Hispanic Heritage Month

Alfonso is an artist who worked last year with Lucille Brown MS students through the Art 180 Middle School Residency. You can catch his latest exhibition, "Lengua Twister," at the Atlas gallery during RVA First Fridays in October. Enormous gratitude to ART 180 for their continued support of RPS students!

When Sylvia Mendez and her family moved to the town of Westminster, California, she was excited about enrolling in her neighborhood school. But she and her brothers were turned away because they were Mexican. Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh, tells the inspiring story of the Mendez family's fight for justice and equality to desegregate schools in California – seven years before the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education ended segregation in schools across America.

Dr. Ellen Ochoa became the first Hispanic woman to travel to space when she served on a nine-day mission aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1993. She later became the first Latina – and second woman – to lead the Johnson Space Center. The Solar System with Ellen (El Sistema Solar con Ellen) by Patty Rodriguez and Ariana Stein, takes our littlest readers on a trip around the solar system with Dr. Ochoa – introducing them to the sun, moon, and planets in both English and Spanish. 

The Honorable Sonia Sotomayor – In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, we're showcasing books that honor Hispanic and Latin American authors and public figures. Climb on board the RPS Lit Limo (see schedule below) to read Just Ask by Sonia Sotomayor, the third woman and first Hispanic and Latina appointed to the United States Supreme Court. Born in the Bronx to working-class parents, she and her family lived in low-income housing and experienced financial hardship. But that didn't stop her from excelling in school, ultimately graduating from Princeton University and Yale Law School.