Collection: Shop Latinx

Pura Belpré Author Award Honor - American Library Association (ALA)
Pura Belpré Illustrator Award Honor - American Library Association (ALA)

Bilingual English/Spanish. A bilingual biography of Pura Belpré, New York City's first Latina librarian.

The winter of 1929 feels especially cold to cousins Hildamar and Santiago--they arrived in New York City from sunny Puerto Rico only months before. Their island home feels very far away indeed, especially with Three Kings' Day rapidly approaching. But then a magical thing happened. A visitor appears in their class, a gifted storyteller and librarian by the name of Pura Belpré. She opens the children's eyes to the public library and its potential to be the living, breathing heart of the community. The library, after all, belongs to everyone--whether you speak Spanish, English, or both.

The award-winning team of Lucía González and Lulu Delacre have crafted an homage to Pura Belpré, New York City's first Latina librarian. Through her vision and dedication, the warmth of Puerto Rico came to the island of Manhattan in a most unexpected way.

A remarkable true story from social justice advocate and national bestselling author Julissa Arce about her journey to belong in America while growing up undocumented in Texas.

Born in the picturesque town of Taxco, Mexico, Julissa Arce was left behind for months at a time with her two sisters, a nanny, and her grandma while her parents worked tirelessly in America in hopes of building a home and providing a better life for their children. That is, until her parents brought Julissa to Texas to live with them. From then on, Julissa secretly lived as an undocumented immigrant, went on to become a scholarship winner and an honors college graduate, and climbed the ladder to become a vice president at Goldman Sachs.

This moving, at times heartbreaking, but always inspiring story will show young readers that anything is possible. Julissa's story provides a deep look into the little-understood world of a new generation of undocumented immigrants in the United States today--kids who live next door, sit next to you in class, or may even be one of your best friends.

Un conmovedor libro biográfico sobre el chef José Andrés, quien, junto con su organización World Central Kitchen, seguramente inspirará a los niños a ayudar en sus propias comunidades.

El amor de José Andrés por la cocina comenzó cuando era un niño en España, mientras recogía la leña para hacer el fuego que cocinaría la paella perfecta. A José le encantaba cada aspecto: el chisporroteo del aceite de oliva, los montones de vegetales frescos picados, y el olor del azafrán. Cuando se fue de casa, se dio cuenta de que quería contar historias con comida. Y lograría contarlas, creando magia con las semillas de tomates y granadas, con almendras y queso. Sus sueños crecieron hasta que eran tan grandes como las estrellas en el cielo. Pensó nadie debería pasar hambre. Quiero ayudar a alimentar al mundo. Y así nació World Central Kitchen.

Desde el terremoto en Haití hasta la guerra en Ucrania y la pandemia de Covid, José y su equipo en World Central Kitchen han estado en primera línea, sirviendo más de 200 millones de comidas y brindando consuelo y esperanza en los momentos más oscuros.

Con un texto lírico e impresionantes ilustraciones, aquí hay una biografía ilustrada sobre un chef y humanitario de renombre mundial que seguramente inspirará a una nueva generación de ayudantes comunitarios.

A moving picture book biography about chef José Andrés, who, along with his World Central Kitchen organization, is sure to inspire kids to help out in their own communities.

José Andrés's love of cooking began as a young boy in Spain as he gathered the wood to make the fire that would cook the paella just right. José loved everything about it: the sizzling olive oil, the mounds of chopped vegetables, and the smell of saffron. When he left home, he realized he wanted to tell stories with food. And tell them he did, creating magic with the seeds of ripe tomatoes and pomegranates and cheese. His dreams grew until they were as big as the stars in the sky. He thought, No one should ever go hungry. I want to help feed the world-- and World Central Kitchen was born.

From the earthquake in Haiti to the war in Ukraine and the Covid pandemic, José and his team at World Central Kitchen have been at the frontlines, serving more than 200 million meals and counting, and bringing comfort and hope in the darkest times.

With a lyrical text and stunning illustrations, here is a picture book biography about a world-renowned humanitarian and chef that's sure to inspire a new generation of community helpers.

The Red Umbrella is a moving tale of a 14-year-old girl's journey from Cuba to America as part of Operation Pedro Pan--an organized exodus of more than 14,000 unaccompanied children, whose parents sent them away to escape Fidel Castro's revolution.

