Image courtesy of Anjali Rao-Herel ‘22
By Cat Barbour ’24
Books Editor
Hispanic/Latine Heritage Month takes place each year from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. As readers take this time to reflect on Hispanic/Latine presence in literature, it should be noted that there is a recorded underrepresentation for this demographic across genres. The Cooperative Children’s Book Center found that, out of the 4,035 children’s and YA books they received in 2019, 6 percent were written by Latine/Hispanic authors, and 5.8 percent were about Latine/Hispanic characters. To spotlight more of these authors and characters, Mount Holyoke News has compiled a list of upcoming and recently published books by Latine authors featuring Latine characters.
“Thirty Talks Weird Love” by Alessandra Narváez Varela
Expected Publication: Oct. 12, 2021
Do you ever wonder what your future self would be like? Thirteen-year-old Anamaría doesn’t need to after experiencing one weird day in 1990s Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. A woman claiming to be her thirty-year-old-self won’t leave her alone, spouting advice, encouraging her to be kind to herself and insisting that she will save someone in the future. Anamaría doesn’t know of anyone who needs saving; she’s just a hard-working student at an academically over-achieving middle school. Not known as a light read, “Thirty Talks Weird Love” prompts the reader to self-reflect.
From Ciudad Juárez herself, Varela is a poet and lecturer at the University of Texas at El Paso.
“The Soul of a Woman” by Isabel Allende
Published: March 2, 2021
In the latest of her highly acclaimed works, Isabel Allende shares her thoughts on “aging, romance, sex, love and, above all, her feminism,” according to Kirkus Reviews. “The Soul of a Woman” follows Allende’s personal relationship to womanhood, from watching her mother’s forced dependence on men to Allende’s own marriage at the age of twenty, which ended in a liberating divorce. At seventy-nine years, the Chilean writer has decades worth of experiences to offer.
Allende has written 25 books and won numerous awards over the course of her career. In 2014, President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She has also won several international awards.
“Fat Chance, Charlie Vega” by Crystal Maldonado
Published: Feb. 2, 2021
“Coming of age as a Fat brown girl in a white Connecticut suburb is hard,” Crystal Maldonado writes. “Harder when your whole life is on fire though.” The world wants many things from Charlie Vega: to be thinner, whiter, quieter. It doesn’t always see her brains, humor and ambitions. When Brian, a cute artist, asks her out, Charlie can’t help giving in to her romantic side. She thinks she’s living a dream come true — that is, until she learns Brian asked out her thin best friend Amelia first. In a tale of self-acceptance and female friendship, Maldonado takes the reader on a surprisingly wholesome journey of teenage girlhood.
Currently residing in western Massachusetts, Maldonado works as a social media strategist for higher education by day and is a writer by night. This is her debut novel.
“Mango, Mambo, and Murder” by Raquel V. Reyes
Expected Publication: Oct. 12, 2021
Miriam Quinones-Smith has a lot on her plate. She’s just moved from New York to Miami, her toddler has frequent tantrums and her husband is suffering through a midlife crisis. On top of that, her best friend, Alma, is now being framed for murder. After Alma gets Miriam a new job as an on-air cooking expert on a talk show, a socialite dies of poisoning right at Miriam’s table — and as more deaths follow, Alma falls under suspicion. Only food anthropologist Miriam can try to clear her friend’s name before it is too late.
Reyes is a co-chair of SleuthFest and the author of several mystery novels featuring Latine characters.
“Martita, I Remember You” by Sandra Cisneros
Published: Sept. 7, 2021
Many years ago, Corina left her family in Chicago to pursue her dream of becoming a writer in Paris. Along the way, she met her two close friends, Martita and Paola, who gave hard times a warm and fond glow in her memory. Two decades and an ocean now separate the women. When she stumbles upon a letter long forgotten, Corina’s memories of Paris are brought to the surface.
Sandra Cisneros, best known for her novel “The House on Mango Street,” quotes her father’s business card for his upholstery company on her website, saying, “over 55 years of custom quality work.” Her numerous awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship in 1995 and a PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature in 2019, speak to the quality of her writing.
“Velvet was the Night” by Silvia Moreno Garcia
Published: Aug. 17, 2021
Maite is a bored secretary in 1970s Mexico City who only looks forward to one thing: the latest publication of “Secret Romance,” a serial comic book. Leonora is her beautiful next-door neighbor who lives the life Maite wants to lead: one filled with mystery and romance. But Leonora is not who she seems. After Maite agrees to watch Leonora’s cats for a few days, Leonora doesn’t return, so Maite sets out to find her herself.
Author of “Mexican Gothic” and “The Gods of Jade and Shadow,” Garcia is a Mexican-Canadian author with many awards to her name.