Collection: Shop Latinx

"must read" - Adela Nieves, Traditional Health Practitioner, Taino (Indigenous Peoples of the Caribbean)

Caring - Volunteering - Always too much work to do - Burnout

Does this sound familiar? Burnout is a vicious cycle.

Naomi Ortiz went through this cycle many times before she realized:

This Is Not Working.

Sustaining Spirit shows how she broke the cycle of burnout and brought balance into her life.

"Sustaining Spirit takes us on a poetic and layered journey"- Lisa Hoffman, International Human Rights Activist

Naomi provides us with a guide to self-care, sharing her journey and the strategies she's learned from interviewing over 30 social justice activists.

"beautifully crafted and exquisitely written" - Melanie Morrison, Allies for Change

Here's a taste of this remarkable book:

"We live in a world where there is a raging storm swirling around our bodies all of the time. Wind blowing so hard we can't catch our breath.

Do not get blown away in this raging storm.

We need you. You have so many gifts to give.

Y dónde está tu ombligo? Where are you rooted?

How does one grow roots in the midst of this storm, you ask?

Growing our roots is a leap of faith. We must trust ourselves that where our roots wander and how deep they grow is just right.

In knowing where our roots grow, in tending to how and where they spread, we make a commitment to ourselves that we can survive here.

Self-care is a practice of returning. Of remembering. Of noticing.

Be gentle. When living in a way where many truths exist at once, it is easy to get overwhelmed by the possibilities and the complexity. Accept all of who you are because this is the place where you begin, the essential truth of your nature.

You are precious, and it's up to you to carry this preciousness centered in your heart.

I carry mine tenderly, wrapped up in an old piece of cloth my grandmother embroidered with the sun and stars.

Sometimes, remembering I'm precious takes all the courage I have.

Sometimes, it'll take all the courage you have too."

"activists from every movement can gain strength from Sustaining Spirit" - Alice Wong, Founder, Disability Visibility Project(TM)

Wow. Powerful words. Uplifting. Providing a light during challenging times.

Sustaining Spirit includes wisdom from over 30 leaders representing different communities including:

adrienne maree brown (author of Emergent Strategy)

Erin Blanding (WE Movement)

Cristy Chung (Move to End Violence)

Debra Erenberg (Amnesty International)

Adam Maltby (social worker)

Adi Afek (reproductive justice activist)

Emma Fialka-Feldman (inclusion educator)

Hillary Jorgensen (Colorado Progressive Coalition)

Janice Felka, (author, What Matters: Reflections on Disability, Community and Love)

Jennifer Thomas (Institute for Educational Leadership)

Kellie Haigh (MSW, disability activist)

Kim Borowicz (Independent Living Research Utilization)

Lisa Hoffman (international human rights activist)

Melinda Haus (Justice Moves),

Micah Fialka-Feldman (Through the Same Door)

Rachel Scoggins (artist, educator)

Rahnee Patrick (ADAPT and Access Living, Chicago)

Rich Feldman (James and Grace Lee Boggs Center)

Sarah Triano (disability rights activist)

"A guide book for activists and leaders in social justice movements." - Erin Blanding, WE.org

A meditation on southwestern terrains, intergenerational queer dynamics, and surveilled brown artists that crosses physical and conceptual borders.

Part butch memoir, part ekphrastic travel diary, part queer family tree, Raquel Gutiéeacute;rrez's debut essay collection, Brown Neon, gleans insight from the sediment of land and relationships. For Gutiérrez, terrain is essential to understanding that no story, no matter how personal, is separate from the space where it unfolds. Whether contemplating the value of adobe as both vernacular architecture and commodified art object, highlighting the feminist wounding and transphobic apparitions haunting the multigenerational lesbian social fabric, or recalling a failed romance, Gutiérrez traverses complex questions of gender, class, identity, and citizenship with curiosity and nuance.

Winner of the American Book Award, Across a Hundred Mountains is a "timely and riveting" (People) novel about a young girl who leaves her small town in Mexico to find her father, who left his family to work in America--a story of migration, loss, and discovery.

After a tragedy separates her from her mother, Juana García leaves in search of her father, who left them two years earlier. Out of money and in need of someone to help her across the border, Juana meets Adelina Vasquez, a young woman who left her family in California to follow her lover to Mexico. Finding themselves--in a Tijuana jail--in desperate circumstances, they offer each other much needed material and spiritual support and ultimately become linked forever in the most unexpected of ways.

In Across a Hundred Mountains, Reyna Grande puts a human face on the controversial issue of immigration, helping readers to better understand "the desperation of illegal immigrants and the families they leave behind" (Entertainment Weekly) in pursuit of a better life.

RECIPIENT OF THE PURA BELPRÉ HONOR

* A Today Show's Best Kids' Books of 2019 * Indie Next List Pick * Junior Library Guild Selection *

"An appealing tribute and successful remedy to the lack of titles about the groundbreaking librarian...a must-have for all libraries." --School Library Journal (starred review)

An inspiring picture book biography of storyteller, puppeteer, and New York City's first Puerto Rican librarian, who championed bilingual literature.

