Four Latinx Authors You Should Know for Hispanic Heritage Month

Graphic by Trinity Kendrick ‘21

By Cat Barbour ’24

Staff Writer

The need for diverse authorship is great. According to a 2019 survey by Publisher’s Weekly, only 3 percent of authors identified as Hispanic. To honor their literary contributions for National Hispanic Heritage Month, which lasts from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, here are four books by Latinx authors published this year.

• “Cockfight” by María Fernanda Ampuero

Translated version published May 1, 2020 

Originally published in Spanish in 2018, “Cockfight” was named one of the 10 best fiction books of that year by The New York Times en Espanol. In 13 short stories, the debuting writer reflects in prose on women’s experiences of abuse, sexual assault and survival in an unnamed South American country. Not exactly a light read, “Cockfight” is a gripping feminist narrative that depicts dark realities within the home and family. 

The idea of a family is something Ampuero discussed in an interview in 2019 with the BBC. Ampuero said, “It seems to me that the relationship between parents and children contains something monstrous.” While not from the book, it certainly gives a good idea of the tone of her piece. 

Ampuero was born in Ecuador and currently resides in Spain, where she teaches journalism at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and contributes to the Spanish newspaper ABC in their short story section. “Cockfight” is the first of her books to be translated into English.

• “On Lighthouses” by Jazmina Barrera

Translated version published May 12, 2020

“After spending sufficient time inside a lighthouse, who wouldn’t begin to hear a song in the sound of the machinery, a voice in the wind or the waves?” Barrera asks in her book “On Lighthouses.”

In her combination of personal memoir and literary history, Barrera attempts to “collect” lighthouses from literary works and coastlines from Spain to Oregon. In her obsession, she describes them, never weighing down the reader with too much detail, writing lighthouses into symbols and turning inward for a meta examination of writing itself.

Born in Mexico City, Barrera was a Fulbright Scholar at NYU and won the Latin American Voices prize from Literal Publishing in 2013. She has published several essays both in print and online. Currently, she is the editor and co-founder of Ediciones Antilope, a Mexican publishing house. 

• “The Book of Rosy” by Rosayra Pablo Cruz and Julie Schwietert Collazo

Published June 2, 2020

Rosayra Pablo Cruz opens her novel with the line, “When said with love, my first name rolls off the tongue, the trilled r’s cascading over so many soft vowels, like Guatemala’s crystal clear Río Azul rippling over smooth stones.”  

The story follows Cruz’s experience fleeing Guatemala and reaching the Arizona border, where her two sons were ripped from her arms. Aided by Collazo, the founder of the Immigrant Families Together Foundation, Cruz tells her story, and the story of many others, of [inhumane treatment at the border.

• “Mexican Gothic” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 

Published June 30, 2020

Moreno-Garcia’s newest novel springs into action when the protagonist receives a letter that “was therefore uncharacteristic in every way she could think of. It was handwritten, though Catalina preferred the typewriter; it was rambling when Catalina was succinct on paper.”

“Mexican Gothic” follows Noemí Taboada as she travels to High Place, a house deep in the countryside of Mexico, to her newlywed cousin’s aid after receiving a disconcerting letter. The debutante does not know what to expect from the new area and her cousin’s English husband but must call on her smarts and toughness to figure out what is going on. Her only ally is the Englishman’s young nephew, who may be hiding some of the family’s secrets.   

In what NPR called “an inspired mash-up of [Charlotte Bronte’s] ‘Jane Eyre,’ Ann Radcliffe’s ‘The Mysteries of Udolpho,’ [Bram Stoker’s] ‘Dracula,’ [Daphne du Maurier’s] ‘Rebecca’ and that 1958 classic sci-fi movie, ‘The Blob,’” Moreno-Garcia ties in subtle social commentary with criticism against racist politics and eugenics.  

Describing herself as “Mexican by birth, Canadian by inclination,” Moreno-Garcia has had a successful literary career. Her debut “Signal to Noise” won a Copper Cylinder Award, and her novel “Certain Dark Things” was one of NPR’s best books of 2016. Another acclaimed novel, Moreno-Garcia’s “Gods of Jade and Shadow,” won the 2020 Sunburst Award for Adult Fiction, as well as the 2020 RUSA Books and Media award for fantasy.

Class of 2024 Book Club Connects Students Through Literature

Image above: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, award-winning Nigerian author.

By Elizabeth Jacob ’24

Staff Writer

In the midst of COVID-19 and its accompanying social distancing guidelines, I and other college students are dealing with the loss of a traditional college experience. Not only has this loss manifested in a suspension of in-person classes and physical socialization, but it has led to a decrease in our ability to interact with people in general, whether that be through clubs or on-campus activities. 

When envisioning what Mount Holyoke would be like in the fall, I never imagined it full of online assignments and meeting friends and professors through Zoom. Actually, I pictured waking up in my dorm for Mountain Day, excitedly anticipating elfing, walking around campus with new friends and feeling a growing sense of belonging. In light of all we’re missing, students have been working to create and join their own clubs and activities in the hope of simulating this on-campus experience.

As a first-year and self-proclaimed bookworm, trying to socialize with other students and create a normal college experience has been a difficulty, one that has resided in me since the beginning of the pandemic. For casual readers and bibliophiles alike, finding a place to interact with other literature enthusiasts has proven to be particularly hard. Without the opportunity to congregate in the campus library or to meet others in English classes, I felt like there was a significant loss to my freshman experience. In order to fill that gap, I decided to start an informal book club through the class of 2024 Facebook group, very appropriately titled The Mount Holyoke Book Club.

What originally started out as a desire to meet a handful of students with a similar interest soon grew to be a club of around 30 members, all looking for a way to meaningfully connect with one another in the midst of the pandemic. Since we wanted to establish a routine of meeting at the end of every month, we only had about two weeks to pick and read a book. We all expressed interest in reading something that was short and discussed issues that we were interested in, such as women’s rights. Through different polls and opinions, we decided on the book “We Should All Be Feminists” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, an award-winning Nigerian author, to begin with. This book is a compressed essay adaptation of Adichie’s TEDx talk on what it means to be a feminist and how societal standards and masculine identity have influenced how women are treated. 

While our Zoom book club discussion took place, we noticed a lot of parallels between Adichie’s experience as a woman and our collective experience. Both experiences are characterized by flagrant sexism and societal expectations that serve to pigeonhole women. In conversation, we expanded upon the rights — and the lack thereof — that women have in comparison to men, and how this has worked to actively prevent women from reaching for and achieving goals that men have historically had easier access to. As the meeting concluded, we touched upon our collective fear as women not only in the U.S. but internationally. In the midst of the current political climate, we noted that we fear that any rights we currently have could be taken away, especially as the outcome of the upcoming U.S. presidential election may determine the fate of gender equality and women’s rights.

As everyone left the Zoom call, I walked away feeling happy and inspired. Not only did the connection with other people who were passionate about reading help me feel more involved in the Mount Holyoke community, but I felt I had learned something new about how feminism on a global scale is approached, thanks to our discussions that began with Adichie’s book. 

Through our different backgrounds, experiences and characteristics, everyone in the club had their own unique definition of feminism and what it means to be a feminist — definitions that transcend dictionary verbatim and societal standards, that they all brought individually to our meeting. I noticed that, while we may have had different experiences with feminism, or a lack thereof, we all agreed on one thing: Being a feminist is important and advocacy for women’s rights needs to be centered on both domestic and global scales.

Through the creation of this informal book club, the novel-sized space in my mind that had been created by the pandemic began to heal itself. Meeting monthly, I finally feel like I am starting to become a part of MoHome while at home.