From literary classics to modern favorites, here is a list of must-read titles by LatinX authors in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.
A traditional dancer performs at a Hispanic Heritage Month festival. GPA Photo Archive. CC0
With an incredibly rich history and huge variety of cultures, it is no surprise that Latin America has consistently produced world famous and award winning authors for decades. From historical fiction about the continent’s troubled colonial past to light-hearted stories about colorful local traditions, the diversity of Latin American literature spans time and space to offer incredible insights into life for bookworms and the average fiction reader alike. In celebration of September as LatinX Heritage Month, here are seven incredible books by LatinX authors to add to your reading list.
“Violeta” - Isabel Allende
Left: Violeta. Goodreads. CC BY-SA 2.0 Right: Isabel Allende. Lesekreis. CC BY-SA 2.0
Multi-award winner Isabel Allende’s most recent novel follows the titular character from her birth to her death over a tumultuous century. Violeta is born during the Spanish Flu in 1920 and lives through the Great Depression, World War II and all the changes brought by the turn of the twenty-first century, while navigating family, romance and her own desires. Allende, arguably the first internationally successful female Chilean author, is known for writing in the “magic realism” style, weaving history with fiction and myth with reality to create engaging plotlines that find their roots in Hispanic culture, society, and politics. This novel is no different, and Violeta’s story, written in the form of a letter to the one person she loves the most, recounts 100 years of Chilean history through the eyes of a determined, humorous woman who, above all else, carries a deep love life.
“Solito” - Javier Zamora
Left: Solito. NBCNews. CC BY-NC 2.0 Right: Javier Zamora. Dan Vera. CC BY-SA 2.0
A poet by trade, Salvadoran writer and activist Javier Zamora has collected his fair share of accolades, and is currently a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University. The New York Times bestseller “Solito” is his latest project having been published in 2022 and tells the heart wrenching story of Zamora’s perilous journey from El Salvador to the United States at only nine years of age. Leaving his extended family and childhood home behind, Javier travels almost entirely alone to reunite with his parents who had fled the country years earlier. He has no way of knowing about the seemingly insurmountable obstacles that will stand in his way, or the group of kind-hearted strangers who will come to treat him like one of their own. This biographical memoir is unlike either of Zamora’s earlier published works, and provides an incredible and intimate account of a story shared by millions of Central American migrants who have no choice but to flee their homes due to violence and political unrest.
“A Little Luck” - Claudia Piñero
Left: A Little Luck. Charco Press. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Right: Claudia Piñero. Secretaría de Cultura de la Nación. CC BY-NC 2.0
After the success of her earlier novel “Elena Knows,” Argentine novelist and finalist for the 2022 International Booker Prize Claudia Piñero has astounded her readers once again with this 2015 novel which has only recently been translated to English. Piñero has an incredible talent for exploring the depths of unbelievably tragedy and pain while offering her audiences brief moments of hope, and “A Little Luck” is no different. The novel follows Mary Lohan, a woman who fled the suburbs of Buenos Aires after an accident but has finally returned two decades later. While on the outside she in no way resembles her past self, she is very much still the same Mary, and as the past starts to resurface her present begins to crumble. “A Little Luck” is a beautifully crafted story about love, lies, unforgettable places, uninvited people, and most of all, the inescapable power of fate.
“The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” - Junot Díaz
Left: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Biblio. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Right. Junot Díaz. American Library Association. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Originally published in 2007, this novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2008, along with a host of other awards. Dominican-American author Junot Díaz penned this novel, during his time at MIT, where he continues to teach in the Creative Writing department. Díaz wrote several works while attending the prestigious university, but “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” remains his most well-known and celebrated title to this day. The novel follows the titular character, a lovable and overweight Dominican teenager living in New Jersey with his mother and sister. He wants nothing more than to become a world famous author, except for maybe finding true love, a dream that feels far out of reach given the curse that has afflicted his family for generations and has resulted in only ill-fated romances. With an incredibly skilled hand, Díaz guides his readers through the life of Oscar and his family, both past and present, while also touching on the brutal reign of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo.
“Like Water for Chocolate” - Laura Esquivel
Left: Like Water for Chocolate. Grab The Lapels. CC BY-SA 2.0 Right: Laura Esquivel. Secretaría de Cultura de la Ciudad de México. CC BY-SA 2.0
This 1989 novel was translated into English in 1992, and immediately became a modern classic in the pantheon of Latin American literature. The title comes from a common idiom in Spanish-speaking countries, “como agua para chocolate,” which refers to an intense state of emotion, whether it be anger, excitement or even arousal. Mexican author and screenwriter Laura Esquivel chose this for the title of her first novel because of the many references to food and culinary culture throughout the story, which add to her detailed description of family life at the turn of the century in Mexico. The novel makes use of humor and magic to explore a bittersweet love story both relatable and fantastical, as well as its impact on the families at the center of the drama. Each chapter begins with a recipe filled with cleverly chosen words and descriptions which allude to upcoming character and plot developments, an aspect that was unfortunately largely lost when Esquivel wrote the screenplay for the 1992 movie adaptation.
“In the Time of the Butterflies” - Julia Alvarez
Left: In the Time of the Butterflies. Amazon. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Right: Julia Alvarez. Julia Alvarez. CC BY-SA 2.0
Julia Alvarez is a Dominican-American essayist, poet, and novelist who is known for her ability to weave fact with fiction and craft irresistible plotlines that detail political and social events through the eyes of colorful and relatable characters. “In the Time of the Butterflies” is a perfect example of this, as a work of historical fiction with its foundations in the very real story of the Mirabal sisters, four young women who tirelessly fought for their country’s freedom under the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo in the Dominican Republic during the 1900s. Known by Dominicans as “las mariposas” or “the butterflies,” the sisters were unfortunately assassinated in 1960 for their efforts to overthrow the government. Alvarez gives these characters a new life by imagining their time as teenagers, and how they came to be involved with revolutionary efforts before falling victim to the destructive regime. Through the voice of each sister, the story of their political involvement, victimization and deep love for each other slowly but surely come to light.
“100 Years of Solitude” - Gabriel García Márquez
Left: 100 Years of Solitude. Amazon. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Right: Gabriel García Márquez. Jose Lara. CC BY-SA 2.0
No list of Latin American literature is complete with this 1982 Nobel Prize-winning classic, and what many consider to be Gabriel García Márquez’s best work. The late Colombian novelist published this novel in 1967, chronicling seven generations of the Buendía family and the rural town of Macondo they built in Colombia between the 1820s and the 1920s. While separated from the rest of Colombian society by an imposing mountain range, Macondo is a microcosm of larger society with its troubles and its magic, although the key to all of the town’s secrets remain hidden in a coded book. Through its delicate blend of magic, reality, history, and tradition, Márquez presents an allegorical insight into the turbulent social and political atmosphere in Colombia during the post-colonial times, and the country’s development over the following century.
Tanaya Vohra
Tanaya is an undergraduate student pursuing a major in Public Health at the University of Chicago. She's lived in Asia, Europe and North America and wants to share her love of travel and exploring new cultures through her writing.