Nonfiction

An American Language: The History of Spanish in the United States | Rosina Lozano​
An American Language is a political history that looks at the relationship between language and identity written by Princeton University historian Rosina Lozano. The book traces the use of Spanish in the various states Continue reading... 7/28/20
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Jaquira Díaz | Ordinary Girls
Jaquira Díaz’s Ordinary Girls is a memoir of the author’s tumultuous life battling some pretty strong inner and outer demons. Having survived these ordeals, Díaz extends her extraordinary, individual experiences growing up to include both commonplace and outlying stories of girlhood Continue reading... 7/23/20

​A Silent Fury: The El Bordo Mine Fire | Yuri Herrera
In the early morning of March 10, 1920 in the Mexican city of Pachuca, a fire tore through the subterranean shafts of the massive El Bordo mine. Four hundred men were below ground when the fire was discovered, and the evacuation was slow, chaotic, and incomplete. Continue reading... 7/3/20

Defending Latina/o Immigrant Communities | Álvaro Huerta
Dr. Álvaro Huerta has crafted an impressive and valuable book that speaks directly and poignantly to the long-lived biases against Latinos in the United States. His collection of carefully selected essays and their key sources proffers a strong testimonial about the prejudices that developed against Continue reading... 6/24/20
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In the Dream House | Carmen Maria Machado
In this fragmented memoir of her relationship with an abusive long-term partner, Machado imbues her own personal story with exposition of the “archival silence” on the topic of abuse in the queer community. It starts with a fervent crush on a beautiful, charming Continue reading... 1/7/20

Feminism for the Americas | Katherine M. Marino
Katherine M. Marino charts an alternative history of international feminism between the World Wars, a period often viewed as relatively stagnant in feminist history, by shifting our attention to the work of six major activists from across the Americas. This historiographical pivot to the South Continue reading... 11/2/19
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Visión de los vencidos | Miguel León-Portilla 
Up until 1959, the only published testimonies about the “Spanish conquest” were chronicles by Spaniards. Miguel Leon-Portilla in his book, Visión de los vencidos: relaciones indígenas de la conquista, gives a voice to those who were silenced Continue reading... 9/17/19
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Native Country of the Heart | Cherríe Moraga
From the beloved queer Chicana feminist writer Cherríe Moraga, Native Country of the Heart is a memoir told in parallel with the memoir of her Mexican mother, Elvira. Elvira is the foundational stone on which Moraga builds her own Chicana feminism Continue reading... 6/24/19

You Have the Right to Remain Fat | Virgie Tovar
For essayist and activist Virgie Tovar, society’s discrimination because of the size of her body has been far more detrimental to her well-being than “the lessons [she] received about [her] racial and gender inferiority” (36). Thus, in her collection of essays titled You Have the Right Continue reading... 4/2/19
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La gestación de un Universo | Apab'yan Tew
Everything contains life. Everything is interconnected, stars, plants, and people. So begins The Birth of a Universe, a profound exegesis by Apabyan Tew, a K’iche Maya midwife and daykeeper. We are bound to the ancient 260-day Maya calendar just as we are bound to the Continue reading... 1/12/19

From Santa Anna to Selena | Harriett Denise Joseph
Harriett Denise Joseph relates biographies of eleven notable Mexicanos and Tejanos, beginning with Santa Anna and the impact his actions had on Texas. She discusses the myriad contributions of Erasmo and Juan Seguín to Texas history Continue reading... 10/26/18
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Valeria Luiselli | Tell Me How It Ends
​An inspiring and necessary book by the renown Mexican author Valeria Luiselli. Tell Me How It Ends speaks boldly about the painful reality undocumented, and many times unaccompanied, children face in the U.S. immigration system as well as their Continue reading... 3/18/18

Paco Ignacio Taibo II | El Álamo: Una historia no apta para Hollywood
​After finding out about the immense and disproportionate amount of material there is about the Alamo in the United States as opposed to Mexico, Mexican author, Paco Ignacio  Taibo II gives us a breath of Continue reading... 7/5/2017

Cecilia García Akers | The Inspiring Life of Texan Héctor P. García
Doctor Hector P. García was a Mexican immigrant who changed the lives of millions of Americans and whose positive contributions will continue to be enjoyed generation after generation after generation. Cecilia García Akers gives us special access to the life of the Civil Right's hero Continue reading... 3/7/17
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Zaragosa Vargas | Crucible of Struggle
Crucible of Struggle: A History of Mexican Americans from Colonial Times to the Present Era, by Zaragosa Vargas, provides the reader a detailed chronological account of the Mexican American historical experience and how it takes its place in American History. Continue reading... 2/17/17
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Ray Suarez | Latino Americans
George Santayana once said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Latino Americans by Suárez is an inspiring read, thoroughly documented, that enlightens the reader regarding our Latin American heritage and legacy Continue reading... 7/31/16
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Luis Alberto Ambroggio | Estados Unidos Hispano
Five hundred years of Hispanic/Latino presence in the United States is proudly celebrated in Luis Alberto Ambroggio's book Estados Unidos Hispano. This work is a homage to our heritage, language and literature which demonstrates, through Continue reading... 9/11/16
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Spirit Run: A 6,000 Marathon through North America's Stolen Land | Noé Álvarez
Noé Álvarez was nineteen years old when he dropped out of college and bought a one-way ticket to Canada to embark on a 6,000-mile run across North America. As a young, first-generation Mexican-American man struggling Continue reading... 7/15/20