In 1961, two years after the Communist revolution, Lucía Álvarez still leads a carefree life, dreaming of parties and her first crush. But when the soldiers come to her sleepy Cuban town, everything begins to change. Freedoms are stripped away. Neighbors disappear. And soon, Lucía's parents make the heart-wrenching decision to send her and her little brother to the United States--on their own.

Suddenly plunked down in Nebraska with well-meaning strangers, Lucía struggles to adapt to a new country, a new language, a new way of life. But what of her old life? Will she ever see her home or her parents again? And if she does, will she still be the same girl?

The Red Umbrella is a touching story of country, culture, family, and the true meaning of home.

"Captures the fervor, uncertainty and fear of the times. . . . Compelling." -The Washington Post

"Gonzalez deals effectively with separation, culture shock, homesickness, uncertainty and identity as she captures what is also a grand adventure." -San Francisco Chronicle

CITY WITHOUT ALTAR is a poetry collection and play in verse that explores what it means to live, love, heal and experience violence as a Black person in the world. The titular play in verse that sits at the center of the book seeks to amplify the voices and experiences of victims, survivors and living ancestors of the 1937 Haitian Massacre that occurred along the northwest Dominican/Haitian border during the Trujillo Era. Between the scenes of the play are interludes that explore a different kind of cutting and what it means to feel othered because of illness, disability and blackness. Ultimately, Machete is a meditation on being/feeling blacked out by the archive, on the world stage and in one's daily life.

Poetry. Drama. African & African American Studies. Latinx Studies. Women's Studies.

Essential reading from an expert voice our country needs: Luis Miranda's personal and political memoir reveals a deep understanding of Latino culture and building community to change our world for the better.

A veteran of New York and national politics, Luis Miranda embodies the relentless spirit of progress of American immigrants.

There is nobody on the Latino, New York, and national political scene with the breadth of experience, passion, and storytelling charm of Luis Miranda. In Relentless, he shares the poignant narrative of his life and career--from his early days as a radically minded Puerto Rican activist to his decades of political advice and problem solving.

We experience the thrill of the ascendency of Hamilton, created by his son Lin-Manuel. And we experience the suffering after the devastation of Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria. Amid the triumphs, challenges, and ongoing hard work, Miranda examines what his experience reveals about our ever-changing politics, demographics, and society.

In Diego Báez's debut collection, Yaguareté White, English, Spanish, and Guaraní encounter each other through the elusive yet potent figure of the jaguar.

The son of a Paraguayan father and a mother from Pennsylvania, Baéz grew up in central Illinois as one of the only brown kids on the block--but that didn't keep him from feeling like a gringo on family visits to Paraguay. Exploring this contradiction as it weaves through experiences of language, self, and place, Baéz revels in showing up the absurdities of empire and chafes at the limits of patrimony, but he always reserves his most trenchant irony for the gaze he turns on himself.

Notably, this raucous collection also wrestles with Guaraní, a state-recognized Indigenous language widely spoken in Paraguay. Guaraní both structures and punctures the book, surfacing in a sequence of jokes that double as poems, and introducing but leaving unresolved ambient questions about local histories of militarism, masculine bravado, and the outlook of the campos. Cutting across borders of every kind, Baéz's poems attempt to reconcile the incomplete, contradictory, and inconsistent experiences of a speaking self that resides between languages, nations, and generations.

Yaguareté White is a lyrical exploration of Paraguayan American identity and what it means to see through a colored whiteness in all of its tangled contradictions.

At 538 pounds, Rick Salewske lived a small life that consisted of his job, his house, and his car--and he was very close to no longer fitting into his car. His stomach rubbing on the steering wheel had already worn a threadbare line across his pants. Often ridiculed by total strangers, he felt humiliated and very much alone. Rick had been raised in a traditional Catholic family, but his relationship with God was more of a distant, respectful belief than an up-close and personal experience. He couldn't fit into a church pew and most definitely not into a confessional booth. What Rick didn't know was that even then, God was actively pursuing him, even when Rick was not pursuing God at all.

When Rick's weight cost him a chance at his dream job, God would lead him on a journey that would reach the mountaintops of national television appearances and even the New York Marathon, but his own poor choices would plunge him back down to a valley leading nowhere. It was in that valley that Rick eventually looked up and recognized God's hand in his life. When he learned to keep his eyes on God, the life God intended him to lead finally came into focus.

