What Is Hispanic Heritage Month?

Hispanic Heritage Month (HHM) is a time to celebrate and learn about Latinx history. Array’s theme for HHM 2020 is “Ama a Tu Vecino,” which means “Love Your Neighbor.” (Array is the Black and Latinx Employee Resource Group [ERG] at PagerDuty.) The mission of Array is to enable a community of continuous learning that fosters empathy and understanding of the lived Black and LatinX experience. Array’s vision is to level the playing field for Black and Latinx employees by cultivating and celebrating a diverse and inclusive global work environment at PagerDuty so that we can continue to attract talent that represents our diverse customer base.

How Is PagerDuty Celebrating HHM This Year?

HHM starts September 15 and goes through October 15. While we know these dates are different from what we usually see for celebratory months (starting and ending in the middle of the months) there’s an importance behind them: many Latinx countries celebrate their independence from colonial rule throughout the five weeks between September 15 and October 15, starting with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua on September 15th.

Throughout the month, we will have different ways of learning about and interacting with the rich identities of the Latinx ethnicity. Each week will have a subtheme related to the idea of Ama a Tu Vecino (Love Your Neighbor), including Comida (Food), Lengua (Language), Familia (Family), Salud (Health), and Comunidad (Community). In the final week, we will come full circle with a celebration of all the ways that amamos a nuestros vecinos (we love our neighbors).

Throughout the month, we will host a variety of events and activities for employees, including:

• A virtual cooking class for a popular Mexican dish
• A guided conversation about the complex relationships some of our Latinx employees have with language and identity
• An employee-moderated panel about the differences between ethnicity, race, and nationality, and how they intersect with Latinidad
• A virtual art walk in conjunction with Pageable (an ERG for people with different abilities and their allies) that highlights Latinx artists with disabilities
• A fitness dance class to teach the basic steps of the Bachata

Here are some more details about how we’re celebrating.

Week 1: Comid: Our celebration kicks off with an ode to the vibrant traditions around Mexican food, which is famous for its bright, bold flavors and fresh ingredients. In this virtual cooking class, our employees will learn how to create three Mexican recipes. Our instructor will be Chef Mel, a former personal chef and caterer that​ specializes in creating healthy, natural, and organic meals.

Week 2: Lengua: Array will host a conversation with PagerDuty employees titled Como se dice…? This will be a moderated discussion around the relationships that many Latinx people have with language, culture, and identity.

Week 3: Familia: We will bring the company together to host a panel discussion featuring PagerDuty employees that represent the diverse experience in Latinidad. The title of the panel is Latinx Is Not A Race to bring light to the fact diverse experiences, races, and nationalities create the Latinx diaspora.

Week 4: Salud: Array will partner with PageAble, an ERG for people with different abilities and their allies, to take employees on a virtual “art walk” through different Latinx artists with disabilities who have used their media to create beautiful depictions of their intersectional identities.

Week 5: Comunidad: To finish out the month, we end with a celebration through movement and music by getting up from our desks and dancing! We’ve partnered with Inessence Dance Co. to take employees through a live and interactive Bachata dance class and will share a playlist of some of our favorite music by Latinx artists.

We are proud to take time to celebrate and bring light to the contributions of the identities, cultures, and experiences that make up Latinx diaspora in honor Hispanic Heritage Month 2020. As we build inclusive environments where all are welcome in tech whether in person or virtually, create experiences where employees feel they belong to these spaces they work, and give people an opportunity to build understanding for those different from them.

Keep an eye on our Instagram page for weekly profiles of Latinx PagerDuty employees sharing their stories as well as photos from events throughout the month!