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Hispanic Heritage Drawing Ideas for the Month

Three poster layouts, maps, lettering ideas or national symbols for 15 September to 15 October.

Hispanic Heritage Drawing Ideas for the Month

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  1. A turquoise-browed motmot on a branchThe national symbol of both El Salvador and Nicaragua. Look up a photograph for its colours.
  2. Honduras's flag with five starsBlue, white, blue. Five blue stars make an X on the white band.
  3. A recipe card for a dish a family makesAsk for the recipe. Letter the name at the top, draw the finished dish, and list what goes in it.

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Portrait layouts 14

  • A book cover for the life of someone you chose Title at the top, portrait in the middle, your name as author at the foot. Every fact on the back needs a source.
  • A class gallery of portrait cards on a string Everyone draws one person on a card the size of a postcard, name below. Peg the cards along a line.
  • A family portrait wall, frames hung on a tree A trunk, branches and an oval frame on each. Draw the oldest relatives highest. Ask at home for the names.
  • A four-panel strip of one person's life Child, student, the work, the legacy. Same character in each panel, one date per caption.
  • A mural sketch with one face much larger than the rest Plan it on squared paper. The big face is the person you chose; small scenes from their life fill the wall round it.
  • A musician drawn from the hands outward Start with the hands on the strings or keys, then the instrument, then the rest of the person.
  • A portrait built from the person's own words in two languages Pencil a head and shoulders. Fill the shape with their words in Spanish and English, then rub out the outline.
  • A portrait of someone who taught you a word in Spanish A neighbour, a teacher, a friend's grandparent. Ask first, and letter the word beside them.
  • A portrait poster with a border in a flag's colours The face in the middle, name and years below, the border in the colours of the person's country. Check all three.
  • A portrait with a speech bubble in Spanish and English Write the sentence in both languages. Check the Spanish, accents included, with someone who speaks it.
  • A self-portrait holding the flag of a country you studied Draw yourself from the waist up. Copy the flag from a reference, band by band, before you colour.
  • A silhouette filled with the map of a country A side-view head as one shape. Inside it, the outline of the country the person came from, with its capital marked.
  • A two-frame poster: the person, and the work they are known for Portrait on the left, the book, song, goal or discovery on the right, the year beneath. Find the year in a library book.
  • An interview page: a relative's face and three answers Ask where the family came from, what they brought, and what they miss. Draw the face, letter the answers.

Maps and timelines 11

  • A calendar strip from 15 September to 15 October The month runs from 15 September to 15 October. Thirty-one boxes across two calendar pages.
  • A class map with a string from your town to each country Draw it first as a plan: your town as a dot, straight lines fanning out, a flag at the end of each.
  • A fact-a-day strip for the classroom wall One box for each school day of the month. A small drawing above, one checked sentence below.
  • A family journey map with a dotted line From where the family lived to where you live now. Mark each stop with a small drawing and a year.
  • A map of one country filled with what it is known for Food, music, animals and buildings, each drawn where it belongs. Check every one before it goes on the map.
  • A map of the Americas with one country coloured in Outline the two continents lightly. Colour only the country you are studying and label its capital.
  • A passport page with a stamp for each country studied Invent a round or square stamp for each: name, a symbol, a date. Overlap them as real stamps do.
  • A ribbon timeline: 1968, a week, and 1988, a month It began as Hispanic Heritage Week in 1968 and was expanded to a month in 1988. Two flags on one ribbon.
  • A search for Spanish names on a map of your state Look for towns, rivers and streets. Copy the map outline and letter each name you find where it sits.
  • A three-date banner: 15, 16 and 18 September Five Central American nations on the 15th, Mexico on the 16th, Chile on the 18th. Three pennants on one string.
  • Five flags for 15 September Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua mark independence that day. All five use blue and white.

Lettering 13

  • 15 SEPT to 15 OCT drawn as a badge A circle with the two dates round the rim and one symbol in the middle.
  • A bookmark with a country's name and its national bird A tall strip: the bird at the top, the name reading downward. Several national birds are on this list.
  • A country's name in letters patterned like its flag Block capitals, each filled with the flag's bands in the right order. Copy the order from a reference.
  • A headline built from tiny flags Pencil the letters, then build each stroke from small rectangles in flag colours.
  • A quote frame left empty until the quote is checked Draw the frame, the quotation marks and the line for the name. Fill it in only from a book or a museum page.
  • A recipe card for a dish a family makes Ask for the recipe. Letter the name at the top, draw the finished dish, and list what goes in it.
  • A thank-you card in two languages English on the left, Spanish on the right, one drawing across the fold.
  • A title card: who, where from, known for Three short lines, the first one largest. It sits under a portrait like a label in a museum.
  • A welcome banner in Spanish for the classroom door Look the word up and copy its spelling. One letter per pennant, in the colours of a flag you studied.
  • A word wall of ten words in English and Spanish Two columns, a small drawing beside each pair. Check every word in a dictionary or with a Spanish speaker.
  • An acrostic of HERITAGE with a drawing per line Eight capitals down the left edge. Beside each, a word from your own reading and a small picture.
  • Mes nacional de la herencia hispana in your best handwriting The month's name in Spanish. Rule pencil lines, write slowly, and copy the spelling letter by letter.
  • The month's name lettered on a ribbon held by two birds A long ribbon with forked ends, a bird at each end holding it up. Choose birds from Symbols and flags.

