Hispanic Heritage Month
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
8correct to beat the crowd
Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month by testing your knowledge with our free 126-question trivia quiz with answers. From iconic historical figures to cultural traditions and achievements, this quiz covers the rich and diverse heritage of Hispanic and Latino communities. Challenge yourself and learn something new about the vibrant cultures that have shaped our world.
30 of 126 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Timed to bracket the independence days of five Central American nations, Mexico and Chile, National Hispanic Heritage Month runs when?
September 15th to October 15th
The September 15th to October 15th window was chosen to bracket the independence anniversaries of five Central American nations, Mexico and Chile, all of which fall in mid-September.
Q 02Which U.S. President first established Hispanic Heritage Week in 1968?
Lyndon B. Johnson
Hispanic Heritage Week was created by legislation sponsored by Rep. George E. Brown Jr. of Los Angeles and signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968, recognizing the contributions of Hispanic Americans.
Q 03Hispanic Heritage Month opens on the shared independence anniversary of which group of countries?
Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua
Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua all date their independence from Spain to 15 September 1821, when the Act of Independence of Central America was proclaimed, ending three centuries of Spanish rule.
Q 04Green Beret Roy Benavidez received the Medal of Honor for a rescue mission in which war?
Vietnam War
Roy Benavidez, a Texas-born Green Beret, earned the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War for rescuing eight wounded men under fire near the Cambodian border on 2 May 1968; Reagan presented it in 1981.
Q 05Which president signed the law to expand Hispanic Heritage Week into a month-long celebration?
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan signed Public Law 100-402 on 17 August 1988, stretching Hispanic Heritage Week into a 31-day month; the first full-month proclamation followed the next year.
Q 06In February 2025, which company said its calendar app would stop highlighting Hispanic Heritage Month by default, calling the practice unsustainable?
Google said manually adding the growing list of national and international 'cultural moments' to Google Calendar was no longer 'scalable or sustainable'.
Q 07Which South American country celebrates its Independence Day on September 18?
Chile
Chile celebrates its independence on September 18th, adding to the series of independence celebrations observed during Hispanic Heritage Month.
Q 08The term 'Hispanic' traditionally refers to people and cultures from which region?
Areas colonized by Spain
Hispanic refers to people and cultures from areas colonized by Spain, chiefly Spain itself and the Spanish-speaking nations of the Americas; the word comes from Hispania, the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula.
Q 09Which Mexican painter, born in 1907, is famous for self-portraits filled with the nature and artifacts of Mexico?
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo, born Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderón in 1907, filled her many self-portraits with pre-Columbian references and the symbols of Mexico.
Q 10Which Spanish surrealist, born in Figueres, Catalonia, painted the melting clocks of The Persistence of Memory?
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Dalí, born in Figueres in 1904, painted The Persistence of Memory in 1931; the small canvas of melting pocket watches has hung at New York's Museum of Modern Art since 1934.
Q 11Which senator amended the 1988 bill that turned Hispanic Heritage Week into a month?
Paul Simon
The bow-tied Illinois Democrat is not the singer-songwriter of the same name.
Q 12Which California congressman sponsored the 1988 law expanding Hispanic Heritage Week into a month?
Esteban Torres
The original 1968 week had been sponsored by a different Los Angeles congressman, George E. Brown Jr.
Q 13Which Nobel laureate's 1967 novel 'One Hundred Years of Solitude' defined magical realism?
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel García Márquez, the Colombian who won the 1982 Nobel Prize, published Cien años de soledad in 1967; its Buendía family saga became the defining work of magical realism.
Q 21Which Chilean poet became the first Latin American Nobel literature laureate in 1945?
Gabriela Mistral
Gabriela Mistral was a pen name, adopted partly to protect her job as a schoolteacher; the Nobel citation praised lyric poetry 'inspired by powerful emotions'.
Q 22The 'Cry of Dolores' on September 16, 1810, began the independence movement of which country?
