Featured Ebooks
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National Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated in the United States annually from September 15-October 15. We've put together a collection of fiction and nonfiction ebooks by Hispanic authors and/or about topics related to Hispanic culture. For more information, please visit the National Hispanic Heritage month website hosted by the Library of Congress.
Hispanic Heritage Month
The House on Mango Street
A coming-of-age classic, acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages, taught in schools and universities alike and translated around the world--from the winner of the 2019 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature. The House on Mango Street is the remarkable story of Esperanza Cordero, a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become. Told in a series of vignettes-sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous-Sandra Cisneros' masterpiece is a classic story of childhood and self-discovery. Few other books in our time have touched so many readers. Cisneros draws on her rich [Latino] heritage and seduces with precise, spare prose, creat[ing] unforgettable characters we want to lift off the page.
Sabrina and Corina
A haunting debut story collection on friendship, mothers and daughters, and the deep-rooted truths of our homelands, centered on Latinas of indigenous descent that shines a new light on the American West. Kali Fajardo-Anstine's magnetic story collection breathes life into her Indigenous Latina characters and the land they inhabit. Set against the remarkable backdrop of Denver, Colorado-a place that is as fierce as it is exquisite-these women navigate the land the way they navigate their lives- with caution, grace, and quiet force. Sabrina & Corina is a moving narrative of unrelenting feminine power and an exploration of the universal experiences of abandonment, heritage, and an eternal sense of home.
The New Latino Studies Reader
The New Latino Studies Reader is designed as a contemporary, updated, multifaceted collection of writings that bring to force the exciting, necessary scholarship of the last decades. It aims to introduce a new generation of students to a wide-ranging set of essays that helps them gain a truer understanding of what it's like to be a Latino in the United States. With the reader, students explore the sociohistorical formation of Latinos as a distinct pan-ethnic group in the United States, delving into issues of class formation; social stratification; racial, gender, and sexual identities; and politics and cultural production. And while other readers now in print may discuss Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Central Americans as distinct groups with unique experiences, this text explores both the commonalities and the differences that structure the experiences of Latino Americans. Timely, thorough, and thought-provoking, The New Latino Studies Reader provides a genuine view of the Latino experience as a whole.
Mexican Gothic
An isolated mansion. A chillingly charismatic aristocrat. And a brave socialite drawn to expose their treacherous secrets. After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She's not sure what she will find--her cousin's husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region. Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She's a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she's also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin's new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi's dreams with visions of blood and doom. Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family's youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family's past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.
Chica Lit
In Chica Lit: Popular Latina Fiction and Americanization in the Twenty-First Century, Tace Hedrick illuminates how discourses of Americanization, ethnicity, gender, class, and commodification shape the genre of "chica lit," popular fiction written by Latina authors with Latina characters. She argues that chica lit is produced and marketed in the same ways as contemporary romance and chick lit fiction, and aimed at an audience of twenty- to thirty-something upwardly mobile Latina readers. Its stories about young women's ethnic class mobility and gendered romantic success tend to celebrate twenty-first century neoliberal narratives about Americanization, hard work, and individual success. However, Hedrick emphasizes, its focus on Latina characters necessarily inflects this celebratory mode: the elusiveness of meaning in its use of the very term "Latina" empties out the differences among and between Latina/o and Chicano/a groups in the United States. Of necessity, chica lit also struggles with questions about the actual social and economic "place" of Latinas and Chicanas in this same neoliberal landscape; these questions unsettle its reliance on the tried-and-true formulas of chick lit and romance writing. Looking at chica lit's market-driven representations of difference, poverty, and Americanization, Hedrick shows how this writing functions within the larger arena of struggles over popular representation of Latinas and Chicanas.
Nerds, Goths, Geeks, and Freaks
In Nerds, Goths, Geeks, and Freaks: Outsiders in Chicanx and Latinx Young Adult Literature, the outsider intersects with discussions of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. The essays in this volume address questions of outsider identities and how these identities are shaped by mainstream myths around Chicanx and Latinx young people, particularly with the common stereotype of the struggling, underachieving inner-city teens. Contributors also grapple with how young adults reclaim what it means to be an outsider, weirdo, nerd, or goth, and how the reclamation of these marginalized identities expand conversations around authenticity and narrow understandings of what constitutes cultural identity.
Race and Identity in Hispanic America
The Hispanicization of America is precipitating a paradigm shift in racial thinking in which race is no longer defined by distinct characteristics but rather is becoming synonymous with ethnic/cultural identity. The Hispanicization of America entails the horizontal assimilation of various groups from Spanish-speaking countries throughout the Western Hemisphere and Caribbean into a pan-ethnic, Hispanic/Latino identity that also challenges the privileged position of whiteness as the primary and exclusive referent for American identity. Instead of focusing on one Hispanic group, ethnic identity, or region, this book chronicles the development of racial identity across the largest Hispanic groups throughout the United States.
Home Girls
Alvina E. Quintana examines how Chicana writers engage literary convention through fiction, poetry, drama, and autobiography as a means of addressing these motives. Her analysis of the writings of Gloria Anzaldua, Ana Castillo, Denise Chavez, Sandra Cisneros, and Cherrie Moraga addresses a multitude of issues: the social and political forces that influenced the Chicana aesthetic; Chicana efforts to open a dialogue about the limitation of both Anglo-American feminism and Chicano nationalism; experimentations with content and form; the relationship between imaginative writing and self-reflexive ethnography; and performance, domesticity, and sexuality. Employing anthropological, feminist, historical, and literary sources, Quintana explores the continuity found among Chicanas writing across varied genres--a drive to write themselves into being.
