Literary Latino: Latino Fiction

Below is a list of books I have enjoyed reading, mostly on Latino literature and particularly 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 (especially the large chain stores) do an awful job of understanding Latino literature and Latino fiction. These stores have the same two shelves of Latino or Chicano 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 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.LiteraryLatino.com; also visit www.LatinoFiction.com, a bookstore focused on Latino books. All proceeds from this website will be donated to Hudson River Healthcare, which provides free healthcare to migrant farmworkers in New York's Hudson Valley.

Sergio's blog about writing, politics, and finance is at www.ChicoLingo.com. Click the Chico Lingo Archive for a complete list of entries with hyperlinks.

Books for Children and Young Adults

Rudolfo Anaya, The Farolitos of Christmas and Farolitos for Abuelo

Kathleen Contreras, Braids/Trencitas

Sarah Cortez (editor), You Don’t Have a Clue: Latino Mystery Stories for Teens

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 Ordinary Seaman and Say Her Name

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 and From This Wicked Patch of Dust

Luis Alberto Urrea, The Hummingbird's Daughter

José Antonio Villarreal, Pocho

Helena María Viramontes, Under the Feet of Jesus

Non-fiction Books

Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza

Jose Antonio Burciaga, Weedee Peepoo: Essays

Sarah Cortez and Sergio Troncoso (editors), Our Lost Border: Essays on Life amid the Narco-Violence

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

Peter Kuper, Diario de Oaxaca

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

Sergio Troncoso, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays

Luis Alberto Urrea, The Devil's Highway

John Womack, Zapata and the Mexican Revolution

Poetry

Francisco Aragón, Puerta Del Sol

Francisco Aragón (editor), The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry

Richard Blanco, Directions to the Beach of the Dead

Eduardo Corral, Slow Lightning

David Dominguez, Work Done Right and The Ghost of Cesar Chavez

Martín Espada, The Trouble Ball: Poems

Carmen Gimenez Smith, Odalisque in Pieces

Aracelis Girmay, Teeth

Ray González, Consideration of the Guitar

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

Juan Felipe Herrera, Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems

Javier O. Huerta, Some Clarifications y otros poemas

Ada Limón, Lucky Wreck

Sheryl Luna, Pity the Drowned Horses

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

Emmy Pérez, Solstice

Sasha Pimentel Chacón, Insides She Swallowed

Jose Antionio Rodriguez, The Shallow End of Sleep

Renato Rosaldo, Prayer to Spider Woman/Rezo a la Mujer Araña (Saltillo, Coahuila México: Instituto Coahuilense de Cultura) and Diego Luna’s Insider Tips

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

Sarah Cortez and Liz Martinez (editors), Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery

Daniel Chacón, Unending Rooms

Junot Diaz, This Is How You Lose Her

Diana Garcia, Frances Payne Adler, and Debra Busman (editors), Fire and Ink: An Anthology of Social Action Writing

Dagoberto Gilb, The Magic of Blood and Woodcuts of Women

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

Rigoberto González (editor), Camino del Sol: Fifteen Years of Latina and Latino Writing

Christine Granados, Brides and Sinners in El Chuco

Marcia Hatfield Daudistel (editor), Literary El Paso

Lorraine López, Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories

C. M. Mayo, Sky Over El Nido

Manuel Muñoz, Zigzagger

Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club

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: From This Wicked Patch of Dust (excerpt), with discussion questions for Sergio Troncoso's novel about a Mexican-American family struggling to stay together despite cultural clashes, different religions, and contemporary politics.

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: The Loss of Juárez: How Has the Violence in Juárez Changed Border Culture?, Why Should Latinos Write Their Own Stories?.