Staff and students at Training Support Center (TSC), Great Lakes, celebrated Hispanic heritage at a program held Sept. 19 in Fellowship Hall in Bldg. 3.
    The event coincided with the Department of Defense’s national observance of National Hispanic Month Sept. 15 through Oct. 15.
    The observance began Sept. 15 to coincide with the date in 1821 when five Latin-American countries — Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua — declared their independence from Spain. Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence on Sept. 16 and 18, respectively.
    “It’s important that we recognize the heritage from all our diverse communities in the Navy for the reason that it helps us understand each other more at work,” said MC1(AW/SW) Miguel Contreras, event coordinator. “It helps us to learn the little things we normally would not know and it makes it easier to work with people once you understand their culture and know where they’re coming from.”
    The Navy’s workforce reflects this diversity — today, more than 58,000 Hispanic active duty and reserve sailors and officers and nearly 15,000 Hispanic civilians serve in the Navy Total Force, including four Hispanic flag officers and 172 Hispanic master chiefs.
    The guests listened to FC1 (SW/AW) Franco Montjoy, an instructor at TSC, relay the story of his family’s difficult decision to emigrate from Lima, Peru, to the U.S. when he was just a boy.