When she came to America in 1921, Pura Belpré carried the cuentos folklóricos of her Puerto Rican homeland. Finding a new home at the New York Public Library as a bilingual assistant, she turned her popular retellings into libros and spread story seeds across the land. Today, these seeds have grown into a lush landscape as generations of children and storytellers continue to share her tales and celebrate Pura's legacy.

Brought to colorful life by Paola Escobar's elegant and exuberant illustrations and Anika Aldamuy Denise's lyrical text, this gorgeous book is perfect for the pioneers in your life.

Informative backmatter and suggested further reading included.

A Spanish-language edition, Sembrando historias: Pura Belpré bibliotecaria y narradora de cuentos, is also available.

"Anika Aldamuy Denise's intimate telling captures the magical, folk-tale feeling of Belpré's own stories. Her lyrical text, sprinkled like fairy dust with Spanish words, begs to be read aloud, while Paola Escobar's stylishly detailed and warmly expressive illustrations capture the joy of sharing stories." --New York Times Book Review

Cristiano Ronaldo is the world's top soccer player. But what happens when he's not scoring on the pitch? High-interest details and bold photos of his fascinating life will enthrall reluctant and struggling readers, while carefully leveled text will leave them feeling confident.

Ana Castillo es un tesoro estadounidense. Temeraria, compasiva y absolutamente brillante: es la escritora que necesitamos mientras enfrentamos los retos de nuestro mundo cambiante . --Tayari Jones, autora de Un matrimonio americano

Ana Castillo es una narradora de primera . --Julia Álvarez, escritora galardonada

La leyenda literaria Ana Castillo explora los secretos ocultos de los hogares y las mujeres a quienes más impactan en esta colección que cimienta su lugar como una voz destacada de la ficción feminista.

Katia, la primera en su tradicional familia mexicoestadounidense en terminar la secundaria, entra a la edad adulta en una época de cambios turbulentos. En todo el país, los jóvenes luchan por los derechos civiles y de las mujeres, y protestan contra la Guerra de Vietnam y las brutales dictaduras de América del Sur. Como muchos de su generación, Katia quiere hacer del mundo un lugar mejor y está decidida a seguir su propio camino.

Mientras considera mudarse a California para unirse a La Causa --movimiento del activista mexicoestadounidense César Chávez para mejorar las condiciones laborales de los trabajadores rurales migrantes--, Katia recibe un regalo inesperado de su padre: un boleto de avión a la Ciudad de México. "Tráete a tu madre, le dice, sus hijos la necesitan". Así que, Katia se une a su causa para traer a Tina de regreso a Chicago. Pero no será fácil. Katia debe aprender a sortear una versión liberada de su madre en un nuevo país, donde supuestamente se dedica a la venta ambulante de productos de limpieza de alta calidad llamados Donna Crean Well.

Desde Chicago a México y a Nuevo México, los relatos de Doña Cleanwell deja su hogar iluminan a un grupo de personas cuyas historias nos dejaran sin aliento.

"Ana Castillo is an American treasure. Fearless, compassionate, and flat-out brilliant--she is the writer we need as we navigate the challenges of our ever-changing world."--Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage

"Ana Castillo is de primera storyteller."--award-winning author Julia Alvarez

Literary legend Ana Castillo explores the secrets that are kept within households and the women they impact the most in this breakout collection that cements her place as a leading voice in feminist fiction.

The first person in her traditional Mexican American family to graduate from high school, Katia is entering adulthood at a time of turbulent change. Across the nation young people are fighting for civil and women's rights and protesting the Vietnam War and brutal dictatorships in South America. Like so many of her generation, Katia wants to make the world a better place, and is determined to follow her own path.

As she considers moving to California to join La Causa, Mexican American activist Cesar Chavez's movement to improve the working conditions of migrant farmer workers, Katia receives an unexpected gift from her father: a plane ticket to Mexico City. Bring back your mother, he says, tell her, her children need her. And so Katia joins this cause, to get Tina back to Chicago. But it won't be easy. Katia must learn to navigate a liberated version of her mother in a new country where she is now hawking supposedly superior cleaning products, called Donna Clean Well.

Katia is but one of the voices introduced in this dazzling collection of short fiction from revered writer Ana Castillo. Spanning from Chicago to Mexico to New Mexico, the stories in Doña Cleanwell Leaves Home illuminate a chorus of people whose stories will leave you breathless.

"Bursting with imagination and creativity! Your kids will go loco for El Toro!" --Jeff Kinney, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series

From New York Times bestselling, three-time Pura Belpré Award-winning author-illustrator Raúl the Third, Training Day finds El Toro preparing for his wrestling match in Spanish and English in this graphic-novel-style El Toro & Friends paper-over-board reader from the Eisner-nominated World of Vamos!