Mexico
The 'Cry of Dolores' on September 16, 1810, is considered the start of the Mexican War of Independence, which eventually led to independence for Mexico and several Central American nations.
Q 23Which of these Latin American countries is generally not counted as Hispanic, because its official language is not Spanish?
Brazil
Q 14What is the stated purpose of the U.S. observance that runs from mid-September to mid-October each year?
Recognizing Hispanic influence on U.S. culture and history
National Hispanic Heritage Month exists for recognizing Hispanic influence on U.S. culture and history; the 1968 law asked the public, especially the educational community, to mark the week with ceremonies and activities.
Q 15Which Chilean poet did Gabriel García Márquez call 'the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language'?
Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda, born Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto in 1904, won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature and served Chile as a diplomat and senator; García Márquez's praise of him is often quoted.
Q 16Hispanic Heritage Month honours roots in Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean — and where else?
Central America and South America
The official definition covers Americans whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America and South America; the Census Bureau adds that Hispanic or Latino people can be of any race.
Q 17Where was Fernando Botero, father of the rotund 'Boterism' style, born?
Colombia
He was born in Medellín in 1932 and died in 2023, and his plump bronze figures now stand in plazas around the world.
Q 18As of 2018, Hispanic soldiers made up roughly what share of the U.S. Army?
About 14 percent
By 2018 Hispanic soldiers made up about 14 percent of the U.S. Army, roughly 136,000 of some one million soldiers across the active, Guard and Reserve components.
Q 19Which Spanish artist is considered one of the pioneers of Cubism, a revolutionary art movement?
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso, born in Málaga in 1881, developed Cubism with Georges Braque around 1907–08; Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and Guernica remain his best-known paintings.
Q 20What is the traditional Mexican celebration on November 1st and 2nd honouring deceased loved ones?
Día de los Muertos
Día de los Muertos, observed on 1–2 November with ofrendas, marigolds and sugar skulls, was inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2008.
Brazil speaks Portuguese, so it is Latin American but not Hispanic, a term reserved for Spanish-speaking countries.
Q 24Which Argentine shared the 1947 Nobel for showing pituitary hormones regulate blood sugar?
Bernardo Alberto Houssay
Bernardo Alberto Houssay shared the 1947 prize with Carl and Gerty Cori for showing how the anterior pituitary governs sugar metabolism, making him the first Latin American Nobel laureate in the sciences.
Q 25Which Latin dance style was largely assembled by Puerto Rican, Cuban and Dominican musicians in 1970s New York?
Salsa
Salsa took shape in 1960s–70s New York around the Fania label, layering Puerto Rican and other Caribbean styles over Cuban son montuno, which is why arguments over where it really began never end.
Q 26Which Spanish-born scientist shared the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work on RNA and DNA synthesis?
Severo Ochoa
Severo Ochoa, born in Luarca, Asturias, in 1905, shared the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Arthur Kornberg for discovering how cells synthesize RNA and DNA.
Q 27Which Hispanic food is a folded corn or flour tortilla with fillings?
Tacos
The tortilla is folded around the filling and eaten by hand, which is what separates it from a rolled enchilada.
Q 28Which Guatemalan Nobel laureate wrote 'El Señor Presidente'?
Miguel Ángel Asturias
Miguel Ángel Asturias, a Guatemalan novelist and diplomat, received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1967 and is known for his novel 'El Señor Presidente', which critiques dictatorship.
Q 29Which U.S. President issued the first proclamation for National Hispanic Heritage Month in 1989?
George H.W. Bush
George H.W. Bush signed Proclamation 6021 on 14 September 1989, the first to designate the full 31 days from September 15 to October 15 as National Hispanic Heritage Month.
Q 30Which traditional Spanish dance form is known for intricate footwork, hand clapping and guitar music?
Flamenco
Flamenco is a highly expressive Spanish art form, combining singing (cante), guitar playing (toque), dance (baile), and handclaps (palmas).