The Shift in Hispanic Heritage Month 2025
From Retail Spotlight to Canceled Celebrations.
The Shift in Hispanic Heritage Month 2025: From Retail Spotlight to Canceled Celebrations
Every September, Hispanic Heritage Month arrives with familiar expectations. Major retailers roll out exclusive collections, philanthropy campaigns dominate headlines and carefully curated marketing reminds consumers of the cultural vibrancy Hispanic and Latino communities bring to the United States. My assignment this year was clear: capture what retailers had in store, highlight the products and tell the story of how brands were honoring the month. What surfaced in the research process instead was not the abundance of activations that typically fill the shelves and newsfeeds, but a noticeable absence paired with an unsettling pattern of event and celebration cancellations.
Confirmed 2025 launches exist, but they are severely limited.1
- Mexican sportswear brand CHARLY released its 2025 Heritage Collection; a capsule of brilliant jerseys and caps rooted in Mexican mythology and cultural symbolism including references to Quetzalcoatl. The line, available through select U.S. retailers, is bold, modern and unapologetically tied to tradition.
- Becky G, alongside her mother Alejandra, also stepped forward with a Walmart home décor line reflecting their Mexican heritage. The collection of dinnerware, lamps and pillows is more than product design — it is philanthropy in action with proceeds supporting the Latino Community Foundation’s relief work.
These two activations demonstrate the power of heritage expressed through commerce. Their scarcity in 2025 is more than notable. In previous years Hispanic Heritage Month has been marked by a chorus of brand campaigns- from Target’s annual dedicated collections to Nike’s limited-edition sneakers, from Coca-Cola’s celebratory packaging to PepsiCo’s community philanthropy. This year, the chorus is quieter, with no confirmed 2025 collections or rollouts from these major retailers. The retail stage has not disappeared, but it is less crowded, raising questions about whether brands are stepping back intentionally or if the landscape has shifted in ways limiting how and when companies participate.
As those questions linger, another trend is impossible to ignore. Across the country Hispanic and Latino heritage festivals have been canceled, many with organizers explicitly citing fear of ICE enforcement and broader political tensions.
- In Charlotte, the Hispanic Heritage Festival of the Carolinas was called off in August, organizers saying the immigration climate made the event unsafe for the community.
- In Indianapolis, Fiesta Indianapolis was canceled after organizers reported safety concerns tied to immigration enforcement.
- Communities in Iowa, Louisiana, Virginia and Massachusetts have made similar decisions, pulling back from public celebrations which for years have been central to cultural pride. Information suggests even more events are paused, waiting to decide if the climate will allow them to move forward without risk.
The contrast is striking. While a handful of products make their way onto shelves, the spaces where these historic and important celebrations are lived, at festivals, parades and shared community moments, are shrinking. The shift speaks to a deeper tension in 2025: a heritage month meant to honor history, identity and resilience is unfolding against a backdrop of fear. For many, the public joy of gathering has been replaced by private expressions of culture, and the only visibility left is in small and quiet ways, standing in for what too many communities are not celebrating as openly this year.
This year’s story is one of absence. Festivals are paused, campaigns feel sparse and participation is weighed against safety. Yet Hispanic Heritage Month remains a lived reality, and its absence from public spaces underscores something deeper: the loss of opportunities to celebrate a beautiful and glorious culture, one of the many which make up the historic tapestry of our country. This silence is a reminder Hispanic Heritage Month is not a marketing season or a calendar date. It is lived experience. It is tradition, celebration and resilience which persist even when gatherings are canceled and campaigns feel sparse. The absence itself tells a story, one asking all of us to consider how heritage can be honored in ways where culture truly lives.