Celebrating Hispanic Heritage
September 15 - October 15 is Hispanic Heritage Month! Explore the resources on this page to learn and read more about Hispanic history, important figures, literature, and more!
*Check out the Library of Congress's dedicated site for Hispanic Heritage Month, which includes extensive lists of fascinating exhibits from the National Archives and other government institutions.*
New Books
Important Hispanic Biographies
Turning Pages by Call Number: KF8745.S67 A3 2018 (Curriculum Collection)ISBN: 9780525514084Publication Date: 2018-09-04"As the first Latina Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotomayor has inspired young people around the world to reach for their dreams. But what inspired her? ...In Turning Pages, Justice Sotomayor shares [her] love of books with a new generation of readers, and inspires them to read and puzzle and dream for themselves. Accompanied by Lulu Delacre's vibrant art, this story of the Justice's life shows readers that the world is full of promise and possibility--all they need to do is turn the page"
- 15 Influential Hispanic Americans Who Made HistoryClick this link to see highlights from Hispanic history, from Biography.com
- Biography Reference Center (EBSCO)
Find more biographies on important figures of Hispanic heritage and history through the Biography Reference Center, an excellent scholarly database with short summaries on famous figures
Special Topics
El Norte: the epic and forgotten story of Hispanic North America by Call Number: E40 .G53 2019ISBN: 9780802127020Publication Date: 2019-02-05"Gibson explains that our nation's Spanish roots have often been unacknowledged or marginalized. Here she chronicles the sweeping and dramatic history of Hispanic North America from the arrival of the Spanish in the early 16th century to the present, with the recent tragedy of post-hurricane Puerto Rico and the ongoing border acrimony with Mexico."
Literature As History by Call Number: E184.M5 G3746 2018ISBN: 9780816538690Publication Date: 2018-08-30"Literature as History represents a unique way to rethink history. Mario T. García, a leader in the field of Chicano history and one of the foremost historian of his generation, explores how Chicano historians can use Chicano and Latino literature as important historical sources."
Portraits of Hispanic American Heroes by Call Number: E184.S75 H486 2014ISBN: 9780803738096Publication Date: 2014-08-07"Twenty Hispanic American artists, scientists, athletes, activists and political leaders are profiled in this stunning picture book, complete with inspirational quotes and distinctive expressionist portraits"
Latinos in U.S. Sport: sport a history of isolation, cultural identity, and acceptance by Call Number: GV583 .L37 2011ISBN: 9780736087261Publication Date: 2011-03-31"Latinos in U.S. Sport offers an accessible examination of the Latino sporting experience in the United States covering topics ranging from cultural issues to economics. Using newspaper accounts and primary sources, as well as dissertations and scholarly articles from history, education, sport business, and other disciplines, the authors provide an enlightening account of this population's role in U.S. sport history"
Our America: the Latino presence in American art by Call Number: N6538.H58 S65 2014ISBN: 9781907804441Publication Date: 2014-03-25"Presenting one hundred major artworks from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Our America seeks to "recalibrate" enduring concepts about American national culture by exploring how one group of artists-those of Latin American descent and heritage-express their relationship to American art, history, and culture"
Once upon a Quinceanera by Call Number: GT2490 .A45 2007ISBN: 9780670038732Publication Date: 2007-08-02"The quinceañera, the fifteenth birthday celebration for a Latina girl... Writer Alvarez explores this celebration that brings a Latina girl into womanhood, attending the quince of a young woman in Queens, and weaving in interviews with other quince girls, her own memories of coming of age as an immigrant, and the history of the custom itself. The result is an enlightening, accessible, and entertaining portrait of contemporary Latino culture"
Celebrating Latino Folklore by Call Number: E184.S75 C455 2012ISBN: 9780313343391Publication Date: 2012-07-163-volume encyclopedia set with summary entries on significant aspects of Latinx culture
Oye Como Va! Hybridity and identity in Latino popular music by Call Number: ML3917.U6 P33 2010ISBN: 9781439900895Publication Date: 2009-12-04" In Oye Como Va!, Deborah Pacini Hernandez traces the trajectories of various U.S. Latino musical forms in a globalizing world, examining how the blending of Latin music reflects Latino/a American lives connecting across nations. Exploring the simultaneously powerful, vexing, and stimulating relationship between hybridity, music, and identity, Oye Como Va! asserts that this potent combination is a signature of the U.S. Latino/a experience."
Dream Chasers: Immigration and the American backlash by Call Number: JV6483 .T56 2015ISBN: 9780262028929Publication Date: 2015-03-13"In this book, John Tirman shows how the resistance to immigration in America is more cultural than political... Tirman describes the "raid mentality" of our response to immigration, which seeks violent solutions for a social phenomenon. He considers the culture clash over Chicano ethnic studies in Tucson, examines the consequences of an immigration raid in New Bedford, and explores the civil rights activism of young "Dreamers."
