Latin American Studies

This innovative study explores how Latino cultural production shapes and challenges the U.S. national imaginary through transcultural exchanges and border-crossing narratives.

This important and timely book from a Pulitzer Prize finalist follows the brutal journey a group of men take to cross the Mexican border. "The single most compelling, lucid, and lyrical contemporary account of the absurdity of U.S. border policy" —The Atlantic ​ In May 2001, a group of men...

AN NPR BEST BOOK OF 2024 An award-winning journalist's exploration of how race, identity and political trauma have influenced the rise in far-right sentiment among Latinos, and how this group can shape American politics “A deeply reported, surprisingly personal exploration of a phenomenon...

The first new edition in 10 years of this important study of Latinos in US history, Harvest of Empire spans five centuries - from the first New World colonies to the first decade of the new millennium. Latinos are now the largest minority group in the United States, and their impact on American...

Algunos nacen con estrella y otros estrellados. This dicho (saying) roughly translates to "Some are born with a star, while others are born starry." It refers to the Mexican belief that good luck is a matter of fate, something you are born with or not. Mexicans attribute their good or bad luck...

This program is read by the author and includes a bonus conversation with the author and Paola Ramos, a Vice News journalist, MSNBC Contributor, and author of Finding Latinx. “A love letter to our people - full of fury and passion." - José Olivarez, award-winning poet and author of Citizen...

Esmeralda Santiago reminisces about her childhood in Puerto Rico and her early years in Brooklyn as the oldest of seven (soon to be 11) children. Her upbringing is turbulent on account of her parents’ relentless fighting, which only ever seems to stop when they have another baby....

From the author of For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts, a celebration of the women at the heart of Latine families. “This love letter to intergenerational relationships opens every window and door to one’s heart... A healing work of art.” —Yesika Salgado, author of...

The "scrupulously detailed" (Los Angeles Times) story of how the fight to build Dodgers Stadium, and transform Los Angeles into a big league city, came at the cost of everyday Angelenos Dodger Stadium is an American icon. But the story of how it came to be goes far beyond baseball. The hills...

This definitive history of American xenophobia is "essential reading for anyone who wants to build a more inclusive society" (Ibram X. Kendi, New York Times-bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist) The United States is known as a nation of immigrants. But it is also a nation of xenophobia...

A new audiobook by the Pulitzer Prize–winning writer about the twenty-first-century Latino experience and identity. "Latino" is the most open-ended and loosely defined of the major race categories in the United States. Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of...

A fines de los años noventa, en Las Heras, un pequeño pueblo petrolero de la provincia argentina de Santa Cruz con un alto índice de desempleo y sin ningún tipo de futuro para los jóvenes, se produjeron doce suicidios. La mayoría de los muertos...

Joshua Davis's Spare Parts--now a major motion picture--is a story about overcoming insurmountable odds and the young men who proved they were among the most patriotic and talented Americans in this country—even as the country tried to kick them out. Four undocumented Mexican American students...

Spell work, spiritual cleansing, herbal magic, how to protect against the Evil Eye, and cast, break, and avert hexes and curses. Mexican witchcraft, or brujeria, has long been an integral part of traditional Mexican culture that permeates all strata of social hierarchy, ethnicity, or level of...

**One of AudioFile Magazine's Best Audiobooks of 2019** This program includes a chapter read by the author. What happens when an undocumented teen mother takes on the U.S. immigration system? When Aida Hernandez was born in 1987 in Agua Prieta, Mexico, the nearby U.S. border was little more than...

Brown Enough, Christopher Rivas's first book, is a memoir about what it truly means to be Brown in America. Holding the weight of being a Latino man, Christopher wonders where he falls on the color line, widened through his experience as an ethnically am­biguous actor of color....

Latinos across the United States are redefining identities, pushing boundaries, and awakening politically in powerful and surprising ways. Many—Afrolatino, indigenous, Muslim, queer and undocumented, living in large cities and small towns—are voices who have been chronically overlooked in...

Offering a rarely seen female perspective on gang life, this raw and powerful memoir tells not only of one woman's struggle to survive the streets but also of her ascent to the top ranks of the new Mafia, where the only people more dangerous than rival gangs were members of her own. At age five...

Written during the last decade of her life, Light in the Dark represents the culmination of Gloria E. Anzaldúa's mature thought and the most comprehensive presentation of her philosophy. Throughout, Anzaldúa weaves personal narratives into deeply engaging theoretical readings to comment on...

Hunger of Memory is the story of Mexican-American Richard Rodriguez, who begins his schooling in Sacramento, California, knowing just 50 words of English, and concludes his university studies in the stately quiet of the reading room of the British Museum. Here is the poignant journey of a...

Claudia Garcia crossed the border because her toddler could not hear. Leaving behind everything she knew in Mexico, Claudia recounts the terror of migrating alone with her toddler and the incredible challenges she faced advocating for her daughter’s health in the United States....

The deeply reported story of identical twin brothers who escape El Salvador's violence to build new lives in California—fighting to survive, to stay, and to belong. Growing up in rural El Salvador in the wake of the civil war, the United States was a distant fantasy to identical twins Ernesto...

As the heyday of the Chicano Movement of the late 1960s to early '70s fades further into history and as more and more of its important figures pass on, so too does knowledge of its significance. Thus, Chicano Movement for Beginners is an important attempt to stave off historical amnesia. It...

This poignant and poetic 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winning play captures 1929 Florida at a time when cigars are still rolled by hand and "lectors" are employed to educate and entertain the workers....

American Brujeria is about the fascinating blend of American and Mexican folk magic currently used by those living in the US but whose roots are steeped in Mexican culture....