Forgotten Dead: Mob Violence Against Mexicans in the U.S. | Carrigan & Webb 
“Two brothers-Filomeno Rios and Eifanio Rios-hung from one limb. The oldest of the men, Jorge Rodriguez, was found swinging from another branch of the same tree. Hanging nearby was the corpse of… Blas Mata. Further away Continue reading... 7/1/20
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​My Time Among the White | Jennine Capó Crucet
Growing up in Miami, Cuban-American author Jennine Capó Crucet saw her ethnicity represented in every facet of her community. Having never been singled out for her otherness, she experienced many of the privileges afforded to most white Americans. Continue reading... 4/15/20

The Browning of the New South | Jennifer A. Jones
Our current political climate is one where conflict seems to trump cooperation. Jessica Jones’s The Browning of the New South invites us to see cooperative tendencies on the local and regional scale, in the face of louder national narratives of racial tension. Jones explores the Continue reading... 12/7/19

​'68: The Mexican Autumn of the Tlatelolco Massacre | Paco Ignacio Taibo II
The student movement of 1968 in Mexico City is not defined by “one day of death but by 123 days of heroic strike”. In his book, '68: The Mexican Autumn of the Tlatelolco Massacre, Paco Ignacio Taibo II masterfully uses anecdotal Continue reading... 10/23/19

Villa bandolero | Jesús Vargas Valdés
Several books have been written about Pancho Villa’s involvement in the Mexican Revolution, but few have been written about his formative years prior to becoming a legendary revolutionary fighter. Jesús Vargas Valdés, in Villa bandolero, reveals Villa's early journey Continue reading... 8/14/19
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Eating NAFTA | Alyshia Gálvez
As Mexican food is being globally “elevated” and appropriated by the foodie elite, Mexico has seen a simultaneous rise in obesity and diabetes as access to traditional food is drastically hindered as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Eating NAFTA is an investigation Continue reading... 5/5/19

American Like Me: Reflection on Life Between Cultures | America Ferrera
America Ferrera can write. Whatever you think of her performances in Real Women Have Curves or Ugly Betty, she is a storyteller. Feeling alone in her experience growing up as a minority Continue reading... 2/4/19 
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Vaqueros in Blue & Grey | Jerry D. Thompson
When  people talk about the United States Civil War, the participation of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans is often ignored. Jerry D. Thompson on, Vaqueros in Blue and Gray, sheds light on the role of Tejanos and Mexicanos who fought on both the Union and Confederate armies. Continue reading... 2/6/19

The Birth of a Universe (Introduction) | Apab'yan Tew
We are not what was left of a civilization; we are the current Maya civilization. We wrote the Popol Wuj. We keep writing and we continue to practice the wisdom inherited from our ancestors. This is a millennial knowledge. What is written here is Continue reading... 1/28/19
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US Latina & Latino Oral History Journal Vol. 2 - 2018
Thriving at the core of the University of Texas, the US Latina & Latino Oral History Journal has one main goal—to establish the significance of oral history as a way to document, explore, and investigate—as well as highlight the transformative effects of oral history. Continue reading... 11/20/18
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Texas Devils | Michael L. Collins
​​Michael L. Collins in his book, Texas Devils: Rangers and Regulars on the Lower Rio Grande, 1846-1861, moves away from the Texas Ranger in “popular fiction” and provides the reader with a more balanced perception of this controversial character. Continue reading... 8/19/18

Shuly Xóchitl Cawood | The Going and Goodbye
The first thing that stands out in Shuly Xóchitl Cawood’s absorbing The Going and Goodbye: A Memoir is how easily an everyday act can be mined for meaning. Cawood is an unsatisfied wanderer in the grip of Sehnsucht who travels relentlessly from place Continue reading... 10/21/17
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​Sandra Cisneros | A House of My Own: Stories of My Life
​A profoundly intimate memoir by one of America's greatest writers. A House of My Own by Sandra Cisneros contains a compilation of never-before-published work, nonfiction writings, as well as family memories that explore and document her life from Continue reading... 3/16/17
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Arnoldo De Leon | They Called Them Greasers
They Called Them Greasers: Anglo Attitudes toward Mexicans in Texas, 1821 – 1900, by Arnoldo De Leon, is a must read book that seeks to analyze the racial attitudes by white Americans towards people of Mexican descent  in the nineteenth century, how those Continue reading... 2/23/17
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Álvaro Huerta | Reframing the Latino Immigration Debate
Reframing the Latino Immigration Debate serves two major purposes: first, to save us from ourselves and secondly, to save us from the anti-Latino crusade we have witnessed this past decade. In order to save us from ourselves we first need to acknowledge who Continue reading... 9/25/16
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