Documenting the Undocumented by Call Number: PS153.H56 C35 2016ISBN: 9780813064567Publication Date: 2017-10-10"Looking at fiction and nonfiction by citizen journalists and undocumented writers, Caminero-Santangelo finds that latino/a writers increasingly express a sense of solidarity with undocumented immigrants. She also notes, however, that the literary and narrative response is far from heterogeneous."
Kids at Work: Latinx families selling food on the streets of Los Angeles by Call Number: HF5459.U6 E88 2019ISBN: 9781479811519Publication Date: 2019-07-16"How Latinx kids and their undocumented parents struggle in the informal street food economy Street food markets have become wildly popular in Los Angeles-and behind the scenes, Latinx children have been instrumental in making these small informal businesses grow. In Kids at Work, Emir Estrada shines a light on the surprising labor of these young workers, providing the first ethnography on the participation of Latinx children in street vending"
Illegal: how America's lawless immigration regime threatens us all by Call Number: JV6483 .C54 2020ISBN: 9781541699847Publication Date: 2020-01-28"In Illegal, prominent political scientist Elizabeth Cohen explores the dark history of US immigration policy and proposes a major new plan for full-scale reform"
The First Rule of Punk by Call Number: PS3616.E749 F57 2017ISBN: 9780425290408Publication Date: 2017-08-22"Twelve-year-old María Luisa O'Neill-Morales (who really prefers to be called Malú) reluctantly moves with her Mexican-American mother to Chicago and starts seventh grade with a bang--violating the dress code with her punk rock aesthetic and spurning the middle school's most popular girl in favor of starting a band with a group of like-minded weirdos"
At Psalms School/en la Escuela de Los Salmos by Call Number: BS1430.4 .W58 2019ISBN: 9781622773725Publication Date: 2019-09-02Beautifully illustrated collection of devotional psalms, written for children in English and in Spanish
Green Is a Chile Pepper by Call Number: PZ8.3 .T328 GRE 2014ISBN: 9781452102030Publication Date: 2014-02-18Picture book (Pura Belpre winner) A little girl discovers all the bright colors in her Hispanic American neighborhood.
Sofia Valdez, Future Prez by Call Number: PZ8.3.B38447 SO 2019ISBN: 9781419737046Publication Date: 2019-11-05"When her abuelo is injured at the local landfill, second-grader Sofia is determined to transform the dangerous Mount Trashmore into a park, taking on City Hall in the process."
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Call Number: PS3551.L845 H66 1991ISBN: 0945575572Publication Date: 1991-01-04Acclaimed writer Julia Alvarez’s beloved first novel gives voice to four sisters as they grow up in two cultures.
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Call Number: PQ8180.17.A73 C513 2006ISBN: 9780060883287Publication Date: 2006-02-21Time-honored classic of Latin American literature, "...tells the story of the Buendia family, set against the background of the evolution and eventual decadence of a small South American town."
The House of the Spirits by Call Number: PQ8098.1.L54 C313 1985ISBN: 0394539079Publication Date: 1985-04-12"The House of the Spirits, the unforgettable first novel that established Isabel Allende as one of the world’s most gifted storytellers, brings to life the triumphs and tragedies of three generations of the Trueba family..." - the delicate wife Clara, a woman with a mystical connection to the spirit world. her rebellious daughter Blanca, and beautiful, strong-willed granddaughter Alba.
They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid's Poems by Call Number: PZ7.5.B69 Th 2018ISBN: 9781947627062Publication Date: 2018-11-27"Twelve-year-old Güero, a red-headed, freckled Mexican American border kid, discovers the joy of writing poetry, thanks to his seventh grade English teacher"
Spare Parts by Call Number: PN1997 .S65264 2015Publication Date: 2015Four Hispanic high school students organize a robotics club. With no experience, 800 bucks, used car parts and big dreams, this rag tag team goes up against the country's reigning robotics champion, MIT.
West Side Story by Call Number: PN1997 .W4588759 1998Publication Date: c1961Award-winning classic musical, the story of Romeo and Juliet against a backdrop of the rivalry of two street gangs, the white Sharks and the Puerto Rican Jets, in New York of the 1950s.
Latino Americans: the 500-year legacy that shaped a nation by Call Number: E184.S75 L3856 2013ISBN: 9781608839735Publication Date: 2013"Latino Americans chronicles the rich and varied history and experiences of Latinos, who have for the past 500-plus years helped shape what is today the United States. It is a story of people, politics, and culture, intersecting with much that is central to the history of the United States while also going to places where standard U.S. histories do not tend to tread."
Like Water for Chocolate by Call Number: PN1997 .L5799549 2000ISBN: 0788816829Publication Date: 2016-03-01Romantic fantasy set in Mexico during the early 20th century. A young couple is blocked from marrying by the demands of the young woman's cold and selfish mother. To be near his love, the young man marries her sister, and she expresses her passion for him through her cooking
