National Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15 through October 15. What started as a week-long celebration in 1968 became a month-long observance in 1988. During this time, we honor the histories, cultures, and contributions of Hispanic and Latine communities with roots across Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua celebrate their independence on September 15, followed by Mexico on September 16 and Chile on September 18.
Because there can be confusion around language, defining a few terms can help educate the public and library staff alike. Hispanic generally refers to people or cultures with roots in Spanish-speaking countries, while Latino/a generally refers to people with roots in Latin America. The terms overlap, but they are not necessarily interchangeable. Latinx and Latine are gender-neutral alternatives used by some people of Latin American origin or descent, though preferences vary widely. Many people also identify more specifically with their country or culture of origin.
On film, there is no singular Hispanic or Latine experience. Too often, Hispanic-American representation becomes closely tied to the Chicano experience while other regions, nationalities, and cultures receive far less attention. For people living in parts of small-town America where their own heritage is rarely represented, film can offer an opportunity to identify with and understand where they come from on a deeper level.
When culture is lost through assimilation, displacement, or generational distance, film, music, and art can work as time capsules. Through them, we can glean insight into communal identity even when that culture might not exist immediately around us.
Below are 25 films that help tell Hispanic and Latine stories. They range from cultural history and immigration to family, friendship, music, art, class, and stories where ethnicity simply exists without becoming a character's defining trait. No single list could represent every experience, but these films offer libraries and classrooms a place to begin while highlighting some of our most important Hispanic and Latine storytellers.
La Bamba
The story of Ritchie Valens, the Mexican-American rock-and-roll icon whose life was tragically cut short on "the day the music died." La Bamba is also an accessible way to explore Mexican-American identity, family, fame, and the place Latino musicians hold in American music history.
Under the Same Moon
While being Latino is certainly not all about immigration, deportation, and the struggle to build a life between two places, those experiences remain part of many people's stories. Under the Same Moon approaches them through a beautiful and emotional mother-son story that has become a modern classic.
Real Women Have Curves
An influential and powerful coming-of-age story about body image, family expectations, culture, and self-confidence. America Ferrera's Ana is caught between her family's expectations and the future she wants for herself, making the film especially useful for discussions of identity and generational conflict.
Video Librarian has also examined why Real Women Have Curves remains valuable for Hispanic and feminist film collections.
Selena
Selena Quintanilla was poised to bridge the gap between her enormous success in Tejano music and mainstream American stardom before her life was tragically cut short. Jennifer Lopez's performance helped make Selena one of the defining music biopics of the 1990s and an enduring celebration of a Mexican-American icon.
The Devil's Backbone
Guillermo del Toro has to be mentioned on any list celebrating major Mexican filmmakers. Set during the Spanish Civil War, The Devil's Backbone combines ghost-story horror with history, violence, childhood, and political upheaval in a way that demonstrates why del Toro became one of the most distinctive genre filmmakers of his generation.
Flamin' Hot
A crowd-pleasing story about ambition, work, family, and Latino representation in corporate America. Flamin' Hot also gives libraries an accessible film for conversations about entrepreneurship and who gets to see themselves represented in traditional American success stories.
Coco
A monumental Pixar film inspired by Día de los Muertos. Its story of Miguel, his ancestors, and his family's complicated relationship with music introduces younger audiences to traditions surrounding remembrance while emphasizing the importance of family stories and cultural memory.
Born in East L.A.
Cheech Marin is an icon, and Born in East L.A. is the kind of comedy that would be difficult to imagine being made in quite the same way today. Its story of a Mexican-American man mistakenly deported to Mexico uses outrageous humor to explore identity, citizenship, language, and the experience of living close to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Y Tu Mamá También
Directed by Alfonso Cuarón, one of the most important filmmakers of his generation, Y Tu Mamá También is definitely not for younger viewers. Beneath its sexual content is an introspective story about class, friendship, growing up, and the fluidity of love set against the social and economic landscape of Mexico.
Stand and Deliver
Edward James Olmos is a legend, and his performance as real-life mathematics teacher Jaime Escalante remains one of his defining roles. Rather than relying on the familiar white-savior classroom narrative, Stand and Deliver centers a Bolivian-American educator and his Mexican-American students, making that representation particularly important.