Symbols and flags 26

  • A coquí on a leaf The coquí, a frog, is a national symbol of Puerto Rico. Draw it small on a very large leaf.
  • A dahlia The dahlia and the golden eagle are Mexico's national symbols. Draw from a real flower or a photograph.
  • A harpy eagle Panama's national symbol. Find a photograph first and copy what you see, feather by feather.
  • A huemul, the mountain deer Chile's national symbols are the huemul and the Andean condor. A deer on a rocky slope.
  • A llama on a high plain The llama and the Andean condor are Bolivia's national symbols. Long neck, ears up, a thick coat.
  • A palmchat in a palm tree The Dominican Republic's national symbol is a bird, the palmchat. Draw the palm first, the bird small in it.
  • A quetzal with a long green tail The quetzal is Guatemala's national bird and appears, green and red, on its coat of arms.
  • A royal palm The royal palm is Cuba's national symbol. A tall smooth trunk with a crown of long fronds at the top.
  • A scarlet macaw on a branch, tail hanging The scarlet macaw and the white-tailed deer are the national symbols of Honduras. Long tail, big beak.
  • A troupial Venezuela's national symbol is the troupial, a bird. Find a photograph and copy its colours.
  • A turquoise-browed motmot on a branch The national symbol of both El Salvador and Nicaragua. Look up a photograph for its colours.
  • A vicuña on a mountainside Peru's national symbol, a relative of the llama. It stands on the shield of Peru's coat of arms.
  • A yigüirro singing on a fence post Costa Rica's national symbol is the yigüirro, the clay-coloured thrush. A small bird, beak open.
  • An Andean condor with its wings spread A national symbol of Colombia, Ecuador, Chile and Bolivia. Draw it from below against a mountain ridge.
  • Argentina's flag with the Sun of May Sky blue, white, sky blue, in three equal bands, with a yellow sun with a face in the centre.
  • Chile's flag with its single star White over red. A blue square in the top left corner, as deep as the white band, holds a white star.
  • Colombia's flag: yellow, blue, red Three horizontal bands. The yellow one, at the top, is twice as deep as each of the other two.
  • Cuba's flag Five bands of blue and white, and a red triangle at the left with a white star.
  • Honduras's flag with five stars Blue, white, blue. Five blue stars make an X on the white band.
  • Machu Picchu on its ridge A fifteenth-century Inca citadel on a mountain ridge in southern Peru. Terraces step down a steep slope.
  • Mexico's eagle on a cactus with a snake in its beak The coat of arms at the centre of Mexico's flag, which has bands of green, white and red.
  • Panama's flag in four quarters Top: white with a blue star, then plain red. Bottom: plain blue, then white with a red star.
  • Peru's flag: red, white, red Three equal vertical bands. The state flag adds the coat of arms on the white one.
  • The Pillars of Hercules Spain's national symbol: two columns, which stand for the headlands either side of the Strait of Gibraltar.
  • Puerto Rico's flag Five bands of red and white, and a blue triangle at the left with a large white star.
  • The Sun of May A yellow sun with a human face, the national symbol of Argentina and Uruguay. Uruguay's has sixteen rays.

How it works

National Hispanic Heritage Month runs from 15 September to 15 October. These Hispanic heritage drawing ideas are layouts for school posters, plus national symbols and flags with checked facts. No idea names a person: that choice is yours.

Read the full guide

Choose the person, then the layout

The Portrait layouts group gives ways to set out a poster about one person and leaves the name to you. Pick someone you can read about in a library book or on a museum page, and check the name, the years and any quote before you ink them.

Hispanic things to draw, country by country

The Symbols and flags group holds national symbols and flags from Latin America, Spain and Puerto Rico. Each hint says whose it is. A flag is only right if the bands are in order, so copy it from a reference and count.

  • Rule a flag's bands in pencil first. Several are not equal: Colombia's yellow band is twice as deep as the others.
  • Write Spanish words with their accents and the letter ñ where they belong. Copy the spelling from a dictionary.

Questions and answers

When is Hispanic Heritage Month?

From 15 September to 15 October each year in the United States. It began as a week in 1968 and was expanded to a month in 1988.

Why does it start on 15 September?

The date is the anniversary of independence for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Mexico marks its independence on 16 September and Chile on 18 September, so seven national days fall in the first four days.

Why does no idea name a person?

A fixed list cannot check your person for you. Every name, year and quote on a school poster should come from a source you can point to, so the portrait layouts leave that space open.

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