His path was not always smooth or straight. But learning to put his full trust in the Lord led Rick to be less than half and more than twice the man he used to be.

A girl from a migrant worker family overcomes the hardship of moving by creating a special place for herself.

Amelia Luisa Martinez hates roads. Los caminos, the roads, take her migrant worker family to fields where they labor all day, to schools where no one knows Amelia's name, and to bleak cabins that are not home.

Amelia longs for a beautiful white house with a fine shade tree in the yard, where she can live without worrying about los caminos again. Then one day, Amelia discovers an "accidental road." At its end she finds an amazing old tree reminiscent of the one in her dreams. Its stately sense of permanence inspires her to put her own roots down in a very special way.

The richly colored illustrations bring to life the landscape of California's Central Valley farmland. Amelia's Road is an inspirational tale about the importance of home.

La vida de un niño nacido en la frontera no es fácil, pero Güero sabe cómo hacerle frente: escribiendo poemas.

Güero tiene doce años y es mexicano y americano al mismo tiempo. Sabe sentirse en casa en ambos lados del rio, y en su vida hay tanto español como inglés. Güero ha comenzado el séptimo año en la escuela, y su profe de inglés hace que hasta los poemas suenen cool.

Güero es como llaman a los chicos como el: pálidos. Pero no te equivoques, nuestro héroe pelirrojo y con pecas es puro mexicano, como el Canelo Álvarez. Además, Güero es un nerd --lector, gamer, músico-- que se junta con una banda de inadaptados como el: Los Bobbys. Como todos los chicos de su edad, Los Bobbys se meten en problemas y, hasta les gustan las chicas! Pero bueno, cuidado con Joanna! Es dura como ninguna.

De la mano de las tradiciones familiares, su acordeón y su escuadrón de nerds, Güero le hace frente al séptimo año escolar con inteligencia y un gran corazon.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

Life is tough for a border kid, but Güero has figured out how to cope. He writes poetry.

Twelve-year-old Güero is Mexican American, at home with Spanish or English and on both sides of the river. He's starting 7th grade with a woke English teacher who knows how to make poetry cool.

In Spanish, "Güero" is a nickname for guys with pale skin, Latino or Anglo. But make no mistake: our red-headed, freckled hero is puro mexicano, like Canelo Álvarez, the Mexican boxer. Güero is also a nerd --reader, gamer, musician-- who runs with a squad of misfits like him, Los Bobbys. Sure, they get in trouble like anybody else, and like other middle-school boys, they discover girls. Watch out for Joanna! She's tough as nails.

But trusting in his family's traditions, his accordion and his bookworm squad, he faces seventh grade with book smarts and a big heart.

Los secretos que guarda la isla solo los desvelará el exilio.

El día comienza mal para Adela, joven neoyorquina de ascendencia cubana, cuando recibe la llamada de su madre. Llevan enfadadas más de un año, porque Adela no solo se ha trasladado a Miami, sino que vive con Marcos, un joven habanero recién llegado a Estados Unidos que la ha seducido por completo y al cual, por su origen, su madre rechaza. Marcos le cuenta a Adela historias de su infancia en la isla, arropado por un grupo de amigos de sus padres, llamado el Clan, y le muestra una foto de la última comida en que, siendo él niño, estuvieron juntos veinticinco años atrás. Adela, que presentía que el día se iba a torcer, descubre entre los rostros a alguien familiar. Y un abismo se abre bajo sus pies.

Como polvo en el viento es la historia de un grupo de amigos que ha sobrevivido a un destino de exilio y dispersión, en Barcelona, en el extremo noroeste de Estados Unidos, en Madrid, en Puerto Rico, en Buenos Aires... Qué ha hecho la vida con ellos, que se habían querido tanto? Qué ha pasado con los que se fueron y con los que decidieron quedarse? Cómo les ha cambiado el tiempo? Volverá a reunirlos el magnetismo del sentimiento de pertenencia, la fuerza de los afectos? O sus vidas son ya polvo en el viento?

En el trauma de la diáspora y la desintegración de los vínculos, esta novela es también un canto a la amistad, a los invisibles y poderosos hilos del amor y las viejas lealtades.

