Hispanic Heritage Reading Recommendations
Author: Ben Dupuy, Library Marketing Specialist | ben.dupuy@usu.edu
Check out USU Libraries' curated list of must-reads for Hispanic Heritage Month!
Want to dig deeper? Explore curated ebooks, audiobooks, podcasts, movies, and more in our Hispanic Heritage Month guide.
The Sons of El Rey by Alex Espinoza
Ernesto Vega rose to fame as the masked luchador El Rey Coyote, a success that nearly cost him his marriage. Years later in East Los Angeles, his son Freddy fights to save the family gym while grandson Julian, a gay Mexican American man, searches for purpose and love without letting stereotypes define him. The story moves from the ranches of Michoacán to Mexico City to present-day West Hollywood.
Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez
After a woman dies mysteriously, her grieving husband and son travel to her ancestral home and face her family's legacy: the Order, a cult chasing immortality that sees young Gaspar as its future. Moving between 1960s London and the brutal years of Argentina's military dictatorship, this is a family saga, ghost story, and tale of the occult all at once.
My Chicano Heart by Daniel A. Olivas
This collection gathers Olivas's favorite love stories alongside five new ones, featuring characters like a man who gives his heart to his wife to keep beating in a wooden box. Rooted in Chicano and Mexican culture, the stories range from magical to realistic to noir, all exploring love in its many forms.
Kafka in a Skirt by Daniel Chacón
Chacón bends the rules of reality in funny, surprising stories grounded in Chicano culture. Set in El Paso and other Latinx urban spaces, the collection looks at walls of every kind, from the U.S.-Mexico border to the invisible divides felt by people living between cultures.
How to Date a Flying Mexican by Daniel A. Olivas
Drawing on Chicano and Mexican culture, these stories travel through magical realism, fairy tales, fables, and dystopian futures. Olivas's characters wrestle with questions of morality, justice, and self-determination in a mix of favorite past stories and two new ones.
Hippie by Paulo Coelho
In his most autobiographical novel, Coelho follows Paulo, a young Brazilian who dreams of being a writer, and Karla, a Dutch woman looking for a companion on the hippie trail. Together they board the Magic Bus from Amsterdam to Kathmandu in 1970 on a journey of love and self-discovery.
The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez
When novelist Alma Cruz inherits land in her Dominican homeland, she turns it into a graveyard for her unfinished manuscripts. But her characters refuse to rest, talking back and rewriting themselves, while groundskeeper Filomena listens to their secrets, including those of Bienvenida, the abandoned wife of dictator Rafael Trujillo.