This is the final week of Hispanic Heritage Month, but that doesn’t mean it’s the end of Latino Lit. We hope that you’ve been able to expand your reading horizons over the past month as we know we have. Remember that Local is Global. By reading about diverse cultures and people, we can understand more about ourselves and our community. If you want more, don’t forget about the UNG Reads events throughout October, including the movie showing of Bless Me, Ultima tonight!
Esperanza Rising—Pam Muñoz Ryan
Esperanza’s life in Mexico was perfect. Her family was wealthy, she wore pretty dresses, and she could have anything she ever wanted. Her life was idyllic, until her father was murdered. When Esperanza’s tio threatens her mother and family, they’re forced to move to California in the middle of the Great Depression, leaving her Abuelita behind. Now, Esperanza must work in the farm sheds, packing produce instead of attending school. Winner of the Pura Belpré Award, Esperanza Rising is the beautiful tale of what can happen when one girl rises above the circumstances and overcomes the obstacles that are thrown her way.
Signs Preceding the End of the World—Yuri Herrera, 
Translated by Lisa Dillman
Makina knows all about survival. Living in the dangerous parts of Mexico, it’s nothing new to her. So it’s not fear which drives her from Mexico, but her mother’s request to find her brother. The only way to reach American is to illegally cross the border, aided by Mr. Aitch, a “reptile in pants” and opportunistic drug lord. Now she’s searching for her brother, carrying two secret messages as she struggles to adapt to the different world she is exposed to. Yuri Herrera understand language, and Dillman’s translation help an English-speaking audience experience the otherworldliness of the original.
The Savage Detectives—Roberto Bolañom, Translated by Natasha Wimmer
The Savage Detectives, or Los Detectives Salvajes as it was published first, follows Juan García Madero, college student and eventual drop-out, but it’s about Arturo Belano and Ulises Lima, the Visceral Realists. Due to a violent encounter in the desert 20 years ago, they’re still on the run now. Following, Belano, Lima, and Madero, we meet a foul-mouthed American grad student, the great-granddaughter or Leon Trotsky, an Argentinian photojournalist, a Chilean stowaway, and so many more eclectic characters. Told in a non-linear story line, their lifelong quest to find the founder of Visceral Realism leads them on a journey that any young bohemian will love.
Xtabentum: A Novel of Yucatan—Rosy Hugener
This story follows two women who are living in the Mexican Revolution in Merida, Yucatan. Amanda Diaz is of European descent, one of the small families who dominate the politics and economy of the region. Amanda’s friend, Carmen is a Mayan Indian, daughter of one the Diaz’s servants. Carmen is whipped by the Diaz’s neighbors, and it releases the horrors of social injustice between the classes. Following the family across generations, this is the story of two women, their granddaughter, and unsureness about if their friendship can overcome everything else.
The Cruel Country—J
udith Ortiz Cofer
Judith Ortiz Cofer was a Puerto Rican native who moved to New Jersey with her family in 1956 and then to Augusta, GA in 1967. She was the Regents’ and Frankin Professor of English and Creative Writing at UGA. Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, a Pushcart Prize, and inductee of the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, Cofer was “a beautiful representative of the Latino community, but.. a poet for everybody.” She wrote multiple works of poetry, creative nonfiction, and short stories, all of which are deserving of praise. Cofer’s stories described her characters fight to maintain “their own dignity and creative potential” amid the duality of Puerto Rican and American culture, which she herself lived up to. She will be dearly missed by everyone at the UNG Press.
