Launch with geography. Map the Spanish-speaking world. Connect independence dates to countries. Introduce the month’s theme.
- Week 2:
First artist. Display one artwork, run a full discussion session using the five-step framework — look, observe, describe, interpret, respond.
- Week 3:
Second artist. Compare to the first. Ask students what’s similar, what’s different, what the two artists have in common and where they diverge.
- Week 4:
Third artist or student choice. Let students select the artwork they want to discuss. Student-selected content generates the most personal and authentic language production.
- October 15 — Close:
Ask students to reflect. Which artist resonated most? What did they learn about the Spanish-speaking world that they didn’t know before? That reflection — in Spanish, in writing or discussion — is the capstone of the month.
What to Do When You Have One Day
Not every teacher has a full month. Some have one class period, one sub day, or one Friday afternoon to mark the occasion. Here’s what works in a single session.
Display a Botero painting — Family or Mona Lisa, 12 Years Old both work well. Ask ¿Qué ves? Let the discussion build naturally. Then introduce two facts about Fernando Botero — his nationality, his city, his style. Ask students to connect the artwork to Colombia. Close with a personal response question: ¿Te gusta esta obra? ¿Por qué?
Thirty minutes. One artwork. Genuine cultural engagement. That’s enough.
Making It Sustainable Year After Year
The challenge with Hispanic Heritage Month isn’t doing it once — it’s building something you can return to every September without starting from scratch.
The key is building a small bank of go-to artworks and discussion sessions that you can pull out and run with minimal preparation. Once you’ve run a Botero session, you know how it works. Once you’ve run a Rivera session, you have a framework you can repeat. The discussion gets richer each year as you get more comfortable leading it.
Historia de Arte is built for exactly this. The discussion guides, vocabulary menus, interactive slides, and student notebooks are already prepared — for any artwork you choose, at any proficiency level. You run the session once, see how it works, and have everything ready to go again next September.
Keep Going →
→ Best Artists to Teach in Spanish Class — the full guide to seven artists and what each one unlocks → Teach Spanish Through Art — the complete hub for art study in Spanish class → Diego Rivera — Mexican Muralist — the complete artist overview for Spanish class