This week marks the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month in the U.S. The annual celebration is an opportunity to honor the many Hispanic and Latino people that call the U.S. home.
Although the U.S. has seen periods of rising nativism before, 2025 has been an unprecedented year for Hispanic-Americans, says historian Dr. Sergio Gonzalez.
“We’re seeing deportation forces sweeping across American cities,” he says. “And I think President Trump and the Department of Homeland Security are step-by-step going through Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Chicago as a way of kind of setting an example and also of course striking fear in communities.”
Gonzalez is an associate professor of history at Marquette University who specializes in the history and culture of Latinos in Wisconsin. He’s authored books including Mexicans in Wisconsin and Strangers No Longer: Latino Belonging and Faith in 20th-Century Wisconsin.
He argues that President Trump’s second term has seen a marked shift from early campaign rhetoric that primarily emphasized the deportation of violent criminals, to immigration policy built on mass deportation, the removal of immigrants’ temporary protected status, immigration raids in major U.S.cities and a judicial green light for racial profiling.
“I’m guessing there are going to be a lot of Latinos who perhaps agree with the rhetoric of the 2024 campaign and are now perhaps befuddled,” he says. “They’re wondering, ‘this isn’t what I signed up for.’”
Gonzalez joins Lake Effect’s Joy Powers to talk about Hispanic Heritage month and the moment we’re living in. He sees Hispanic Heritage Month as a time to reflect on immigrant communities’ contributions to U.S. history, as well as their traditions of resilience in the face of zenophobia.
“I think immigrants, particularly in the United States, fall into the trap of having to prove themselves to Americans that they are worthy of belonging in this country, that they are contributing members of society, and that if they don't make that case...then perhaps Americans can dismiss them and get rid of them.”
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