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Hispanic American Heritage September 2021
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Clap when you land
by Elizabeth Acevedo YA F ACE
An evocative novel in verse by the National Book Award-winning author of 'The Poet X' follows the experiences of two grieving sisters who navigate the loss of their father and the impact of his death on their relationship.
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The new David Espinoza
by Fred Aceves YA F ACE
Obsessed with the idea that he is not muscular enough and tired of being bullied, David, age 17, begins using steroids, endangering his relationships with family and friends. Described as "powerful, raw and honest."
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Afterlife : a novel
by Julia Alvarez F ALV
Reeling from her beloved husband’s sudden death in the wake of her retirement, an immigrant writer is further derailed by the reappearance of her unstable sister and an entreaty for help by a pregnant undocumented teen.
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In the time of the butterflies
by Julia Alvarez F ALV
It is November 25, 1960, and three sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The official state newspaper reports their deaths as accidental. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of the dictatorship of General Rafael Leónidas Trujillo.
It doesn't have to. Everybody knows of Las Mariposas -- the Butterflies. In this extraordinary novel, the voices of all four sisters -- Minerva, Patria, María Teresa, and the survivor, Dedé -- speak across the decades to tell their own stories, from secret crushes to gunrunning, and to describe the everyday horrors of life under Trujillo's rule. Through the art and magic of Julia Alvarez's storytelling, the martyred Butterflies live again in this novel of courage, love, and the human cost of political oppression.
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A place in the wind
by Suzanne Chazin F CHA
Detective Jimmy Vega investigates when a teen who tutors immigrants in English disappears after class, and fights to clear the name of one of his girlfriend’s clients in the fourth novel of the series following 'No Witness but the Moon.'
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The House on Mango Street
by Sandra Cisneros F CIS
Told in a series of vignettes, 'The House On Mango Street' is the story of a young girl growing up in the Hispanic quarter of Chicago, where she discovers the hard realities of life -- the fetters of class and gender, the spectre of racial enmity, and the mysteries of sexuality.
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Martita, I Remember You : A Story in English and Spanish
by Sandra Cisneros F CIS
When she unearths a letter in a closet, Corina finds the memories of her days spent in Paris rushing back as she remembers her intense friendships with two women with whom she fell out of touch and out of mind.
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The most beautiful girl in Cuba
by Chanel Cleeton F CLE
At the end of the 19th century, reporter Grace Harrington (working for William Randolph Hearst) and a courier secretly working for Cuban revolutionaries in Havana free “The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba” who has been unjustly imprisoned — a mission that forces them all to fight for their freedom as war looms on the horizon. Inspired by the true story of the legendary Evangelina Cisneros who dreamed of a free Cuba.
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What's mine and yours : a novel
by Naima Coster F COS
Integrated into a predominantly white high school, an anxious young Black student and a half-Latina whose mother would have her pass as white join a bridge-building school play that shapes the trajectory of their adult lives.
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You had me at hola : a novel
by Alexis Daria ROM DAR
Rendered the subject of tabloid gossip by a messy public breakup, soap star Jasmine takes a part in a new bilingual comedy at the side of a telenovela costar who would revitalize his career.
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In the distance
by Hernan Diaz F DIA
A young Swedish boy finds himself penniless and alone in California. He travels East in search of his brother, moving on foot against the great push to the West. Driven back over and over again on his journey through vast expanses, Håkan meets naturalists, criminals, religious fanatics, Indians, and lawmen, and his exploits turn him into a legend.
Diaz defies the conventions of historical fiction and genre (travel narratives, the bildungsroman, nature writing, the Western), offering a probing look at the stereotypes of our past and a portrait of radical foreignness. Diaz is the author of ''Borges, Between History and Eternity and associate director of the Hispanic Institute at Columbia University. He lives in New York.
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The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao
by Junot Díaz F DIA
Living with an old-world mother and rebellious sister, an urban New Jersey misfit dreams of becoming the next J. R. R. Tolkien and believes that a long-standing family curse is thwarting his efforts to find love and happiness. A first novel by the author of the collection, 'Drown.'
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L.a. Weather
by María Amparo Escandón F ESC
Follows the Los Angeles-based Alvardo family as they take critical looks at their internal and external relationships while struggling with a fierce local drought, impending evacuations, secrets, deception, betrayal and making some tough decisions. A Reese's Book Club pick.
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The book of unknown Americans
by Cristina Henríquez F HEN
Moving from Mexico to America when their daughter suffers a near-fatal accident, the Riveras confront cultural barriers, their daughter's difficult recover,y and her developing relationship with a Panamanian boy. By the author of 'Come Together, Fall Apart.'
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Everything here is beautiful
by Mira T. Lee F LEE
The bond between a responsible, self-contained older sister and her mentally ill, impulsive younger sister is shaped and tested over years marked by the loss of their mother, an impetuous first marriage, a fling that results in the birth of a baby and painful sacrifices.
