Sept-Oct - Hispanic Heritage Month - Diversity Readings - Hekman Library at Calvin University

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

Making the MexiRican city : migration, placemaking, and activism in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Predicadores : Hispanic preaching and immigrant identity

Important Hispanic Biographies

Turning Pages by Sonia Sotomayor; Lulu Delacre (Illustrator)
Call Number: KF8745.S67 A3 2018 (Curriculum Collection)
ISBN: 9780525514084
Publication 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 History
Click 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
This resource provides coverage for several of the most popular and heavily-researched biographies and genres, including those contained within Biography Today and Biography (both dating back to the first issue published).

In addition to keyword searching, Biography Reference Center users can locate biographies of interest by browsing key categories, including occupation, nationality, publication and more than 30 genre categories including actors, artists, athletes, authors, current world leaders, explorers, scientists and many others. Results can also be limited by reading level indicators (Lexiles) and source types that include concise and detailed biographies, interviews, obituaries and related articles. Users can also limit results according to any combination of subject occupation, activity, gender, birth place, birthday, lifespan, nationality and more.

Special Topics

El Norte: the epic and forgotten story of Hispanic North America by Carrie Gibson
Call Number: E40 .G53 2019
ISBN: 9780802127020
Publication 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 Mario T. García
Call Number: E184.M5 G3746 2018
ISBN: 9780816538690
Publication 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 Juan Felipe Herrera; Raul ón (Illustrator)
Call Number: E184.S75 H486 2014
ISBN: 9780803738096
Publication 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 Jorge Iber; Samuel O. Regalado; Jose Alamillo; Arnoldo De Leon
Call Number: GV583 .L37 2011
ISBN: 9780736087261
Publication 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 Carmen Ramos; Tomas Ybarra-Frausto (Introduction by)
Call Number: N6538.H58 S65 2014
ISBN: 9781907804441
Publication 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 Julia Alvarez
Call Number: GT2490 .A45 2007
ISBN: 9780670038732
Publication 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 María Herrera-Sobek
Call Number: E184.S75 C455 2012
ISBN: 9780313343391
Publication Date: 2012-07-16
3-volume encyclopedia set with summary entries on significant aspects of Latinx culture
Oye Como Va! Hybridity and identity in Latino popular music by Deborah Pacini Hernandez
Call Number: ML3917.U6 P33 2010
ISBN: 9781439900895
Publication 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 John Tirman
Call Number: JV6483 .T56 2015
ISBN: 9780262028929
Publication 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 Marta Caminero-Santangelo
Call Number: PS153.H56 C35 2016
ISBN: 9780813064567
Publication 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 Emir Estrada
Call Number: HF5459.U6 E88 2019
ISBN: 9781479811519
Publication 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 Elizabeth F. Cohen
Call Number: JV6483 .C54 2020
ISBN: 9781541699847
Publication 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 Celia C. Pérez
Call Number: PS3616.E749 F57 2017
ISBN: 9780425290408
Publication 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 María Eugenia Cornou; John D. Witvliet; Joel Schoon-Tanis (Illustrator)
Call Number: BS1430.4 .W58 2019
ISBN: 9781622773725
Publication Date: 2019-09-02
Beautifully illustrated collection of devotional psalms, written for children in English and in Spanish
Green Is a Chile Pepper by Roseanne Greenfield Thong; John Parra (Illustrator)
Call Number: PZ8.3 .T328 GRE 2014
ISBN: 9781452102030
Publication Date: 2014-02-18
Picture book (Pura Belpre winner) A little girl discovers all the bright colors in her Hispanic American neighborhood.
Sofia Valdez, Future Prez by Andrea Beaty; David Roberts (Illustrator)
Call Number: PZ8.3.B38447 SO 2019
ISBN: 9781419737046
Publication 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 Julia Alvarez
Call Number: PS3551.L845 H66 1991
ISBN: 0945575572
Publication Date: 1991-01-04
Acclaimed 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 Gabriel García Márquez
Call Number: PQ8180.17.A73 C513 2006
ISBN: 9780060883287
Publication Date: 2006-02-21
Time-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 Isabel Allende; Magda Bogin (Translator)
Call Number: PQ8098.1.L54 C313 1985
ISBN: 0394539079
Publication 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 David Bowles
Call Number: PZ7.5.B69 Th 2018
ISBN: 9781947627062
Publication 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 McNamara, Sean (film director)
Call Number: PN1997 .S65264 2015
Publication Date: 2015
Four 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 Wise, Robert (Director). Robbins, Jerome. (Director)
Call Number: PN1997 .W4588759 1998
Publication Date: c1961
Award-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 Bosch, Adriana, (television producer)
Call Number: E184.S75 L3856 2013
ISBN: 9781608839735
Publication 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 LUMI CAVAZOS; MARCO LEONARDI
Call Number: PN1997 .L5799549 2000
ISBN: 0788816829
Publication Date: 2016-03-01
Romantic 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