DCSA Personnel Participate in Hispanic Heritage Month Observance Virtually and Interactively Across the Nation

UNITED STATES

12.01.2021

Story by John Joyce 

Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency

Thomas Montero looked into the camera and reflected on his family’s legacy at the DCSA Hispanic Heritage Month Observance broadcast live throughout the agency via Adobe Connect.

As he spoke, DCSA federal employees and contractors learned that the heritage of Montero – and three other DCSA guest speakers – is symbolic of the diversity inherent in the Hispanic and Latino culture, especially in regards to cuisine, music and dance.

“My mom's family heritage in Cuba comes from Northwest Spain while my dad's family immigrated to the Americas from the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco and Northwest Africa,” said Montero, assistant director for counterintelligence in the DCSA Western Region. “The reality is that if we look long and hard enough, we will find stories similar to mine.”

The audience didn’t have to look far. Amanda Heller, counterintelligence special agent; April Rodriguez-Plott, senior industrial security representative; and Logan Willman, counterintelligence special agent – all from DCSA’s Western Region – also shared their perspectives while imparting fascinating history and knowledge about the Hispanic culture, including conversational Spanish language skills.

“Although Latino Hispanic identity signifies common cultural practices like language and shared histories, it is not necessarily linked to skin color or a specific country,” said Montero at the Oct. 28 event. “So, not all Hispanics are Latinos and not all Latinos are Hispanics. The term ‘Hispanic’ is also used more often on the east coast, while on the western part of the U.S., ‘Latino’ is mostly referenced in conversation.”

‘Hispanic’ refers to people of any race who trace their ethnic roots to a country where Spanish is the main language, including Spain. ‘Latino’ refers to people of any race who trace their roots back to countries from the Caribbean, Mexico, and throughout Central and South America.

“Each country has their own way of speaking Spanish,” said Montero, who travelled throughout Latin and Central America as a military member of DoD. “They have their own way of interpreting different aspects of the world and how they view themselves.”

This year’s observance, sponsored by DCSA Diversity and Equal Opportunity Office, focused on the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI) Hispanic Heritage Month special emphasis theme – ‘Esperanza’, which means ‘hope’ in Spanish.

“Esperanza is a celebration of Hispanic heritage and hope,” said Montero. “This year's theme invites us to celebrate Hispanic heritage by reflecting on the contributions made in the past and the impact we will continue to make in the future. Most importantly, it’s a reminder that we, Americans of all races, ethnicities and creeds, are stronger together.”

The contributions to make the nation stronger include a tradition of military and civil service. Thousands of Hispanics and Latinos have served and continue to serve and support the U.S. armed forces. Just as in generations past, the Hispanic and Latino community – military and civilian – are honored for their significant contributions towards protecting the United States and embodying the values that unite DOD as one team.

“Hispanic heritage month provides the opportunity to acknowledge the diversity of our nation as well as our civil service and armed forces members,” said Montero. “The values that overwhelmingly resonate in our collective Hispanic Latino communities are faith, family and patriotism. You can draw a direct line between these values and Esperanza. We choose, and will continue to choose to serve. It’s not for praise or glory, but for the American next to us and the country that we call home.”

The observance recognizing National Hispanic Heritage Month was established by Title 36, U.S. Code, Section 126 and Public Law 100-402.
Hispanic Heritage Month is observed from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 of each year. The observance is celebrated during this time frame due to many significant events for various Hispanic communities which fall within the observance period.

Sept. 15 is significant because it is the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on Sept. 16 and Sept. 18, respectively. Also, Columbus Day or Día de la Raza, which is Oct. 12, falls within this 30 day period.

The President issues a proclamation each year calling on the people of the United States, especially the educational community, to observe National Hispanic Heritage Month with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

“I love the fact that Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated in October and September, because Constitution Day and Citizenship Day – celebrated on Sept. 17 – recognizes the Constitution of the United States and the steps immigrants must take to become U.S. citizens,” said Montero. “This is especially meaningful to me and my family. My uncles emigrated to the U.S. from Cuba during World War II. They joined the U.S. Army as Cuban citizens and went on to fight in Europe during World War II. Upon their return to the U.S. after the war, they became citizens and sponsored the rest of our family into the United States to include my mother. And with time, they all achieved the dream of becoming U.S. citizens.”

This year, DCSA government and contractor personnel engaged with the guest speakers in fun-filled, instructional and entertaining interactive activities through their computer monitors in real-time.

After Montero’s keynote speech, Amanda Heller led her virtual DCSA audience through an interactive experience while teaching Spanish and comparing English words derived from Arabic and Spanish languages.

“There are some words that you can see here right off the bat,” said Heller, pointing to a series of Arabic, Spanish and English words. “Those are familiar since you speak these words in Arabic and Spanish every day in one way, shape or form.”

She explained that myriad peoples and cultures came together on Spain’s Iberian Peninsula and northern Africa, creating a process known as a blended language “together with romance Spanish and the North African Arabic dialect.”

