Hispanic Heritage Month Reading List
Hispanic identity is not just one story. It encompasses a range of countries, cultures, languages, generations, and diasporas, fueled by a vast history of migration, colonization, and resistance. This Hispanic Heritage Month, we're highlighting a selection of books that touch on that wide breadth. Read below for curated picks from our team that involve family and identity, politics, displacement, the search for home, and much more across genres.
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Table of Contents:
Non-Fiction
The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop: How To Decolonize The Creative Classroom by Felicia Rose Chavez
The Antiracist Writing Workshop is a call to create healthy, sustainable, and empowering artistic communities for a new millennium of writers. Inspired by June Jordan 's 1995 Poetry for the People, here is a blueprint for a 21st-century workshop model that protects and platforms writers of color. Instead of earmarking dusty anthologies, imagine workshop participants Skyping with contemporary writers of difference. Instead of tolerating bigoted criticism, imagine workshop participants moderating their own feedback sessions. Instead of yielding to the red-penned judgement of instructors, imagine workshop participants citing their own text in dialogue. The Antiracist Writing Workshop is essential reading for anyone looking to revolutionize the old workshop model into an enlightened, democratic counterculture.
Essays
Linea Nigra by Jazmina Barrera
An intimate exploration of motherhood, Linea Nigra approaches the worries and joys of childbearing from a diverse range of inspirations and traditions, from Louise Bourgeois to Ursula K. Le Guin to the indigenous Nahua model Luz Jiménez. Part memoir and part manifesto, Barrera’s singular insights, delivered in candid prose, clarify motherhood while also cherishing the mysteries of the body.
Writing through her first pregnancy, birthing, breastfeeding, and young motherhood, Barrera embraces the subject fully, making lucid connections between maternity, earthquakes, lunar eclipses, and creative labor. Inspired by the author’s own mother’s painting practice, Linea Nigra concludes with an impassioned call: childbearing is art, and art is childbearing.
Memoir & Biography
Somebody Is Walking on Your Grave by Mariana Enriquez
Mariana Enriquez has been fascinated by the haunting beauty of cemeteries since she was a teenager. A goth flaneur among the headstones, she has journeyed across North and South America, Europe and Australia, Paris's catacombs, Prague's Old Jewish Cemetery, New Orleans's above-ground mausoleums, the opulent Recoleta in her hometown of Buenos Aires, and beyond to investigate what the living can learn from the dead.
Weaving personal stories with reportage, interviews, myths, hauntology, personal photographs, and more, Somebody Is Walking on Your Gravereveals as much about Enriquez's own life and unique sensibility as the graveyards she tours. Fascinating, spooky, and unlike anything else, Enriquez's first work of nonfiction, translated by the award-winning Megan McDowell, is as original and startling as the fiction for which she's become so beloved and admired.
My Broken Language by Quiara Alegría Hudes
Quiara Alegría Hudes was the sharp-eyed girl on the stairs while her family danced their defiance in a tight North Philly kitchen. She was awed by her mother and aunts and cousins, but haunted by the unspoken, untold stories of the barrio—even as she tried to find her own voice in the sea of language around her, written and spoken, English and Spanish, bodies and books, Western art and sacred altars. Her family became her private pantheon, a gathering circle of powerful orisha-like women with tragic real-world wounds, and she vowed to tell their stories—but first she’d have to get off the stairs and join the dance. She’d have to find her language.
Weaving together Hudes’s love of music with the songs of her family, the lessons of North Philly with those of Yale, this is a multimythic dive into home, memory, and belonging—narrated by an obsessed girl who fought to become an artist so she could capture the world she loved in all its wild and delicate beauty.
The Queen of Swords by Jazmina Barrera
Sifting through the writer’s archives at Princeton, Barrera is repeatedly thwarted in her attempt to fully know her subject. Traditional means of research—the correspondence, photos, and books—serve only to complicate and cloud the woman and her work.Who was Elena Garro, really?
She was a writer, a founder of “magical realism," a dancer. A devotee to the tarot and theI Ching. A socialite and activist on behalf of indigenous Mexicans. She was a mother and a lover who repeatedly shook off (and cheated on) her manipulative husband, Nobel-laureate Octavio Paz. And above all, she wrote with simmering anger and glittering imagination.
The Queen of Swords is a portrait of a woman that also serves as an alternative history of Mexico City; a cry-out for justice; and an homage to the unknowable. It transcends mere biography, supplanting something tidy and authoritative for a sprawling experiment in understanding.
Literary Fiction
Malas by Marcela Fuentes
In 1951, a mysterious old woman confronts Pilar Aguirre in the small border town of La Cienega, Texas. The old woman is sure Pilar stole her husband and, in a heated outburst, lays a curse on Pilar and her family.