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Fat chance, Charlie Vega
by Crystal Maldonado YA F MAL
A plus-sized Latina’s struggle to forge a healthy relationship with her own body is challenged by her mother’s insensitivity, her popular best friend and personal doubts about a new boyfriend’s ability to see her as she truly is.
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Yaqui Delgado wants to kick your ass
by Meg Medina YA F MED
Informed that a bully she does not know is determined to beat her up, Latin American teen Piddy Sanchez struggles to learn more about the father she has never met, until the bully's gang forces her to confront more difficult challenges.
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We set the dark on fire
by Tehlor Kay Mejia YA F MEJ
A society wife-in-training has an uncomfortable awakening about her strictly polarized society after being recruited into a band of rebel spies and falling for her biggest rival.
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Mexican Gothic
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia F MOR
A reimagining of the classic gothic suspense novel follows the experiences of a courageous socialite in 1950s Mexico who is drawn into the treacherous secrets of an isolated mansion.
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Velvet was the night
by Silvia Moreno-Garcia F MOR
In 1970s Mexico City, Maite, a secretary with a penchant for romance novels, searches for her missing neighbor, Leonora, a beautiful art student, which leads her to an eccentric gangster who longs to escape his own life, and together, they set out to discover the dangerous truth.
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Dealing in dreams
by Lilliam Rivera YA F RIV
Sixteen year old Nalah leads the fiercest all-girl crew in Mega City, but when she sets her sights on giving this life up for a prestigious home in Mega Towers, she must decide if she's willing to do the unspeakable to get what she wants.
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I am not your perfect Mexican daughter
by Erika L. Sánchez YA F SAN
After the sister who delighted their parents by her faithful embrace of Mexican culture dies in a tragic accident, Julia discovers from mutual friends that her sister may not have been as perfect as believed.
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The house of broken angels
by Luis Alberto Urrea F URR
In his final days, beloved and ailing patriarch Miguel Angel de La Cruz, affectionately called Big Angel, has summoned his entire clan for one last legendary birthday party. But as the party approaches, his mother, nearly 100, dies, transforming the weekend into a farewell doubleheader. Among the guests is Big Angel's half brother, known as Little Angel, who must reckon with the truth that although he shares a father with his siblings, he has not, as a half gringo, shared a life. Across two bittersweet days in their San Diego neighborhood, the revelers mingle among the palm trees and cacti, celebrating the lives of Big Angel and his mother, and recounting the many inspiring tales that have passed into family lore, the acts both ordinary and heroic that brought these citizens to a fraught and sublime country and allowed them to flourish in the land they have come to call home.
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The taste of sugar : a novel
by Marisel Vera F VER
Relocating to the sugar plantations of Hawaii when their Caribbean farm is decimated by the Spanish-American War and the San Ciriaco Hurricane, two Puerto Ricans join thousands of fellow refugees in confronting the realities of American prosperity.
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Resistencia : Poems of Protest and Revolution
by Julia Alvarez 808.81 RES
This momentous collection presents feminist, queer, indigenous, urban and ecological themes, alongside historically prominent protests against imperialism, dictatorships and economic equality. .
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Spirit run : a 6,000-mile marathon through North America's stolen land
by Noé Álvarez 796.4252 ALV
Growing up in Raymond Carver country Yakima, Washington -- Noé Alvarez worked at an apple-packing plant alongside his mother, who "slouched over a conveyor belt of fruit, shoulder to shoulder with mothers conditioned to believe this was all they could do with their lives." Escape came in the form of a university scholarship, but as a first-generation Latino college-goer, lvarez struggled to fit in. At 19, he learned about a Native American/First Nations movement called the Peace and Dignity Journeys,epic marathons meant to renew cultural connections across a North America older than its present political borders. He dropped out of school and joined a group of Dené, Secwépemc, Gitxsan, Dakelh, Apache, Tohono O'odham, Seri, Purépecha, and Maya runners, all fleeing difficult beginnings.
Telling their stories alongside his own, Alvarez writes about a four-month-long journey that pushed him to his limits. He writes not only of overcoming hunger, thirst, and fear--dangers included stone-throwing motorists and a mountain lion--but also of asserting Indigenous and working-class humanity in a capitalist society where oil extraction, deforestation, and substance abuse wreck communities. Running through mountains, deserts, and cities, and through the Mexican territory his parents left behind, Alvarez forges a new relationship with the land, and with the act of running, carrying with him the knowledge of his parents' migration and the dream of a liberated future.
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Conquistadores : a new history of Spanish discovery and conquest
by Fernando Cervantes 970.01 CER
A sweeping, authoritative history of 16th-century Spain and its legendary conquistadors, whose ambitious and morally contradictory campaigns propelled a small European kingdom to become one of the formidable empires in the world. The Times (London) says: "The depth of research in this book is astonishing, but even more impressive is the analytical skill Cervantes applies. . . . [He] conveys complex arguments in delightfully simple language, and most importantly knows how to tell a good story."