“Spanish has nearly 4,000 words directly derived from Arabic,” said Heller. “English has thousands of words stemming from the Spanish language that retain the general meaning of the original Spanish. They sound similar, include a lot of the same letters, and mean basically the same thing such as guitara and musica – guitar and music.”

At that point, Heller led her audience in an exercise where she pronounced an Arabic word and the audience repeated the word. Then, she led participants to do the same with Spanish and English words in order to see, speak, hear and feel the connection.

The exercise continued as Heller invited the audience to repeat after her as she recited the Arabic word first, then the Spanish word, followed by the English word with the same meaning or translation. Some with exactly or close to the same spelling as follows:

Pantalon – pantalones – pants.
Bloosa – blusa – blouse.
Al-kuhul – alcohol – alcohol.
Hashasheen – assesino – assassin.
Qat – gato – cat.
Qahwa – café – coffee.

“Let's talk Esperanza – hope for the future,” said Heller. “Inshalla is really a contraction of three separate words. If you put them together, it means ‘God willing, and spreading hope and goodwill, regardless of religious affiliation.’ Ojala came to us from the Arabic, meaning hope or desire for future events.”

The next DCSA guest speaker – April Rodriguez-Plott – took the audience on a journey from the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa where the Hispanic language originated to the Americas where she revealed the indigenous origins and connections to modern-day Spanish words.

“As you can imagine, prior to Spain and the Americas, there was no reference for certain types of animals or agriculture in the Spanish language,” said Rodriguez-Plott. “Now we are going to take a look at the indigenous language connections to Spanish. We will also look at the cultural conditions and everyone's favorite way to experience every culture is food. We will share some recipes.”

Rodriguez-Plott asked the audience what comes to mind when they think of Mesoamerica.

“If you think of the Almac, Aztec or the Mayans, you would be correct,” said Rodriguez-Plott regarding the ancient people of Mesoamerica, which ranges geographically from central Mexico to Honduras and Nicaragua where pre-Columbian civilizations flourished.

“The civilizations of the Almac, Aztecs and Mayans all have legends that involve corn,” said Rodriguez-Plott. “Corn remains linked to religion and economic life for these ancient civilizations. In the Mayan account, it was creating ways to keep track of the days. As you may already know, corn remains to be a staple of many Latino and Hispanic traditional dishes.”
Rodriguez-Plott explained a slide entitled “of Maize and Men” featuring a Mayan mural representing a training hub. Within the mural, an image of corn was pictured to represent the center of economic trade.

“The Spanish word for corn derived from the Aztec language,” said Rodriguez-Plott, who recounted traditional dishes related to corn. “Mexican soup and tamales are a holiday and seasonal favorite that everyone loves at Christmas time.” The traditional Mesoamerican tamales dish is made of masa or dough, which is steamed in a corn or banana leaf.

Rodriguez-Plott reviewed several Spanish words with indigenous origins, pointing out that many Spanish words adopted from the ancient Aztec language involve agriculture and food.

“It is common for the Aztec word to have the suffix ‘TL’ so repeat after me,” Rodriguez-Plott asked the audience. “We are going to say ‘Ahuacatl’ and in Spanish, ‘aguacate’, and the English – avocado. Next, we are going to talk about chocolate. So we have ‘chocolatl’, in Spanish ‘chocolate’, and in English – chocolate.”

The fourth guest speaker, Logan Willman, recounted his time in Spain studying the Spanish language and the country’s culture.

“The first step in understanding as well as showing respect for a culture is to learn the language,” said Willman. “Language captures the identity of a culture and gives me the ability to truly connect with it. I started learning Spanish because it was practical and useful but continued because my interest in the language and culture became a lifelong love.”

Willman’s lifelong interest in the Spanish culture included architecture, art and literature.

“I was fortunate to visit many museums, which had works from the Spanish masters to the most incredible artists around the world,” said Willman who gave rave reviews to the works of Miguel de Cervantes and Ernest Hemingway.

Don Quixote – written by de Cervantes and published in two parts, in 1605 and 1615 – is considered a prototype of the modern novel.
“The book is one of the greatest works of fiction ever written,” said Willman. “Don Quixote inspires us with his imagination that greatly informs our imagination and experience.”

He called the prose in Ernest Hemingway’s novels, especially its appreciation of Spanish culture, as captivating.

“The images in his novels captured and communicated concepts of Spanish culture to millions,” said Willman as he spoke about two of Hemingway’s greatest works – ‘The Sun Also Rises’ and ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’.

“In ‘The Sun Also Rises’, he captured a love for the bullfights and the running of the bulls during the summer festival in Pamplona,” said Willman.

Throughout the observance, Montero, Heller, Rodriguez-Plott and Willman focused on the Esperanza theme of Hispanic heritage and hope. It’s evident that Hispanic-Americans were inspired by their heritage to make contributions that helped America maintain its competitiveness, relevance and position in the global landscape as the leader of the free world. Their contributions positively impacted national defense, homeland security, the arts, sports, public service, research and development, non-profit organization management, civil rights, politics, business, agriculture and the service industry.

• Date Taken: 12.01.2021
• Date Posted: 12.01.2021 15:18
• Story ID: 410264
• Location: US