More than forty years later, Lulu Muñoz is dodging chaos at every turn: her troubled father’s moods, his rules, her secret life as singer in a punk band, but most of all her upcoming quinceañera. When her beloved grandmother passes away, Lulu finds herself drawn to the glamorous stranger who crashed the funeral and who lives alone and shunned on the edge of town.
Their unexpected kinship picks at the secrets of Lulu’s family’s past. As the quinceañera looms—and we move between these two strong, irascible female voices—one woman must make peace with the past, and one girl pushes to embrace her future.
Rich with cinematic details—from dusty rodeos to the excitement of a Selena concert and the comfort of conjunto ballads played at family gatherings—this memorable debut is a love letter to the Tejano culture and community that sustain both of these women as they discover what family means.
Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzales
1985. Anita de Monte, a rising star in the art world, is found dead in New York City; her tragic death is the talk of the town. Until it isn’t. By 1998 Anita’s name has been all but forgotten—certainly by the time Raquel, a third-year art history student is preparing her final thesis. On College Hill, surrounded by privileged students whose futures are already paved out for them, Raquel feels like an outsider. Students of color, like her, are the minority there, and the pressure to work twice as hard for the same opportunities is no secret.
But when Raquel becomes romantically involved with a well-connected older art student, she finds herself unexpectedly rising up the social ranks. As she attempts to straddle both worlds, she stumbles upon Anita’s story, raising questions about the dynamics of her own relationship, which eerily mirrors that of the forgotten artist.
Moving back and forth through time and told from the perspectives of both women, Anita de Monte Laughs Last, is a propulsive, witty examination of power, love, and art, daring to ask who gets to be remembered and who is left behind in the rarefied world of the elite.
How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz
Write this down: Cara Romero wants to work.
Cara Romero thought she would work at the factory of little lamps for the rest of her life. But when, in her mid-50s, she loses her job in the Great Recession, she is forced back into the job market for the first time in decades. Set up with a job counselor, Cara instead begins to narrate the story of her life. Over the course of twelve sessions, Cara recounts her tempestuous love affairs, her alternately biting and loving relationships with her neighbor Lulu and her sister Angela, her struggles with debt, gentrification and loss, and, eventually, what really happened between her and her estranged son, Fernando. As Cara confronts her darkest secrets and regrets, we see a woman buffeted by life but still full of fight.
Structurally inventive and emotionally kaleidoscopic, How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water is Angie Cruz’s most ambitious and moving novel yet, and Cara is a heroine for the ages.
Fantasy/Sci-fi
Buzzard by Inez Ray
Seven years ago, midwife Mae Bastet was arrested for infanticide in the fractious Arizona Territory for providing health care to women in need. She was torn from her sons and sent to Buzzard—an experimental private prison deep in the Sonoran Desert, run by the paramilitary corporation Obsityan.
Desperate to reunite her family, Mae tries to keep her head down, swallow her prison-issued hormone supplements, and do her job as a glorified school nurse to Obsityan’s army of teenage drone pilots. But when mysterious, improbable pregnancies begin cropping up in her charges, she uncovers a web of secrets that has the power to destroy Obsityan. Mae must choose: stay complicit in Obsityan’s crimes or hold fast to her midwife principles and risk never seeing her sons again.
Buzzard is a ferocious dystopian debut that traces the possible trajectory of our current political and technological reality—and the power of our deepest human bonds.
Mystery/Thriller/Horror
The Possession of Alba Díaz by Isabel Cañas
When a demonic presence awakens deep in a Mexican silver mine, the young woman it seizes must turn to the one man she shouldn’t trust…from bestselling author Isabel Cañas.
In 1765, plague sweeps through Zacatecas. Alba flees with her wealthy merchant parents and fiancé, Carlos, to his family’s isolated mine for refuge. But safety proves fleeting as other dangers soon bare their teeth: Alba begins suffering from strange hallucinations, sleepwalking, and violent convulsions. She senses something cold lurking beneath her skin. Something angry. Something wrong.
Elías, haunted by a troubled past, came to the New World to make his fortune and escape his family’s legacy of greed. Alba, as his cousin’s betrothed, is none of his business. Which is of course why he can’t help but notice the growing tension between them every time she enters the room…and why he notices her deteriorate when the demon’s thirst for blood gets stronger.
In the fight for her life, Alba and Elías become entangled with the occult, the Church, long-kept secrets, and each other… not knowing that one of these things will spell their doom.
Juvenile Fiction
The Island of Forgotten Gods by Victor Piñeiro
When Nico decides to spend his summer with his abuela and cousins in Puerto Rico, he didn’t expect to be hunted by the legendary chupacabra. But soon he discovers that the only way to save the island is by facing the very gods who created it. From the author of Time Villains comes a new fantastical adventure about family, tradition, and seeing things for what they truly are.