Una novela deslumbrante, un retrato humano conmovedor, otra obra cumbre de Leonardo Padura.

El lector tiene en sus manos una colección de relatos que viene precedida de una enorme expectación. Su autor, seleccionado por Newsweek como uno de los diez nuevos rostros para el noventa y seis, nos transporta desde los pueblos y parajes polvorientos de su tierra natal, la República Dominicana, hasta los barrios industrials y el paisaje urbano de New Jersey, bajo un horizonte de chimeneas humeantes. La obra triunfal que marcó el arranque literario de Junot Díaz puede ahora disfrutarse en una edición en español que conserva en su integridad la fuerza desabrida y la delicadeza del texto original.

Los niños y jóvenes que pueblan las páginas de Negocios gravitan sin sosiego por territorios marginales, a mitad de camino entre la inocencia y la experiencia, entre la curiosidad infantil y la crueldad más descarnada. Criados en hogares abandonados por el padre, donde todo se sostiene gracias a la férrea abegación de la madre, estos adolescentes acarician sueños de independencia, asomándose con recelo a un mundo donde intuyen que no hay un lugar reservado para ellos. En estos diez relatos la prosa de Junot Díaz oscila con sabiduría entre el humor, la desolación y la ternura, desplegando en cada página un estilo palpitante de vida.

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

From the beloved and award-winning author Junot Díaz, a spellbinding saga of a family's journey through the New World.

A coming-of-age story of unparalleled power, Drown introduced the world to Junot Díaz's exhilarating talents. It also introduced an unforgettable narrator-- Yunior, the haunted, brilliant young man who tracks his family's precarious journey from the barrios of Santo Domingo to the tenements of industrial New Jersey, and their epic passage from hope to loss to something like love. Here is the soulful, unsparing book that made Díaz a literary sensation.

A master class in the art of writing by one of its most distinguished and innovative practitioners

Delve into the labyrinth of Jorge Luis Borges's thoughts on the theory and practice of literature, and learn from one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century not only what a writer does but also what a writer is. For the first time ever, here is a volume that brings together Borges's wide-ranging reflections on writers, on the canon, on the craft of fiction and poetry, and on translation--an ars poetica of one of the twentieth century's greatest writers.

Featuring many pieces appearing in English for the first time--including his groundbreaking early essay on magical realism, "Stories from Turkestan"--On Writing provides a map of both the changes and continuities in Borges's aesthetic over the course of his life. It is an indispensable handbook for anyone hoping to master their own style or to witness Borges's evolution as a writer.

Genesis, the first volume in Eduardo Galeano's Memory of Fire trilogy, is both a meditation on the clashes between the Old World and the New and, in the author's words, an attempt to "rescue the kidnapped memory of all America." It is a fierce, impassioned, and kaleidoscopic historical experience that takes us from the creation myths of the Makiritare Indians of the Yucatan to Columbus's first, joyous moments in the New World to the English capture of New York.

In this stirring young adult romance from award-winning author Margarita Engle, love and conservation intertwine as two teens fight to protect wildlife and heal from their troubled pasts.

Ana and her mother have been living out of their car ever since her militant father became one of the FBI's most wanted. Leandro has struggled with debilitating anxiety since his family fled Cuba on a perilous raft.

One moonlit night, in a wilderness park in California, Ana and Leandro meet. Their connection is instant--a shared radiance that feels both scientific and magical. Then they discover they are not alone: a huge mountain lion stalks through the trees, one of many wild animals whose habitat has been threatened by humans.

Determined to make a difference, Ana and Leandro start a rewilding club at their school, working with scientists to build wildlife crossings that can help mountain lions find one another. If pumas can find their way to a better tomorrow, surely Ana and Leandro can too.

A charming Spanish language story about a young artist in a family of sword fighters, whose passions are put to the test when a dragon attacks his village.

Miguel was like a paintbrush in a family of steely swords ...

All his life, Miguel's familia told him he must fight! But his family's art of sword fighting never captivated him as much as the sway of his colored pencils did.

When his village is threatened by El Dragón, Miguel must make a choice: will he stand with his familia and fight, or can he prove that the pencil is mightier than the sword?

With vibrant illustrations from award-winning artist Sara Palacios, this charming story of family tradition and self-discovery will inspire young readers to always follow their passions.