Hispanic Heritage Month
September 15 - October 15
Return to the Book List Menu.
Fiction, Short Stories, & Poetry | Memoir, History & Culture | Film
Fiction, Short Stories, & Poetry
Alcala, Kathleen
Treasures in Heaven: A Novel
2000
At the turn of the 20th century, Estela moves from her small village to Mexico City and becomes swept up in Mexico's feminist movement.
Allende, Isabel
Daughter of Fortune
1999
Eliza leaves her home in Chile to find her lover who has gone to the California Gold Rush.
Alvarez, Julia
In the Name of Salome
2000
Based on the lives of two real women is the story of Camila, a teacher at Vassar College, and her mother, a young poet whose poems inspired revolution in late 19th-century Dominican Republic.
Barrientos, Tanya Maria
Frontera Street
2002
Recently widowed and pregnant, West Texan Dee Paxton goes to work at a small fabric store where she strikes up a friendship with another single mother, Alma Cruz.
Benitez, Sandra
The Weight of All Things
2000
Set in 1980s El Salvador, 9-year-old Nicolas witnesses the murder of his mother at the hands of the National Army and must find his way back home to his grandfather.
Borges, Jorge Luis
Selected Non-fictions
1999
864 BOR
The third and final installment in Viking's program to bring together more than 150 pieces in one volume.
Castillo, Ana
Peel My Love Like an Onion
1999
After 17 years as a dancer, Carmen is forced to move back into her mother's home and work at some un-glamorous jobs.
Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de
Don Quixote
1755
A middle-aged Spaniard, impressed by the fantasy he finds in books, sets off with his servant to revive the age of chivalry.
Chavez, Denise
Face of an Angel
1994
Soveida Dosamates has been a waitress for 30 years and has lots of advice -- she's even writing a handbook for waitresses -- but, it took her many years to grow from a shy girl to a strong, resourceful woman.
Cisneros, Sandra
Caramelo
2002
Lala, living in Chicago and the youngest of 7 siblings, narrates this story of adolescence, struggling to succeed, and remaining true to yourself and family.
Cortazar, Julio
Hopscotch
1966
Horacio, an Argentinian writer, lives in Paris with his mistress and enjoys an intellectual and bohemian lifestyle until his mistress disappears and Horacio decides to return home.
Cubana: Contemporary Fiction by Cuban Women
1998
808.83 CUB
A collection of 16 stories by Cuban writers.
Diaz, Junot
Drown
1996
Narrated by young Dominican teens and men, these short stories plunge the reader into struggling communities in New York, New Jersey and the Dominican Republic.
Esquivel, Laura
Swift as Desire
2001
Lluvia is determined to unravel the mystery of her parents inability to reconcile a once passionate marriage.
Ferre, Rosario
The House on the Lagoon
1995
When Quintin, a historian, finds his wife's manuscript about the history of their families, he begins writing alternate chapters expressing his own point of view.
Fuentes, Carlos
Inez
2002
A love story between a conductor, Gabriel Atlan-Ferrara and a singer, Inez Prada.
Garcia, Christina
Monkey Hunting
2003
This multi-generational epic begins in 1857 when farm boy Chen Pan leaves China to seek riches in Cuba.
Garcia, Guy
Skin Deep
1995
David Loya, a Harvard-law grad, returns to the L.A. barrio where he grew up to search for a missing woman.
Garcia-Aguilera, Carolina
Luck of the Draw
2003
Esmeralda's mother wants to recover the family's casino in Havana. Instead, Esmeralda ditches her mother's plans and her troubled marriage and heads to Las Vegas to find her missing sister. Garcia-Aguilera is the author of the Lupe Solano mystery series.
Garcia Lorca, Federico
Only Mystery: Federico Garcia Lorca's Poetry in Word and Image
1992
861 GAR Z
A collection of twenty-one full-color drawings and newly translated poems are woven together.
Gilb, Dagoberto
Woodcuts of Women
2001
This collection of stories features working-class types seeking the simplest pleasures of food, drink, sex, and relief from the heat.
Goldman, Francisco
The Ordinary Seaman
1997
Esteban and several other men are tricked into working on a freighter at an abandoned Brooklyn pier. Esteban eventually gets out, but must find a way to survive in a new land.
Hijuelos, Oscar
A Simple Habana Melody (From When the World Was Good)
2002
Forced to leave Habana, Cuban musician Israel Lewis heads to Paris where he begins a new life until the Nazis take over.
Lopez, Steve
In the Clear
2002
Albert LaRosa is offered a promising new career as chief of security at a New Jersey casino, but finds his responsibilities challenging when he realizes that someone close to him may have committed a murder.
Marisol
The Lady, the Chef, and the Courtesan
2003
A Chicago journalist returns to Venezuela for her grandmother's funeral and receives some life lessons from her grandmother's diaries.
Martinez, Tomas Eloy
Santa Evita
1996
Immediately after Eva Peron died, her husband had her body immaculately embalmed. Martinez recreates her afterlife, mixing fact (3 copies of her body were duplicated) and fiction.
Obejas, Achy
We Came All the Way from Cuba So You Could Dress Like This?: Stories
1994
A collection of seven pieces--memoir, essay and short fiction--exploring relationships, spirituality, and an outsider's pain and angst as immigrant, lesbian, and refugee.
Padilla Suarez, Ignacio
Shadow without a Name
2003
Padilla's debut novel suggests the possibility that a number of men were trained as doubles for Nazi leaders and the real Eichmann never stood trial.
Perez-Reverte, Arturo
The Nautical Chart
2001
A suspended sailor becomes infatuated with a woman who is searching for a lost treasure.