Nico wants to be a film director. So far his creativity has been limited to short videos he puts out on social media, but he has grand plans to put together a real movie soon. The catch? His parents are sending him to Puerto Rico for the summer, to stay with his iconic (but carless) Abuela Luciana and his cousins, who are Abuela Summer veterans. Still, he wants to make the best of “the boringest summer ever” (as his cousins put it) by filming his masterpiece.
But when filming begins they spot a gargoyle-like creature that can only be one thing: the legendary chupacabra. And this creature begins following them, chasing them when they’re alone at night, and seemingly hunting them down. At the same time, a strange cult also seems to have it in for the trio, hoping to capture them first.
Soon they are thrown into a horror-tinged adventure that brings them face-to-face with ancient Tainos, even more ancient Taino gods, and the mysterious chupacabra, who is somehow linked to everything—including their enigmatic Abuela. Nico hopes that his documentary capturing all of these mythic characters catapults him to stardom, but it might lead to his island’s downfall. And in the end, it is the island’s fate that hangs in the balance, as the trio faces down the very gods that created Puerto Rico.
Halfway to Somewhere by Jose Pimienta
Ave thought moving to Kansas would be boring and flat after enjoying the mountains and trails in Mexico, but at least they would have their family with them. Unfortunately, while Ave, their mom, and their younger brother are relocating to the US, Ave's father and older sister will be staying in Mexico...permanently. Their parents are getting a divorce.
As if learning a whole new language wasn't hard enough, and now a Middle-Schooler has to figure out a new family dynamic...and what this means for them as they start middle school with no friends.
Jose Pimienta's stunningly illustrated and thought provoking middle graphic novel is about exploring identity, understanding family, making friends with a language barrier, and above all else, learning what truly makes a place a home.
Mexikid by Pedro Martín
Pedro Martín has grown up hearing stories about his abuelito—his legendary crime-fighting, grandfather who was once a part of the Mexican Revolution! But that doesn't mean Pedro is excited at the news that Abuelito is coming to live with their family. After all, Pedro has 8 brothers and sisters and the house is crowded enough! Still, Pedro piles into the Winnebago with his family for a road trip to Mexico to bring Abuelito home, and what follows is the trip of a lifetime, one filled with laughs and heartache. Along the way, Pedro finally connects with his abuelito and learns what it means to grow up and find his grito.
Mexikid: Dreams by Pedro Martín
Pedro Martín is sick of strawberries. Since he was seven, he’s spent every weekend and summer picking berries with his family under the hot sun. Sometimes it’s not so bad—Pedro’s an ace at “strawberry wars” with his siblings, and when a good song comes on the radio, the fields can come alive with music. But mostly, Pedro wishes he could just stay home watching Saturday cartoons, head to the beach like other kids, and not worry about immigration patrols. When his older brother gets a job away from the farm, freedom suddenly seems within arm’s reach: Pedro just has to prove to his dad that he’s ready to follow a different path! Maybe he can be a trombone player, or a cartoonist—if that’s even a real job. But as Pedro learns more about his parents’ and abuelito’s past, and the choices they made in order to open up more choices for him, he starts to understand that freedom isn’t just about leaving the fields—it’s about knowing where you came from and having the courage to draw your own life.
Children's Books
Dreamers by Yuyi Morales
Yuyi Morales brought her hopes, her passion, her strength, and her stories with her, when she came to the United States in 1994 with her infant son. She left behind nearly everything she owned, but she didn't come empty-handed.
From the author-illustrator of Bright Star, Dreamers is a celebration of making your home with the things you always carry: your resilience, your dreams, your hopes and history. It's the story of finding your way in a new place, of navigating an unfamiliar world and finding the best parts of it. In dark times, it's a promise that you can make better tomorrows.
This lovingly-illustrated picture book memoir looks at the myriad gifts migrantes bring with them when they leave their homes. It's a story about family. And it's a story to remind us that we are all dreamers, bringing our own strengths wherever we roam. Beautiful and powerful at any time but given particular urgency as the status of our own Dreamers becomes uncertain, this is a story that is both topical and timeless.
The lyrical text is complemented by sumptuously detailed illustrations, rich in symbolism. Also included are a brief autobiographical essay about Yuyi's own experience, a list of books that inspired her (and still do), and a description of the beautiful images, textures, and mementos she used to create this book.
Sofia Valdez, Future Prez by Andrea Beaty
Children who join Sofia in her story will learn that they can help their community—or even one day become president of the United States!
Every morning, Abuelo walks Sofia to school . . . until one day when Abuelo hurts his ankle at a local landfill, and he can no longer do so. Sofia (aka Sofi) misses her Abuelo and wonders what she can do about the dangerous Mount Trashmore.
Then she gets an idea: The town can turn the slimy mess into a park!
She brainstorms and plans and finally works up the courage to go to City Hall—only to be told by a clerk that she can’t build a park because she’s just a kid! Sofia is down but not out, and she sets out to prove what one kid can do.
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