They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid's Poems
Middle-grade twelve-year-old GUero is Mexican American, at home with Spanish or English on both sides of the river. He's starting 7th grade with a woke English teacher who knows how to make poetry cool. In Spanish, "GUero" is a nickname for guys with pale skin, Latino or Anglo. But make no mistake: our red-headed, freckled hero is puro mexicano, like Canelo Alvarez, the Mexican boxer. GUero is also a nerd, reader, gamer, and musician who runs with a squad of misfits like him, Los Bobbys. Sure, they get in trouble like anybody else, and like other middle-school boys, they discover girls. But trusting in his family's traditions, his accordion, and his bookworm squad, he faces seventh grade with book smarts and a big heart. Life is tough for a border kid, but GUero has figured out how to cope - he writes poetry. Pura BelprE Author Honor Book, 2019 ALSC Notable Children's Book, 2019 Walter Award Honor Book, 2019 Claudia Lewis Award for Excellence in Poetry, Bank Street 2019 NCTE 2019 Notable Verse Novels Tom As Rivera Mexican American Children's Book Award TIL Jean Flynn Award for Best Middle-Grade Book 2018 School Library Journal's 2018 Best Books Shelf Awareness 2018 Best Children's & Teen Books of the Year.
Latin Moon in Manhattan
Exuberant and colorful, Latin Moon in Manhattan paints a vivid portrait of New York City as the land of El Dorado for today's Latino immigrants. From Little Colombia in Queens to the street life of Times Square, this brilliant novel is crowded with extraordinary characters: Hot Sauce, a midget hooker; Simon Bolivar, a parrot who croons Julio Iglesias songs; the Uttutias, a family rich from cocaine smuggling; Santiago Martinez, a would-be poet whose ancient cat, Mr. O'Donnell, is dying of an enlarged heart.
Cesar Chavez
Cesar Chavez introduces the Mexican American advocate for farm workers' rights, highlighting how he and Dolores Huerta formed the United Farm Workers of America and how Chavez later led a protest march on behalf of grape pickers. Each of these volumes progresses sequentially from its subject's childhood to his or her death. Color illustrations and the occasional photo complement the reader-friendly text, which consists of short paragraphs and 'Good to Know' fact boxes; the latter often impart historical contexts, such as the internment of Japanese Americans and the tragedy of the Trail of Tears. A timeline recaps the 'big dates' in each person's life, followed by a glossary, further reading, and an index. Best for larger collections."―Booklist
The King of Adobe
In 1967, Reies Lopez Tijerina led an armed takeover of a New Mexico courthouse in the name of land rights for disenfranchised Spanish-speaking locals. The small-scale raid surprisingly thrust Tijerina and his cause into the national spotlight, catalyzing an entire generation of activists. The actions of Tijerina and his group, the Alianza Federal de Mercedes (the Federal Alliance of Land Grants), demanded that Americans attend to an overlooked part of the country's history: the United States was an aggressive empire that had conquered and colonized the Southwest and subsequently wrenched land away from border people--Mexicans and Native Americans alike. To many young Mexican American activists at the time, Tijerina and the Alianza offered a compelling and militant alternative to the nonviolence of Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King Jr. Tijerina's place at the table among the nation's leading civil rights activists was short-lived, but his analysis of land dispossession and his prophetic zeal for the rights of his people was essential to the creation of the Chicano movement.
Latino Leaders Speak
"People do not define you," Soledad O'Brien's Cuban mother repeatedly told her children. "You define yourself." And so this mixed-race, first-generation Latina American would go on to succeed in her field, ultimately becoming an anchor for CNN. O'Brien's remarks, like the others included in this volume, reflect on what it means to be Latino in the United States. For her, "It's succeeding, fulfilling the dream and then turning around and grabbing everybody else and making it happen for them too." The importance of education is a common refrain in the lives of the leaders represented here. Many reference one particular teacher or mentor who made a difference. The late Reverend Father Virgilio Elizondo, a professor at the University of Notre Dame, said his fifth-grade teacher changed his life. She taught him to love school and learning. Others remember the sacrifices made by parents so that their children could have more opportunities for a better life. In all, these writings are both a testament to perseverance and a guide to life, for readers of all backgrounds.
All My Goodbyes
"All My Goodbyes is a virtuoso performance. A love story told in razor-sharp fragments, the novel lies at the intersection of memory, violence, and trauma."--Katie Kitamura A young Argentinian woman feels her identity is in pieces. Diffident, self-critical, and wary of commitment, she is condemned, or condemns herself, to repeated acts of departure, from places, parents, and lovers. Then, arriving in the southernmost region of Patagonia, she convinces herself she has found happiness until she's caught up in the horrific murders that haunt her story.
Fade into You
"A glorious illumination of the dark corners of teen trouble, Fade Into You tangles Chicano cultural inheritance, nascent punk self-discovery, and kid truth in a stoned haze." --Jessica Hopper, author of Night Moves. In the glorious wasteland of 1990s Los Angeles. Nikki Darling alternates between cutting class and getting high, falling into drugs, crushes, and counterculture to figure out how she fits into the world. Running increasingly wild with other angst-ridden outcasts, she pushes herself to the edge only to find herself trapped in the cyclical violence of growing up female. Written in dreamy, subterranean prose, this debut novel captures the reckless defiance and fragility of girlhood.
Now We Will Be Happy
Now We Will Be Happy is a prize-winning collection of stories about Afro-Puerto Ricans, U.S.-mainland-born Puerto Ricans, and displaced native Puerto Ricans who are living between spaces while attempting to navigate the unique culture that defines their identity. Amina Gautier's characters deal with the difficulties of bicultural identities in a world that wants them to choose only one. Crossing boundaries of comfort, culture, language, race, and tradition in unexpected ways, these characters struggle valiantly and doggedly to reconcile their fantasies of happiness with the realities of their existence.