We are about halfway through Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from September 15 to October 15. This means it is also time for the second edition of the Lathisms calendar, a website celebrating accomplishments by Hispanic and Latinx mathematicians. This website, aka the best thing ever, combines the inspirational power of seeing lots of Hispanic and Latinx success stories, with the excitement of an advent calendar. It always has me thinking: “who will be featured next?” and it’s always particularly exciting when it’s a person I know.
A snapshot of this year’s calendar. Who will be next? Check daily to find out.
The calendar is the brainchild of some pretty wonderful people: Alexander Diaz-Lopez, Pamela E. Harris, Alicia Prieto Langarica, and Gabriel Sosa — all of whom of course are too modest to include themselves in the list but definitely deserve a spot on it. Last year, after the inauguration of the calendar, Evelyn Lamb published a great interview with the creators of the website on the AMS Blog on Math Blogs.
But besides being inspirational and fun, this calendar is important. It matters that we can show SO MANY people who are doing mathematics at a high level and are also Hispanic/Latinx. It matters because I have had a place to point to when my Hispanic/Latinx students feel like they don’t belong in math. And it matters as a resource for people thinking about conferences and sessions.
On that note, I also wanted to remind people of the wonderful Mathematically Gifted and Black, an equally important, wonderful and fun calendar which was unveiled during Black History Month earlier this year.
I invite you all to check daily for the next mathematician and I leave you with some wise words from Federico Ardila (who was featured in last year’s calendar).
