Celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month by reading these titles written by Hispanic authors. The list covers a wide variety of genres–including memoir, historical romance, and contemporary fiction.


A Ballad of Love and Glory

Reyna Grande
Adult Fiction - Grande

An atmospheric historical romance about a Mexican woman widowed by the Texas Rangers in the fight over the disputed Rio Grande boundary. She is skilled at healing, and eventually joins the Mexican Army where she falls in love with a Yankee deserter.


High-Risk Homosexual

Edgar Gomez
306.7662 Gom

With vulnerability and humor, Gomez relates coming of age as a gay, Hispanic man in a culture of machismo. Gomez's story spans from his childhood in Nicaragua to the queer spaces in the United States where he learned the joys of being both gay and Hispanic.


In the Shadow of the Mountain: A Memoir of Courage

Silvia Vasquez-Lavado
796.52292 Vasquez-Lavado Vas

The inspiring story of a woman returning to her home in Peru, where she begins climbing. Eventually, she gathers a group of young female survivors and leads them to Everest. A true story of resilience.


Jawbone

Mónica Ojeda
Ojeda

This unconventional horror novel follows a group of elite school friends as Annelise leads them in thrilling but increasingly dangerous rituals to a god of her own invention. Even more perilous is the secret Annelise and Fernanda share, rooted in a dare in which violence meets love.


The Man Who Could Move Clouds

Ingrid Rojas Contreras

For Ingrid Rojas Contreras, magic runs in the family, lacing her world with prophecy and violence. Ingrid traces her lineage back to her indigenous and Spanish roots, uncovering the violent and rigid colonial narrative that would eventually break her family into two camps: those who believe these powers are a gift, and those who are convinced they are a curse.


Neruda on the Park

Cleyvis Natera
Natera

A novel about members of a Dominican family in New York City who take radically different paths when faced with encroaching gentrification. A meditation on race, class, and community, this story weaves a rich and vivid tapestry of family, community, and Afro-Hispanic culture.


Olga Dies Dreaming

Xochitl Gonzalez
Gonzale

The character-driven tale of a status-seeking wedding planner grappling with her social ambitions, absent mother, and Puerto Rican roots—all in the wake of Hurricane María.


Violeta

Isabel Allende
Allende

Living out her days in a remote part of her South American homeland, Violeta finds her life shaped by some of the most important events of history as she tells her story in the form of a letter to someone she loves above all others.


When Women Kill: Four Crimes Retold

Alia Trabucco Zerán
364.1523 Tra

This book analyzes four homicides carried out by Chilean women over the course of the twentieth century. Drawing on her training as a lawyer, Alia Trabucco Zerán offers a nuanced reading of their lives and crimes, foregoing sensationalism in favor of dissecting how all four were perpetrators of grievous violent acts at the same time as being victims of another, more insidious kind of violence.


A Woman of Endurance

Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa
Llnosf

This novel illuminates a little discussed aspect of history—the Puerto Rican Atlantic Slave Trade—witnessed through the experiences of Pola, an African captive used as a breeder to bear more slaves. A tale of triumph through endurance.


Woman of Light

Kali Fajardo-Anstine
Fajardo

When Desiderya Lopez, The Sleepy Prophet, finds an abandoned infant on the banks of an arroyo, she recognizes something in his spirit and brings him home. This act leads to merging two multi-generational storylines in the Old West in a novel of family love, secrets, and survival.


You Sound Like a White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation

Julissa Arce
303.482 Arc

Bestselling author Julissa Arce interweaves her own story with cultural commentary in a powerful polemic against the myth that assimilation leads to happiness and belonging for immigrants in America. Instead, she calls for a celebration of their uniqueness, origins, heritage, and beauty.