Celebrating National Read a Book Day: Books by Latinx Authors
By Alejandra Marquez Janse
There’s one day of every year dedicated to the art of sitting down, serving yourself a cup of coffee or tea, and getting lost in words.
It’s National Read a Book Day.
Books are ways to venture into love stories, adventures, different worlds, and periods of time. It’s also how we’re able to share experiences, change perspectives, and pass on knowledge.
Books are vehicles for the stories of a community.
You don’t have to read an entire new book this day. It’s simply about promoting the joy and benefits of reading. You can read an excerpt from an old book you like, donate books, or, like us, recommend some to others.
At LatinEQUIS, we wanted to focus on recommending books written by Latinx authors in the past decade. Below is a list of books that include fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
As always, we’d love to know what you think of our list. What other book would you recommend? Send us a message here!
Happy reading!
The Undocumented Americans, by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
2020. Autobiography.
Cornejo Villavicencio is one of the first undocumented immigrants to graduate from Harvard. In her book, she combines her own story with those of other undocumented immigrants across the country.
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez
2017. Fiction, young adult.
Sánchez is a poet and writer from Illinois, and a daughter of Mexican immigrants. Her book tells the story of Julia, a 15-year-old who struggles with her parents’ expectations while grieving her sister’s death and reaching adulthood. It was adapted to a play by Isaac Gómez, a Chicago-based playwright from El Paso.
“Sánchez and Gómez adeptly capture the sense of dual identity that many first-generation children of immigrants can feel. Julia is Chicago born and raised, but Connor — a well-off white boy from Evanston — still wants to know on their first meeting where she’s ‘from from’” (Kris Vite, Chicago Sun-Times).
My Time Among the Whites by Jennine Capó Crucet
2019. Essays.
In this collection of essays, Capó Crucet shares her own experiences as a first-generation Cuban-American.
“The essays begin with the enormous culture shock Crucet experienced as a college freshman at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The discomfort began from her first day landing on campus, as she watched all the other students wave goodbye to their families and realized her family had not been expected to stay for the entire week of freshman orientation.” (Lorraine Berry, Miami New Times).
The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border by Francisco Cantú
2018. Nonfiction, memoir.
Cantú worked as an agent for the Border Patrol for four years beginning in 2008. His memoir takes us into the complexity of immigration in the U.S. southern border.
“As Cantú tells us what he learned, he bolsters his point — that it’s hard to comprehend the border from books. This one challenges the reader to find the meaning, or some sense, in its loosely strung episodes, fragmentary encounters with border crossers and agents, clippings from books Cantú has read and the surreal dreams that haunt his fretful nights.” (Lawrence Downes, The New York Times).
Citizen Illegal by José Olivarez
2018. Poetry.
As the son of Mexican immigrants, Olivarez explores the realities of the Latinx community living in the United States through a collection of poems.
“His work not only names the linguistic, generational, and cultural gaps in the first-gen Mexican-American experience, but it gives a body to each divide. Citizen Illegal—Olivarez’s first full-length collection—is an articulation of the Latinx experience in modern America that’s both gut-wrenching and musically immaculate” (Caroline Hockenbury, C-VILLE Weekly).
The Distant Marvels by Chantel Acevedo
2015. Historical fiction.
Acevedo takes us to Cuba with a story that contains both love and war. She does this through the words of the narrator, Maria Sirena, who loves to tell stories and has to do so when she and other seven women are forced to shelter together during a hurricane.
“Acevedo, author of novels A Falling Star and Love and Ghost Letters, shifts the narrative from 1963 Castro-run Cuba to the Cuban war for independence from Spain. With baroque detail, intense pacing and a melodramatic plot, Acevedo depicts pivotal moments in Cuba’s history through the eyes of a humble but hardly ordinary woman” (Laura Albritton, Miami Herald).
Perfectly You: Embracing the Power of Being Real by Mariana Atencio
2019. Nonfiction, memoir, and self-help.
Described as part memoir and part self-help book, Atencio’s book tells her story growing up in Venezuela, living as an immigrant in the United States, and breaking into journalism as a bilingual reporter.
Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
2018. Fiction, poetry.
Acevedo, a Dominican-American poet and writer, combines poetry and fiction in her debut novel. She tells the story of Xiomara, a teenager from Harlem who turns to poetry, “as a way to understand her mother’s religion and her own relationship to the world” (Goodreads).
