Siena Blog

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Hispanic Heritage Month 2025

The theme of National Hispanic Heritage Month 2025 is Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future.

Observed annually from September 15th to October 15th, National Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates the history and culture of the U.S. Latino and Hispanic communities. During this important month celebrating Hispanic history and culture, Siena is highlighting film and television star Zoe Saldaña for her inspiring artistic and cultural contributions as an Afro-Latino actress with dyslexia.

Zoe Saldaña’s Dyslexia

“When you have a child that has ADHD and is dyslexic and has a lot of energy and doesn’t sit still and is unable to listen, you think that it’s on purpose. I just remember asking myself, ‘Why don’t I fit in? Why do I do this?’ It would make me really sad, and it would make me feel really isolated.” —Zoe Saldaña in Harper's Bazaar

Born in northern New Jersey, Saldaña began her film and TV acting career in the late 1990s. Saldaña identifies as Afro-Latino of Puerto Rican and Dominican heritage, with Spanish as her home language. She also has Lebanese and Haitian family roots.

She is especially well known for her roles as Neytiri in the Avatar franchise, Lieutenant Uhura in the recent Star Trek films, and Gamora in the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy and other MCU films. She’s also voiced characters in the animated films Elio and Vivo.

Saldaña has dyslexia and ADHD, which were diagnosed early in her life and led to problems in learning and remembering information. She has only recently been more public about how her learning differences and neurodiversity have affected her acting career. Saldaña has shared that she used to avoid more prominent roles that would’ve challenged her learning differences and anxiety.

Saldaña initially saw her role on the Paramount TV series Lioness as a welcome challenge, since writer Taylor Sheridan is known for dialogue-heavy scripts for such shows as Yellowstone and Mayor of Kingstown. As she reflected, “It’s very wordy. There’s a cadence to the way he wants the sort of dialogue in the scenes to be said.”

Like many in the LD community do regularly, Saldaña has adapted her learning style to her roles, such as getting her scripts well in advance or hiring a line reader to help her practice and memorize her dialogue. She told Variety Magazine in this article, “The worst thing that [Lioness writer Taylor Sheridan] can do is to change a scene last minute or add dialogue. That’s when I’m like, ‘Wait, wait, wait, that’s dyslexia 2.0’ — that will be the next step.”

Her role in the 2024 dramatic musical Emilia Pérez led to, among other accolades, both an Oscar and a Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actress. She opened her Golden Globes acceptance speech by saying, “I know I don’t have much time. I have dyslexia, so I tend to forget when I’m really anxious.” (Watch the full speech here.)

She’s also drawn on her background as a dancer in performing her more physical roles, learning her lines, and adapting to changes. As Saldaña also shared in this Variety Magazine article, “by the time that scene [in Lioness] would come, it was an extension of who I was — like ballet. [...] The moment my brain realized that words are like a plié in a pas de deux, I was just like, ‘Ooh, a grand jeté is like a Taylor Sheridan monologue.’”

You can also watch this video on the Child Mind Institute website where Saldaña talks more about her dyslexia journey, sharing:

“Something that my older self would tell my younger self is [to] rely on those people that really believe in you and are really willing to genuinely listen to you. It does get better, but please speak up. Don’t live in silence, because who you are and what you do and what you’re going through is not wrong.”

National Hispanic Heritage Month Resources 

Below are some additional resources to help commemorate Hispanic Heritage Month this year:

• View Hispanic Heritage Month Resources from the National Museum of the American Latino
• Look at These Books To Read for Latine & Hispanic Heritage Month from Penguin Random House
• Learn about the 25 Most Anticipated Books of 2025 from Latinx in Publishing

Siena Resources 

Previous Heritage Month spotlights of notable people with dyslexia feature writer and activist Victor Villaseñor, artist Ignacio Gomez, and pro athletes Jewell Loyd and A’ja Wilson. Click here to see all of Siena’s Heritage Month Spotlights from previous years.

The Siena School, a national leader in dyslexia education, serves bright, college-bound students with language-based learning differences on DC Metro area campuses in Silver Spring, MD (grades 3-12) and Oakton, VA (grades 3-12).

Avg. read time: 2 min.

The Black History Month 2025 theme, African Americans and Labor, focuses on how different types of work are central to Black culture and history. For this important month, Siena is sharing some book and podcast recommendations to reinforce the important intellectual labor of these artistic and cultural contributions to the Black experience.

