From September 15 – October 15, the United States officially celebrates and highlights the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. President Lyndon Johnson started this observation in 1968 with Hispanic Heritage Week and President Ronald Reagan officially expanded it into a month-long celebration in 1988. These dates were selected to align with several Central American countries’ independence days.
“Hispanic” is a term that refers to the people and cultures related to Spain and the Spanish language. From the 15th to 19th centuries, the Spanish Empire established colonies in Africa, North and South America, Oceania, and Asia. Spanish culture intersected with a vast array of indigenous languages and heritage, meaning that there is incredible diversity within modern Hispanic culture. Many of these former Spanish colonies are currently or were formerly part of the United States, such as the American Southwest, Florida, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. Some of America’s oldest continuously inhabited cities, such as San Juan and St. Augustine, were originally Spanish settlements. This influence is seen in architecture and building trades throughout the United States.
In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, The Campaign wants to promote organizations and programs working to preserve Hispanic heritage. We encourage you to learn more about these organizations, engage with their programming, and support their work!
Did we miss any? Let us know! We will add them to our resource lists.
Latinos in Heritage Conservation
Founded in 2014, Latinos in Heritage Conservation is the leading non-profit organization for the preservation of Latinx places, stories, and cultural heritage in the United States. They are a diverse network of intergenerational advocates conserving Latinx sites and living cultures in the fabric of American society, affirming the value of this history in the hemispheric struggle for social justice.
Latinos in Heritage Conservation operates a grant program for projects, a fellowship program for graduate students, hosts conferences, and publishes toolkits. Most recently, they launched their Endangered Latinx Landmarks Program. Less the 1% of sites on the National Register for Historic Places acknowledge Latinx contributions, and this program seeks to highlight the disparity and promote these sites for preservation.
El Centro de Conservación y Restauración de Puerto Rico (CENCOR)
The Center for Conservation and Restoration of Puerto Rico
CENCOR is an organization that seeks to build the capacity of communities in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean to protect and conserve cultural heritage. Through education and training, scientific research, technical services and advice, knowledge dissemination and community initiatives, CENCOR helps people explore their culture, history and heritage, to protect and conserve them.
CENCOR utilizes preservation projects in the Caribbean to educate and train workforce to continue the work. This includes documentation, research, and restoration projects. The Campaign collaborated with CENCOR to translate training videos and develop bilingual training resources for historic trades training. Learn more about CENCOR and utilize these collaborative projects:
- Trades Alive! Videos, funded in part with a grant from the Historic Preservation Education Fund’s Partners in Training Program
- Field Guides in Cemetery Preservation and Historic Preservation Fundamentals, funded through a grant from the Foundation for Advancement in Conservation’s Holly Maxson Conservation Grant. To view and download the guides, you can establish an account or click “access as guest” to visit the Historic Trades Library and download the files in English or Spanish.
- Trades Takeover PreserveCast with Héctor J. Berdecía-Hernández
Taller Internacional de Conservación y Restauración de Arquitectura de Tierra (TICRAT)
International Workshop on Earth Architecture Conservation and Restoration
For over 20 years the NPS has teamed up with Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), the University of Arizona’s Missions Initiative, and New Mexico’s Cornerstones Community Partnerships to ensure that some of North America’s most treasured adobe structures remain in place for the public to enjoy into the next century. At the center of this partnership is a series of workshops that bring together Mexican and American master crafts-persons, teachers, and participants to conduct hands-on workshops on adobe construction, building assessment, and preservation treatment. All sessions are communicated in English and Spanish and are for experts and novices alike. TICRAT, is generally held in the United States and Mexico in alternating years. Since TICRAT became a bi-national effort, Tumacácori National Historical Park has hosted several of the annual workshops, and has played an integral role in helping coordinate TICRAT workshops, both north and south of the border. The 2026 TICRAT will be held at Tumacácori in March. Information on the 2024 TICRAT: https://www.bernco.gov/community-services/open-space/ticrat-international-workshop-2024/
Escuela Taller
Workshop Schools
Starting in 1985, Spain’s Ministry of Labor and Social Security partnered with countries formerly colonized by Spain to develop its Trades Schools and Employment Workshop Programme. This group, known as the Spanish Cooperation, works within its Heritage for Development Programme for Latin America to establish training centers in historic cities and buildings. These Workshops Schools teach trades to local youth, aged 18 – 25. Since 1991, over 37,000 students have been trained at 67 schools in 24 countries across five different continents. Students learn a variety of trades with a particular emphasis on preserving intangible heritage and building trades. The publication linked above highlights several of these Workshop Schools across the globe.
La Fundación Culturas Constructivas Tradicionales
The Traditional Building Cultures Foundation
The Traditional Building Cultures Foundation seeks to foster and promote the study, protection, teaching, dissemination and conservation of the traditional building, architecture and urbanism characteristic of the various regions of the world. Through partnerships, they operate several initiatives to promote traditional architecture and building arts in Spain and abroad:
- training through apprenticeships. workshops, and summer schools
- hosting conferences and seminars
- publishing journals and directories
- hosting the Red Española de Maestros de la Construcción Tradicional (The Spanish Network of Traditional Building Crafts Masters), a directory that recognizes and awards over 2,000 different trades professionals from across Spain and showcases their work.
1971 USPS $0.08 postage stamp depicting the San Xavier Del Bac Mission.
Photo credit from the National Postal Museum, http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/hm87f1b4a7b-e4a1-40cf-9b62-9342bf819bbf