Poniatowska, Elena
Here's to You, Jesusa!
2001
Originally published in 1969, this novel was recently translated and published in the U.S. and is based on the real life of a fiercely independent but poverty-stricken woman.
Ramos, Manuel
The Ballad of Rocky Ruiz
1993
In this mystery series, Denver attorney Luis Montez is caught between an old lover and local crime lord.
Rios, Alberto
Pig Cookies and Other Stories
1995
Set in a northern Mexican village over several decades of the 20th century, Pig Cookies traces the lives of its citizens throughout these volatile times.
Santiago, Esmeralda
America's Dream
1996
American Gonzalez is a hotel maid; her daughter has run away and her married lover is a brute. When she leaves to work as a nanny in the U.S., she discovers a new sense of self.
Saramago, Jose
The Cave
2002
An elderly potter must cope in a contemporary world.
Urrea, Luis Alberto
In Search of Snow: A Novel
1994
Set in 1950s Arizona, Mike McGurk is informally adopted into the Garcia family after his father dies.
Valdes-Rodriguez, Alisa
The Dirty Girls Social Club
2003
A year in the lives of six girlfriends who first met at Boston College.
Vargas Llosa, Mario
Feast of the Goat
2001
Urania Cabral, a successful New York lawyer, has spent most of her life in exile from the Dominican Republic. She returns to the island after the island's dictator, Rafael Trujillo, is murdered.
Viramontes, Helena Maria
Under the Feet of Jesus
1995
13-year-old Estrella and her family are migrant farm laborers and travel throughout California's fruit fields, working in unbearable conditions.
Memoir, History & Culture
Arenas, Reinaldo
Before Night Falls
1993
Arenas writes about his childhood in Cuba and how his writing and homosexuality resulted in imprisonment.
Fernandez Barrios, Flor
Blessed by Thunder: Memoir of a Cuban Girlhood
1999
Fernandez Barrios recalls her tumultuous childhood during the Revolution when her grandparents' farm was taken away and she, along with hundreds of children, were forced to work in camps, picking tobacco and sugar cane.
Novas, Himilce
Everything You Need to Know about Latino History
2003
973.0468 NOV
By the year 2005, Latinos will surpass African Americans as the country's largest minority. In an easyily read question-and-answer format, readers will learn about Latinos and their lifestyle.
Masterworks of Latin America Short Fiction: Eight Novellas
1996
808.83 MAS
Spanning six countries, these novellas cover a wide-range of literary styles and themes.
Rodriguez, Ana
Diary of a Survivor: Nineteen Years in a Cuban Women's Prison
1995
365.43 ROD
In 1961, Rodriguez was a medical student and imprisoned for her involvement in the anti-Castro underground. She was released over 15 years later in 1979.
Rodriguez, Luis J.
Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.
1993
364.1 ROD
In his eloquent and vivid chronicle of growing up in L.A. in the late 60s and early 70s, Rodriguez discusses his life in a gang and how he was able to get out of that lifestyle.
Rodriguez, Richard
Brown: The Last Discovery of America
2002
305.868 ROD
The author contemplates the many cultural associations of the color brown--toil, decay, impurity, and time--as he considers the meaning of Hispanics in American society.
Film
Todo sobre Mi Madre = All about My Mother
1999
A single mother in Madrid searches for her son's father.
Chasing Papi
2003
Three women discover that they are engaged to the same man.
El Crimen del Padre Amaro = The Crime of Padre Amaro
2002
Father Amaro, sent to help an aging priest in Los Reyes, Mexico, learns that the older priest has been having an affair and taking money from local drug lords.
Desperado
1997
A mysterious guitar player searches for vengeance against the men who murdered his girlfriend.
Frida
2002
A biography of Mexican artist and political revolutionary Frida Kahlo.
Goya in Bordeaux
1999
Living in exile with his wife and daughter, Spanish painter Goya reflects on his life and his passions.
Hablar con Ella = Talk to Her
2002
The lives of two men and two comatose women intertwine in a bizarre and ultimately bittersweet path.
El Hijo de la Novia = Son of the Bride
2001
42-year-old Rafael is divorced, can't commit to his girlfriend and doesn't spend time with his daughter or mother until a series of events forces him to re-evaluate his life.
El Jardin del Eden = Garden of Eden
1994
Set on the U.S.-Mexico border at Tijuana, a widow with young children, a writer and her hermit brother, and a Mexican peasant struggle to create their own "Garden of Eden".
The Milagro Beanfield War
1988
When a developer plans to build a resort in a small New Mexico town, the locals find strength to support Joe Mondragon when he illegally diverts the water supply to irrigate his beanfield.
Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de "Nervios" = Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
1988
In this comedy where everyone's paths keep crossing, a woman has been jilted by the love of her life and her friend discovers that her lover is a terrorist.
Nueve Reinas = Nine Queens
2000
Two small-time grifters team up to pull off a big-time score involving a set of valuable counterfeit stamps known as the Nine Queens.
Real Women Have Curves
2002
18-year-old Ana must make some tough choices -- should she stay home and work in her sister's struggling garment factory or head to New York for college?
Tango
1999
Mario sets out to create the ultimate tango film, but complications arise when he falls in love with a dancer who is involved with one of the film's investors.
Y Tu Mama Tambien = And Your Mother Too
2001
Two teens set off on a wild cross-country trip with seductive, 28-year-old Luisa.
Tortilla Soup
2001
Three young L.A. women struggle to gain independence from their overprotective father.
La Vida Es Silbar = Life is to Whistle
2002
Three characters in present-day Havana must choose between clinging to their self-restricting beliefs, or getting rid of them to live more freely.
Compiled September 2003. Updated November 2005.
|
