The Morton Arboretum Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month

The Morton Arboretum will celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15 with cultural programs, a Celebración de los Árboles festival, and opportunities to learn about its scientific work to protect and conserve threatened trees and ecosystems in Latin America.

“We collaborate with a variety of community partners throughout the year to create a welcoming place for people of all cultures and backgrounds,” said Brooke Pudar, the Arboretum’s head of community engagement. “This is also an opportunity to share how Arboretum scientists are collaborating with communities in Mesoamerica on conservation efforts to save threatened tree species.” 

The festivities begin at the Arboretum on September 15 with a family-friendly concert featuring Latin Grammy Award musician, and author and educator MISTER G. The concert is included free with Arboretum admission. His popular bilingual English–Spanish children’s book will also be featured in a new Señorita Mariposa Story Walk at the Arboretum from September 15 through October 31. Each vibrantly illustrated page of the book will be displayed on panels along the Arboretum’s Meadow Lake Trail. The story follows a butterfly’s extraordinary migration from Canada to Mexico. 

Now in its third year, the Arboretum’s Celebración de los Árboles (Celebration of Trees), September 28 and 29, will immerse festival goers in Latin America’s vibrant cultures through music, dance and food amid the Arboretum’s picturesque natural settings. The festival is included free with Arboretum admission.

Attendees can sign up for a hike with Latino Outdoors or join a bilingual bird walk with Chicago BIPOC Birders. Bilingual Spanish-English tram rides will be available during the weekend for a separate fee. Throughout the monthly observance the Arboretum is offering educational and wellness classes presented in Spanish, including forest therapy walks, a guided hike of the Arboretum’s trails and garden design classes. There will also be family-friendly options such as bilingual Spanish-English story times and nature activities for children.

During Hispanic Heritage Month, Arboretum visitors will also have the opportunity to connect with researchers and learn more about its conservation work. Tarin Toledo, Ph.D., researcher, Instituto de Ecología A.C. in Mexico, will host a free program September 26, “Rooted in Hope: Restoring Cloud Forests with Endangers Trees in Mexico,” about tree conservation efforts undertaken to restore and recover Costa Rica’s biodiversity-rich cloud forest ecosystems. During the Celebración de los Árboles festival weekend, guided tours will visit three Tree Science Field Stations to explore cloud forest conservation, threatened oaks in Mexico and Mesoamerica and the connection between oaks and monarch butterflies. Attendees can also speak with scientists from the Arboretum’s Global Tree Conservation Program and Chicago Region Trees Initiative at information tables. 

From Mexico’s Cabo Region to Costa Rica’s montane cloud forest, the Arboretum and its global partners are working across Latin America to protect and conserve endangered oaks and their threatened habitats. “We are making significant progress with collaborators worldwide in preventing the extinction of ecologically and culturally important oak tree species,” said Silvia Alvarez-Clare, Ph.D., the Arboretum’s Global Tree Conservation Program director.

As a globally recognized leader in tree research and education, the Arboretum will be publishing a new milestone report in mid-September about oak tree species in urgent need of conservation in Mesoamerica, the region extending from the U.S.-Mexico border through Panama. “Mesoamerica is a global hotspot for oak biodiversity,” said Alvarez-Clare, “We are working with scientists and community members to conserve and increase the number of oaks in collections within their native countries to help prevent further biodiversity loss.”

Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates the cultures, histories and contributions of those whose ancestors came from Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. The observance, from September 15 to October 15, spans the anniversaries of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico and Chile, and includes Día de la Raza October 12 and Indigenous Peoples’ Day October 14.

Free tree-care information is available in English and Spanish at mortonarb.org for homeowners, landscaping industry professionals or homeowners associations. Spanish-language maps are also available year-round at the Arboretum’s Information Desk in the Visitor Center. See the mortonarb.org website for admission, program and scheduling information.