National Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated annually from September 15th to October 15th and has been federally recognized since 1988. According to the National Council of Hispanic Employment Program Managers (NCHEPM), the organization that leads celebrations each year, Hispanic Americans are those whose heritage is rooted in Spain, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated in both September and October instead of a single month by design, as seven of these countries’ independence days and Día de la Raza fall during these 30 days.
Each year, the NCHEPM selects a theme, chosen from community submissions, that is used by federal agencies, schools, and other organizations in celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. This year’s theme is “UNIDOS, SOMOS MÁS” or “TOGETHER, WE ARE MORE.” In honor of this theme, we are celebrating the contributions of Hispanic psychologists who have made our field stronger.
Dr. Miranda is known to be one of the first Hispanic individuals to earn a doctoral degree in clinical psychology. As a WWII veteran, he used his GI Bill benefits to receive his PhD from Purdue University in 1953. He was dedicated to training future psychologists; returning to his undergraduate institution, the University of Puerto Rico, to increase opportunities for graduate students in his home country. Especially important to MSP, he was the co-founder of the Instituto Psicológico de Puerto Rico, the very first independent professional school of psychology in North America.
When Dr. Bernal completed her doctoral studies at Indiana University in 1962, she became the first Mexican American woman to earn a PhD in clinical psychology. She researched diversity in psychology, finding that training programs did not appropriately address multicultural issues through lectures or curriculum, lacked minority students, and often didn’t employ minority professors. Her research then transitioned to examining how to address these issues. This work led her to work with the Board of Ethnic Minority Affairs, the Commission on Ethnic Minority Recruitment, Retention and Training, and to help found the National Hispanic Heritage Psychological Association (now the National Latino/a Psychological Association).
Dr. Olmedo played an important role in shaping how psychologists understand ethnicity and race through his work with the American Psychological Association. He served as the first director of the APA’s Ethnicity, Race, and Cultural Affairs Portfolio and was the founding president of Division 45, Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race. He then went on to a successful academic career, teaching at the California School of Professional Psychology, where he educated the next generation and studied psychometric issues of measuring acculturation.
Like Dr. Miranda, Dr. Garcia was a WWII vet who used the GI Bill to fund his higher education. While he was a prolific educator, holding positions at institutions in four states, he is best known for his research. Dr. Garcia’s research on radiation sickness and rats changed our understanding of classical conditioning. These findings on taste aversion, often called the Garcia effect, earned him the APA’s Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Psychology.
Interested in learning more? Check out the APA’s featured Hispanic-Latino psychologist list.