Canada Celebrates Latin American Heritage Month Every October

By Pat Parungao

In 2018, the Parliament of Canada officially declared October as Latin American Heritage Month, a time to recognize and celebrate the many contributions of Latin American communities to our multicultural identity.  Mexican-born Leticia Sanchez offers thoughtful reflections on her experiences navigating life in Canada’s multicultural mosaic.

A Hispanic Immigrant in Canada
By Leticia Sanchez

Mexican Ambassador Dionisio Arturo Pérez-Jácome Friscione, Leticia Sánchez,
Consul General of Mexico in Vancouver, Berenice Díaz Ceballos 2019

The story of my life has always been learning by doing and connecting the dots to answer my internal queries. I consider myself a learner, connector, and critical thinker. The experiential knowledge I gathered from my early curiosity to understand the world, along with the mentors and scientific minds I met during university in Mexico City, supported my path as an educator and eventually led me to cultural work with Asian institutions in Canada.

Leticia Sanchez, Jim Wong-Chu EXPLORASIAN event, 2022

Living in Vancouver and working at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in Chinatown opened my eyes to how people can connect beyond their own heritages. My roles—as cultural lead, President of the Vancouver Asian Heritage Month Society, and Vice President of the Pacific Canada Heritage Centre Museum of Migration—challenged expectations. People often asked me, “Why would a Mexican immigrant dedicate herself to preserving Asian heritage?” The question revealed a limited idea of belonging and implied that my interest in Asian cultures wasn’t genuine. But for me, that question missed the point of being an immigrant in Canada.

As a Mexican married to a Canadian, I’ve had to navigate assumptions—about where I come from, why I used a Canadian to live in Canada, and about where I’m supposed to belong. Coming from a so-called “third-world country,” there was always an unspoken belief that I couldn’t possess sophisticated cultural knowledge and that, for that reason, I should work only with Latin American communities. There was always an internal sense that I was out of place, but what people failed to understand is that being an immigrant who actively engages with multiple communities gives you a unique perspective. You’ve already crossed boundaries once by coming to Canada. Why stop there?

The constant questioning I faced while working with Asian communities – “Why are you doing this? You don’t look Asian; only Asians should work here. Shouldn’t you be working with your own community? – revealed a troubling mindset: that immigrants should stay segregated within their own cultural communities. But this contradicts the very essence of Canadian multiculturalism. True integration isn’t about changing our values—it’s about opening ourselves to learn from and contribute to the rich diversity of cultures that make up this country.

Throughout human history, we’ve formed communities to survive and created cultures to make sense of the world. Our backgrounds have shaped us, but we are also bound by a shared human experience where our universal values connect us. Those common threads helped me find my place, become less judgmental, more open, and more committed to connection. My outsider-insider position became my strength. I could see connections that might have been invisible to those within a single cultural framework.

Through these experiences, I discovered something powerful: being an immigrant, you learn to adapt, to translate across cultures, to find meaning between worlds. I understood heritage because I carried mine when I moved to Canada. I understood underrepresentation because I had lived it. And I knew the value of building bridges because I had to build them for myself.

Choosing to work beyond my own heritage didn’t mean letting go of my identity – it meant
expanding it. It meant understanding that cultural work, when done with care and curiosity,
isn’t about claiming someone else’s story, but about listening, collaborating, and contributing.

My experience has taught me that as immigrants, our adaptation to Canada shouldn’t  mean isolation within familiar communities. It should mean exploration, curiosity, and active participation in the multicultural fabric around us. We don’t have to abandon our heritage—I never stopped being Mexican. But we do have to open ourselves up and genuinely engage with the diversity that surrounds us.

What others once saw as an oddity, I’ve made into my mission: to show that immigrants who engage with multiple communities, who move beyond their comfort zones, who refuse to be limited by ethnic expectations, are the ones who truly embody what Canada is. In 2024, I had the honour of receiving the Platinum Jubilee Medal for my contributions to arts and multiculturalism—an unexpected but meaningful recognition of an immigrant journey.

ABOUT THE WRITER Leticia Sanchez was a director for PCHC-MoM for several years and served as a Vice-President.  She has a strong interest in the impact of art and heritage on the well-being and development of communities. She is the Vice-President & Governance Chair of Heritage Vancouver Society, HVS, Board Member of Association of Critical Heritage Studies, ACHS and a Founding Council Member of CanAsian Arts Network

More about Latin American Heritage Month in Vancouver can be found at https://latincouver.ca/lahm/> and <https://vancouversbestplaces.com/latin-american-heritage-month-vancouver/>.