Roma
Another Cuarón masterpiece, Roma draws heavily from the filmmaker's memories of childhood in Mexico City. The film encompasses family, domestic labor, class, political unrest, motherhood, and memory while remaining remarkably intimate.
Read Video Librarian's review of Roma for more on its depiction of 1970s Mexico City and Cleo's place within the family she works for.
Problemista
Julio Torres is an exciting young filmmaker with an unmistakably strange sensibility. Beneath the surreal sci-fi and comedic elements of Problemista is a story about trying to maintain a visa in the United States while navigating work, bureaucracy, ambition, and the absurdities of the immigration system.
Nacho Libre
Sometimes cultural celebration can simply mean having fun. Nacho Libre is endlessly quotable, deeply silly, and built around Jack Black's aspiring luchador, making it an easy entry point for audiences interested in the colorful world and iconography of Mexican lucha libre.
Duck Season
Think of it as a Mexican Breakfast Club, albeit far more understated. Fernando Eimbcke's black-and-white comedy turns an ordinary day inside a Mexico City apartment into a small, funny, and surprisingly observant story about adolescence, loneliness, friendship, and connection.
Frida
The legendary Mexican painter receives the biopic treatment with Salma Hayek embodying Frida Kahlo's enormous personality and artistic spirit. The film provides a natural bridge between cinema and art programming while introducing audiences to Kahlo's work, relationships, politics, physical pain, and lasting cultural influence.
In the Heights
A musical celebration of community adapted from Lin-Manuel Miranda's stage musical. Set in Washington Heights, the film uses music and dance to explore family, immigration, neighborhood identity, ambition, and what it means to call a place home.
El Mariachi
Robert Rodriguez made a remarkably cool movie on a famously tiny budget. With the energy and visual imagination of a comic book and the bones of a Western, El Mariachi is also a terrific film for students studying independent filmmaking and what can be accomplished without studio-level resources.
Love in the Time of Cholera
Adapted from the celebrated novel by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera brings his sweeping story of romance, longing, and the passage of time to the screen. It also gives libraries an obvious opportunity for book-to-film programming.
Amores Perros
Gael García Bernal is an underappreciated actor who consistently shows up with memorable performances, and Amores Perros gives him an intense early showcase. Director Alejandro González Iñárritu's feature debut intertwines several lives following a Mexico City car crash, creating a brutal story about love, violence, class, fate, and consequence.
Video Librarian's original review of Amores Perros praised the film's ability to navigate its interconnected stories while exploring coincidence, consequence, fate, and love.
Abre los Ojos
This Spanish psychological thriller from director Alejandro Amenábar blends romance, identity, reality, and science fiction. It was eventually remade in the United States as Vanilla Sky, making the two films particularly interesting for compare-and-contrast screenings or adaptation studies.
Crónicas
A crime thriller about journalism, corruption, violence, and the media. John Leguizamo leads the film as a television reporter pursuing a major story in Ecuador, and you simply can't create a list like this without finding room for Leguizamo somewhere.
El Último Elvis
An intense dramatic look at the life of an Elvis impersonator in Buenos Aires. Rather than treating impersonation as a quirky gimmick, the film explores obsession, identity, family responsibilities, and what happens when the persona someone has created becomes more comfortable than everyday life.
Jamón Jamón
Bigas Luna's provocative Spanish comedy-drama is also notable as the film where Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem first worked together. Filled with sex, desire, class conflict, masculinity, and absurdity, it offers a very different corner of Spanish-language cinema than many of the films elsewhere on this list.
Zoot Suit
Based on the 1942 Sleepy Lagoon murder case and the racially charged Zoot Suit Riots that followed, Zoot Suit adapts Luis Valdez's landmark stage production into a highly stylized musical drama. Valdez, a foundational figure in Chicano theater, uses the story to explore discrimination, identity, community, and Mexican-American history in Los Angeles.
The Library of Congress selected Zoot Suit for the National Film Registry in 2019.
Blood In Blood Out
An epic crime drama with the scope of The Godfather, Blood In Blood Out follows three Chicano relatives whose lives take dramatically different paths through family, gangs, prison, law enforcement, and the complicated bonds connecting them. For anyone exploring Chicano cinema and representations of East Los Angeles on screen, it's required viewing.
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