Abuela, Don’t Forget Me (2022) is a memoir-in-verse written by author, poet, and comic book illustrator Rex Ogle about the profound influence his Abuela had on his life. The text follows Ogle from early childhood through his high school graduation, tracing the ways in which his Abuela was a supportive and stable force in a childhood otherwise marked by abuse at the hands of his mother and stepfather. The book was a finalist for the... Read Abuela, Don't Forget Me Summary

Sandra Cisneros is an American writer of Mexican heritage and a key figure in the Chicana literary movement. She is best known for her 1983 novel The House on Mango Street. Cisneros’s work, reflecting her own childhood experiences, explores cultural hybridity and identity while navigating poverty, classism, and racism.Her 1987 poem “Abuelito Who” typifies her style—characterized by simple language and syntax—and depicts the changing relationship between a grandfather (Abuelito) and his grandchild. Told from the... Read Abuelito Who Summary

Across a Hundred Mountains is a 2006 novel by Reyna Grande. It won the American Book Award. The novel tells the story of two women, Adelina and Juana. Every few pages, the novel alternates between each woman’s story. Adelina is an adult working at a woman’s shelter in Los Angeles and has devoted her life to searching for her father, who went missing many years ago. At the beginning of the novel, Adelina finally finds... Read Across A Hundred Mountains Summary

And the Earth Did Not Devour Him, by Chicano American author Tomás Rivera, was originally published as a Spanish and English bilingual edition in 1971, translated into English by Herminio Ríos. Evangelina Vigil-Piñón’s translation, considered the definitive edition, came out in 1988. The book was awarded the Quinto Sol Prize for literature and was adapted into a film. Born in Texas, Rivera,was the son of Mexican migrant farm workers, and worked on farms as a... Read And The Earth Did Not Devour Him Summary

An Echo in the Bone (2009) is the seventh novel in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. Combining elements of the historical fiction, adventure, fantasy, magical realism, and romance genres, the series follows the adventures of Claire Randall, a WWII battle nurse who accidentally time travels to 18th-century Scotland and falls in love with Jamie Fraser, a Highland warrior. Over the course of 10 planned novels, Gabaldon follows Claire, Jamie, and their family as they... Read An Echo in the Bone Summary

Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Sáenz is a young adult romance novel published in 2021 by Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers. The book is a New York Times best seller, and its accompanying audiobook performed by musician and playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda received a Grammy nomination in the category of Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording. This is the second installment in the Aristotle and... Read Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World Summary

Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna is a young adult historical fiction novel by Alda P. Dobbs, which details protagonist Petra’s struggles during the Mexican Revolution. The novel was published by Sourcebooks Young Readers in 2021. Upon its release, the novel was well-received by many critics and was the recipient of several children’s book awards including NYPL Best Book of 2021, NPR Best Book of 2021 Based on a True Story, and Pura Belpré Honor Book... Read Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna Summary

Barrio Boy is a memoir by Ernesto Galarza that narrates the author’s journey from a small village in Mexico to a barrio in the United States. Considered a founding text in ethnic studies, the book was originally published in 1971 and was reissued as a 40th anniversary edition in 2011. Barrio Boy follows the author from his birth in the small town of Jalcocotán in 1905 up until high school. Galarza, who went on to... Read Barrio Boy Summary

Written by Gary Soto, Baseball in April and Other Stories (1990) is a collection of middle grade short stories that features Mexican American youths who are growing up in California’s Central Valley. Set in the 1980s, the stories show protagonists navigating a range of childhood experiences in a multicultural society as they and their families also negotiate financial hardships. Soto’s collection was the winner of the 1996 Pura Belpré Award and the California Library Association’s Beatty... Read Baseball in April and Other Stories Summary

Bless Me, Ultima is a novel by American author Rudolfo Anaya (1937-2020). Published in 1972 by independent Chicanx publishing house TQS Publications, it is one of the first literary accounts of Chicanx culture to attain widespread acclaim in the United States. The novel is a semi-autobiographical account based on Ayana’s experience of coming of age in post-World War II New Mexico. Anaya explores themes of the Multiplicity within Chicanx Identity, Catholicism, Innocence Versus the Power... Read Bless Me, Ultima Summary

Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldúa presents the US-Mexico border as a space ripe for sociocultural, psychological, and historical deconstruction. Speaking from her own experiences growing up in South Texas, Anzaldúa redefines the boundaries between practice and theory, personal history and cultural critique, poetry and prose. Writing in both Spanish and English (and omitting translations at times), Anzaldúa writes as a Chicana woman, in the Chicano language, envisioning a new consciousness borne out... Read Borderlands La Frontera Summary

Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa (2006) is a work of nonfiction by Rigoberto González, a gay Chicano writer and editor. Butterfly Boy is a coming-of-age memoir that shifts between timelines to tell the story of Rigoberto and his family. Drawing on connections between place and memory, Rigoberto recounts the history of his family of Chicano migrant agricultural workers crossing back and forth over the US-Mexican border, his relationship with his body and gay... Read Butterfly Boy Summary

Caramelo (2002) is a multi-generational family epic by American-Chicana author Sandra Cisneros. The novel follows the coming-of-age stories of Soledad Reyes; her son, Inocencio Reyes; and her granddaughter, Celaya “Lala” Reyes. The narrative takes place as the family moves among Chicago, Mexico City, and San Antonio. Written in a unique bilingual English and Spanish voice, Caramelo features themes of memory, Mexican-American heritage, female strength, and the search for a “home” between and beyond national borders.In interviews... Read Caramelo Summary

Citizen Illegal (2018) is the first poetry collection by José Olivarez, a first-generation Mexican American poet. The 47 free-verse poems in the collection explore a variety of themes based on Olivarez’s own life, especially the experience of Mexican immigrants to the United States. As a boy, Olivarez experienced shame because he was Mexican, coupled with an internalized pressure to assimilate to white American culture. Later, he strongly affirmed the Mexican side of his nature, although... Read Citizen Illegal Summary

Desert Blood: The Juárez Murders is a 2005 thriller by American novelist, poet, and essayist Alicia Gaspar de Alba. The novel takes place in 1998 when Juárez, Mexico is experiencing a spate of brutal killings of poor young women and girls, mostly factory workers. The protagonist, Ivon Villa, is a women’s studies professor from Los Angeles who returns to her hometown of El Paso, Texas—just across the border from Juárez—to adopt a baby. When the... Read Desert Blood Summary

Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon, published by Random House in 1992, is the second novel in the highly successful romance series, Outlander. Continuing the story of Claire Randall Fraser and Jamie Fraser, this novel returns the reader to 1744, as Claire and Jamie travel to France to escape the tyrannical forces led by Jack Randall, an ancestor of Claire’s first husband, Frank. The novel not only highlights the unlikely romance between a modern woman... Read Dragonfly in Amber Summary

Drums of Autumn (1996) is a novel by Diana Gabaldon and the fourth book in the Outlander series. The series follows the experiences of Claire Fraser, a time-traveling English woman from the 20th century, and her husband Jamie, a Scottish Highlander from the 18th century, as they navigate the different historical moments in which they live. In Drums of Autumn, Claire and Jamie Fraser build a life in colonial America on the eve of the... Read Drums of Autumn Summary

Echo (2015) by Pam Muñoz Ryan (Riding Freedom, Esperanza Rising) is a young-adult novel about the power of music to unite individuals across time, and even save lives: the wide-reaching novel follows an enchanted harmonica to 1933 in Germany, 1934 in Pennsylvania, and 1942 in California, before uniting the characters we meet along the way at Carnegie Hall in 1951. Covering the rise of Nazism in Germany, the tail end of the Great Depression in... Read Echo Summary

Eleven by Sandra Cisneros was originally published as part of Cisneros’s 1991 short story collection, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories. The collection won a number of literary awards, including the 1991 PEN Center West Award for Best Fiction. This collection primarily relays stories of Mexican American, or Chicana, women and how they relate to the world around them as minorities in a majority-culture system. Cisneros is known for incorporating elements of Mexican culture into... Read Eleven Summary

“Emplumada” by Lorna Dee Cervantes appears in the collection of the same name, published in 1981 by the University of Pittsburgh Press. The poem consists of 18 lines in three stanzas of unrhymed free verse. As part of Cervantes’ first collection, “Emplumada” introduces some of the major concerns of the poet, including struggles of class, culture, and historical marginalization. In the beginning of the poem, the speaker draws the reader’s attention to the flowers that... Read Emplumada Summary