Over the few short decades that followed Christopher Columbus's first landing in the Caribbean in 1492, Spain conquered the two most formidable civilizations of the Americas: the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru. Hernán Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, and the other explorers and soldiers that took part in these expeditions dedicated their lives to seeking political and religious glory, helping to build an empire unlike any the world had ever seen. In their own time, they were glorified as heroic adventurers, spreading Christian culture and helping to build an empire unlike any the world had ever seen. Today, they stand condemned for their cruelty and exploitation as men who decimated ancient civilizations and carried out horrific atrocities in their pursuit of gold and glory.
Acclaimed Mexican historian Cervantes--himself a descendent of one of the conquistadors--cuts through the myths and fiction to help us better understand the context of the conquistadors' actions. Drawing upon previously untapped primary sources that include diaries, letters, chronicles, and polemical treatises, Cervantes immerses us in the late-medieval, imperialist, religious world of 16th-century Spain, a world as unfamiliar to us as the Indigenous peoples of the New World were to the conquistadors themselves. His thought-provoking, illuminating account reframes the story of the Spanish conquest of the New World and the half-century that irrevocably altered the course of history.
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The crusades of Cesar Chavez : a biography
by Miriam Pawel B CHAVEZ
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Union of Their Dreams draws on thousands of documents and interviews to examine the myths and achievements marking the life of the iconic labor leader and civil rights activist, portraying him as a flawed but brilliant strategist who was often at odds with himself.
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A house of my own : stories from my life
by Sandra Cisneros 813.54 CIS
The much-loved author of 'The House on Mango Street' presents a collection of true stories and nonfiction pieces, spanning nearly three decades, that, read together, paint an intimate portrait of a literary legend's life and career.
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Without a country : the untold story of America's deported veterans
by J. Malcolm Garcia 305.9 GAR
"There is perhaps no starker example of the domestic costs and blindspots of America's modern military exploits than the continued practice of deporting men and women who have served in our armed forces. In this book, Garcia reports from across the country and abroad, profiling veterans who have been deported, as well as the families and friends they have left behind. 'Without a Country' analyzes the political and cultural climate that has led America here and takes a hard look at the toll deportation has taken on veterans and their communities."--Provided by the publisher
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El Norte : the epic and forgotten story of Hispanic North America
by Carrie Gibson 327.73 GIB (SWAN)
A sweeping history of the influence of Spanish settlers in North America—predating the Pilgrims by a century—focuses on the deep influence of their culture and how that impact has been marginalized in favor of Anglo heritage.
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I got this : to gold and beyond
by Laurie Hernandez 796.44092 HER
At 16 years old, Hernandez has already made many of her dreams come true -- and yet it's only the beginning for this highly accomplished athlete. A Latina Jersey girl, Laurie saw her life take a dramatic turn the summer that she was chosen to be a part of the 2016 US Olympic gymnastics team. After winning gold in Rio as part of the Final Five, Laurie also earned an individual silver medal for her performance on the balance beam. Nicknamed "the Human Emoji" for her wide-eyed and animated expressions, Laurie continues to dance her way into everyone's hearts while competing on the hit reality TV show Dancing with the Stars. Laurie's story is about growing up with the dream of becoming an Olympian and what it took to win gold. She talks about her loving family, her rigorous training, her intense sacrifices, and her amazing triumphs.
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Once I was you : a memoir
by Maria Hinojosa B HINOJOSA (SWAN)
Emmy Award-winning NPR journalist Maria Hinojosa shares her personal story interwoven with American immigration policy's coming-of-age journey at a time when our country's branding went from "The Land of the Free" to "the land of invasion."
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My broken language : a memoir
by Quiara Alegría Hudes B HUDES
A Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright shares her lyrical coming-of-age story against a backdrop of her devastated barrio home and the idiosyncratic, troubled and fiercely loving Puerto Rican family that inspired her literary voice.
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Definitely Hispanic : growing up Latino and celebrating what unites us
by LeJuan James 305.868 JAM
"Perfect for fans of Fresh Off the Boat's situational humor and Jane the Virgin's celebration of Latinidad, 'Definitely Hispanic' is a collection of introspective memoiristic essays by social media influencer and viral phenomenon LeJuan James about growingup Hispanic in the US.
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Enrique's journey
by Sonia Nazario 305.23 NAZ
Describes one Honduran boy's difficult and dangerous journey to find his mother, who had made the trek northward to the United States in search of a better life when Enrique had been five years old, but who had never made enough money to return home for her children, in a poignant account that addresses the issues of family and the implications of illegal immigration. Based on Pulitzer Prize-winning L.A. Times articles.
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Barrio America : how Latino immigrants saved the American city
by A. K Sandoval-Strausz 307.3 SAN
The award-winning historian and author of 'Hote'l documents the role of Latino immigrants in revitalizing American cities, tracing the examples of Chicago’s Little Village and Dallas’s Oak Cliff barrios in establishing safe homes and thriving businesses.
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Trejo : my life of crime, redemption, and Hollywood
by Danny Trejo B TREJO
Redemptive and painful, poignant and real, this memoir from one of the most recognizable, prolific and beloved character actors traces his journey from crime, prison, addiction and loss to unexpected fame as Hollywood’s favorite bad guy with a heart of gold.
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