See the Association for the Study of African American Life and History for a wealth of information about Black History Month, including upcoming events and past and future themes.

Recent Books from Black Authors 

• Jayne Allen, Black Girls Must Die Exhausted
• Marcia Brissett-Bailey (ed.), Black, Brilliant and Dyslexic
• Percival Everett, James
• Ijeoma Oluo, Be a Revolution
• Kiley Reid, Come and Get It
• Safiya Sinclair, How to Say Babylon: A Memoir
• Zadie Smith, The Fraud
• Colson Whitehead, Harlem Shuffle and Crook Manifesto

See also this list of Moving Nonfiction by Black Authors from Penguin Random House, including A Visible Man, Legacy, and Four Hundred Souls.

Black Podcast Recommendations 

Need to add some podcasts to your playlist? Have a look at these selections for some podcasts about various contemporary and historical topics:

• 100 Best Black Podcasts You Must Follow in 2025
• Best Black Podcasts (2025) - Goodpods
• Black People Podcast - TheGrio

See also Daily Border Crossings, hosted by Siena’s Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Community Engagement Samantha Fletcher.

Additional Resources for Families 

Past blog posts for Black History Month can be found here, including a feature on Siena’s community playlist from 2024. This crowdsourced music (available on Spotify) grew out of a student-generated playlist from their weekly multicultural affinity group, with some additional recommendations from Siena faculty and staff.  

See also some other Heritage Month spotlights about Hispanic Heritage Month 2024, Women’s History Month 2024, and Native American Heritage Month 2023. Learn more about Siena’s commitments and ongoing initiatives for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging here on our DEIB webpage.

The Siena School, a national leader in dyslexia education, proudly serves bright, college-bound students with language-based learning differences on DC Metro area campuses in Silver Spring, MD (grades 3-12) and Oakton, VA (grades 3-12). 

Avg. read time: 2 min.

The theme for National Hispanic Heritage Month 2024 is Pioneers of Change: Shaping the Future Together.

Siena is highlighting some artistic and cultural contributions to commemorate during this important month celebrating Hispanic history and culture. See below for books, podcasts, and other resources of interest to introduce you to some pioneers of change in the Hispanic community.

Reading Pioneers of Change 

Here are some recent fiction and nonfiction books by Hispanic/Latino authors to explore:

• Elizabeth Acevedo — The Poet X and Family Lore
• Kali Fajardo-Anstine —  Woman of Light
• Jamie Figueroa — Mother Island
• Lin-Manuel Miranda — In the Heights: Finding Home
• Dan-el Padilla Peralta — Undocumented  
• Paola Ramos — Finding Latin X
• Erika Sánchez — I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter
• Jenny Torres Sanchez — We Are Not From Here
• Alexandra Villasante — The Grief Keeper
• Javier Zamora — Solito

See also Hispanic Executive’s 10 New Releases from Latino Authors and Penguin Random House’s Books to Read for Latine & Hispanic Heritage Month.

Listening to Pioneers of Change

Here are some podcast recommendation lists for various Hispanic, Latino, and other related topics to explore:

• 10 Latino Podcasts to Add to Your Queue
• 10 Podcasts for Hispanic and Latino/a Students
• 100 Best Latino Podcasts You Must Follow in 2024
• From Vegan Taqueros to a Political Scandal (NPR)

National Hispanic Heritage Month Resources

• See Hispanic, Latino, Latina, Latinx - Which is Best? from Duke School of Medicine and You Say Latino Mini Comic from Terry Blas to learn more about the evolving use of “Hispanic” and “Latino/-a/-x” terminology.
• Check the National Museum of the American Latino website for events and media coverage, and visit the Molina Family Latino Gallery at the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.
• Explore Hispanic Heritage Month Resources from the National Museum of the American Latino and U.S. Department of Education.

Siena Resources

The Siena School blog has other Heritage Month spotlights related to innovative dyslexia education, including Native American book recommendations, Mexican writer and activist Victor Villaseñor, Chicano artist Ignacio Gomez, African American writers and dyslexia advocates LeDerick Horne and Marcia Brissett-Bailey, and others.

Learn more about Siena’s commitments and ongoing initiatives for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging.

The Siena School proudly serves students with dyslexia and other language-based learning differences in grades 3-12 on DC Metro area campuses in Silver Spring, Maryland, and Oakton, Virginia.