Chicano Literature and Latino Fiction Books

Below is a list of books I have enjoyed reading, mostly (but not necessarily) on Chicano literature and Latino fiction. This list is not comprehensive by any means, and if your favorite book is not here it may just mean I have not found the time to read it or to list it. As a writer, I have learned my craft by reading others and by trying to understand the work of good writers. So I want to share the books I found valuable, for one reason or another. Also, in traveling across the country to give readings for my own books, I have discovered that many bookstores (particularly the large chain stores) do an awful job of understanding Chicano literature and Latino fiction. These stores have the same two shelves of Chicano or Latino books in New York City and in El Paso, Texas. It's absurd. This is my effort to create a list of eclectic (but high quality) selections that might appeal to those who love to read. I don't claim that this list contains the 'best' writers or the 'most important' books about Chicano or Latino literature. It is simply my list. I hope over time that this list will grow to include a plurality of literary voices. If you don't like it, I would encourage you to make up your own list. Maybe in this way, we can encourage booksellers to think carefully about what they should have on their shelves. ---Sergio Troncoso

(To reach this page directly, go to www.chicanoliterature.com or www.latinofiction.com. I will donate all proceeds from this web page to Hudson River Healthcare, which provides free healthcare to migrant farmworkers in New York's Hudson Valley.)

Books for Children and Young Adults

Rudolfo Anaya, The Farolitos of Christmas and Farolitos for Abuelo

Tomie DePaola, The Night of Las Posadas

Ricky González, María Mendoza, Wendy Morán et al, Wiley's Way/El Camino de Wiley

Joe Hayes, La Llorona: The Weeping Woman

Brendan January, Hernán Cortés

Lorraine M. López, Call Me Henri

Gerald McDermott, Arrow to the Sun and Musicians of the Sun

Albert Marrin, Aztecs and Spaniards

Victor Martinez, Parrot in the Oven

Antony Mason, Ancient Civilizations of The Americas

Lyn Miller-Lachmann (editor), Once Upon a Cuento

Pat Mora, Tomás and the Library Lady

David Rice, Crazy Loco

Benjamin Sáenz, A Gift from Papá Diego and Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood

Jon Scieszka, Me Oh Maya!

Gary Soto, The Old Man and His Door

María Cristina Urrutia, Cinco de Mayo: Yesterday and Today

Natasha Wing, Jalapeño Bagels

Novels

Rudolfo Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima

Mariano Azuela, Los de Abajo

Ana Castillo, The Guardians

Denise Chávez, Face of an Angel

Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street and Caramelo

Angie Cruz, Let It Rain Coffee

Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Ernesto Galarza, Barrio Boy

Francisco Goldman, The Long Night of White Chickens and The Ordinary Seaman

Oscar Hijuelos, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love

Rolando Hinojosa, The Useless Servants and Becky and Her Friends

Arturo Islas, The Rain God and Migrant Souls

Mary Helen Lagasse, The Fifth Sun

Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera

Demetria Martínez, Mother Tongue

Ernesto Quiñonez, Bodega Dreams and Chango's Fire

Juan Rulfo, Pedro Páramo y El Llano en llamas

Benjamin Sáenz, The House of Forgetting

Sergio Troncoso, The Nature of Truth

Luis Alberto Urrea, The Hummingbird's Daughter

José Antonio Villarreal, Pocho

Helena María Viramontes, Under the Feet of Jesus

Non-fiction Books

Mario T. García, Desert Immigrants: The Mexicans of El Paso, 1880-1920

Gabriel García Márquez, Living to Tell the Tale

Dagoberto Gilb, Gritos

Rigoberto Gonzalez, Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa

Elva Treviño Hart, Barefoot Heart

Friedrich Katz, The Life and Times of Pancho Villa

C. M. Mayo, Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles Through Baja California, the Other Mexico

Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude

Raquel Z. Rivera, New York Ricans from the Hip Hop Zone

Richard Rodríguez, Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodríguez and Brown: The Last Discovery of America

David Dorado Romo, Ringside Seat to a Revolution: An Underground Cultural History of El Paso and Juárez: 1893-1923

Ilan Stavans, On Borrowed Words and Dictionary Days

Ilan Stavans, Harold Augenbraum (editors), Encyclopedia Latina: History, Culture, and Society in the United States

Jacobo Timerman, Prisoner without a Name, Cell without a Number

Luis Alberto Urrea, The Devil's Highway

John Womack, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution

Poetry

Francisco Aragón, Puerta Del Sol

Richard Blanco, Directions to the Beach of the Dead

Aracelis Girmay, Teeth

Ray González, Consideration of the Guitar

Rigoberto González, So Often the Pitcher Goes to Water Until It Breaks

Ada Limón, Lucky Wreck

Sheryl Luna, Pity the Drowned Horses

María Meléndez, How Long She'll Last in This World

Emmy Pérez, Solstice

Renato Rosaldo, Prayer to Spider Woman/Rezo a la Mujer Araña (Saltillo, Coahuila México: Instituto Coahuilense de Cultura).

Short Story Collections

John S. Christie and José B. Gonzalez (editors), Latino Boom: An Anthology of U. S. Latino Literature

Sandra Cisneros, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories

Junot Diaz, Drown

Dagoberto Gilb, The Magic of Blood and Woodcuts of Women

Dagoberto Gilb (editor), Hecho en Tejas: An Anthology of Texas Mexican Literature

Christine Granados, Brides and Sinners in El Chuco

C. M. Mayo, Sky Over El Nido

Manuel Muñoz, Zigzagger

José Skinner, Flight and Other Stories

Ilan Stavans (editor), New World: Young Latino Writers

Sergio Troncoso, The Last Tortilla and Other Stories

Helena María Viramontes, The Moths and Other Stories

Richard Yañez, El Paso del Norte: Stories on the Border

Novel: The Nature of Truth: The First Three Chapters, with discussion questions for Sergio Troncoso's novel about righteousness and evil, Yale and the Holocaust.

Short stories: Angie Luna, The Snake, A Rock Trying to be a Stone, Espíritu Santo, with discussion questions for all stories in The Last Tortilla and Other Stories.

Essays: Why Should Latinos Write Their Own Stories?, Latinos Find an America on the Border of Acceptance, and Crossing Borders; on Amazon Shorts, two essays, Letter to my Young Sons: Part One and The Father is in the Details.