Little Lobo introduced readers to his wrestling hero El Toro in Vamos! Let's Go to the Market! Now El Toro is off on his own adventures in this early reader graphic novel series!

Getting out of bed isn't always easy, especially for Mexican wrestling star El Toro. But his coach, Kooky Dooky, knows that it's important for the wrestler to stay in shape and keep training--even when he doesn't feel like it.

Can Kooky Dooky raise El Toro's spirits and get him to practice before his next big wrestling match?

With unique, detailed illustrations and easy Spanish and English vocabulary words, sports fans and comic book fans alike will fall in love with El Toro on his training day adventures in this fun early reader graphic novel.

Un libro de honor del premio Pura Belpré, 2018

La primera regla del punk es una conmovedora exploración de la amistad, la búsqueda de uno mismo, y sobre aprender a "rockear" como si nadie te esta mirando.

No hay atajos para navegar el primer día de clases en una nueva escuela - no se arregla con cinta gafer como lo harías con tu par de tenis Chuck Taylor. La adolecente Malú, (María Luisa, si quieres irritarla), logra molestar a la chica mandamás de Posada Middle School, romper el código de vestimenta con su vestido punk rock, y decepcionar a su madre, quien es profesora universitaria. Y todo esto en su primer día de escuela intermedia. Su padre, quien ahora vive a miles de millas de distancia, le dice que las cosas mejorarán siempre y cuando nunca olvide la primera regla del punk: ser tú mismo.

La auténtica Malú ama el rock and roll, las patinetas, las revistas de manualidades y el Soyrizo (sin cilantro, por favor). Cuando empieza a encontrar otros estudiantes inadaptados con intereses parecidos, y forma su propio grupo musical, Malú empieza a sentirse feliz. Para resguardar esa nueva felicidad, ella haría cualquier cosa, incluyendo el enfrentarse con los administradores "anti-punk" de su escuela, y luchar por su derecho a expresarse!

ENGLISH DESCRIPTION

A 2018 Pura Belpré Author Honor Book

The First Rule of Punk is a wry and heartfelt exploration of friendship, finding your place, and learning to rock out like no one's watching.

There are no shortcuts to surviving your first day at a new school--you can't fix it with duct tape like you would your Chuck Taylors. On Day One, twelve-year-old Malú (María Luisa, if you want to annoy her) inadvertently upsets Posada Middle School's queen bee, violates the school's dress code with her punk rock look, and disappoints her college-professor mom in the process. Her dad, who now lives a thousand miles away, says things will get better as long as she remembers the first rule of punk: be yourself.

The real Malú loves rock music, skateboarding, zines, and Soyrizo (hold the cilantro, please). And when she assembles a group of like-minded misfits at school and starts a band, Malú finally begins to feel at home. She'll do anything to preserve this, which includes standing up to an anti-punk school administration to fight for her right to express herself!

Black and white illustrations and collage art throughout make The First Rule of Punk a perfect pick for fans of books like Roller Girl and online magazines like Rookie.

"Armed with a microphone and a pair of scissors, this book is all about creating something new and awesome in the world. Malú rocks!" --Victoria Jamieson, author and illustrator of the New York Times bestselling and Newbery Honor-winning Roller Girl

Bilingual English/Spanish. Calling the Doves is Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera's story of his migrant farmworker childhood.

Calling the Doves is poet Juan Felipe Herrera's story of his migrant farmworker childhood. In delightful and lyrical language, he recreates the joy of eating breakfast under the open sky, listening to Mexican songs in the little trailer house his father built, and celebrating with other families at a fiesta in the mountains. He remembers his mother's songs and poetry, and his father's stories and his calling the doves. For Juan Felipe, the farmworker road was also the beginning of his personal road to becoming a writer.

El joven ingeniero conocido como "el mecánico del espacio" (@THESPACEMECHANIC) comparte su apasionante historia, desde su infancia en Ecuador hasta su trabajo en la misión Marte 2020 de la NASA.

Elio Morillo tenía cuatro años cuando una serie de dificultades económicas y familiares obligaron a su madre a abandonar Ecuador con él. En Nueva York, y más tarde en Puerto Rico, gracias a los sacrificios y el apoyo incondicional de su mamá, Elio descubrió el poder transformador de la educación y el esfuerzo, así como de la amistad y la ayuda desinteresada de los desconocidos. Su determinación lo llevó a trabajar en el Laboratorio de Propulsión a Chorro de la NASA para la Misión Marte 2020, donde fue ingeniero de pruebas y operaciones de sistema para el rover Perseverance e Ingenuity, el helicóptero de Marte. El niño que alcanzó las estrellas es una muestra de que, si te lo propones, tú también puedes realizar tus sueños, así sean tan grandes como alcanzar las estrellas.

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The young engineer known as "the space mechanic" (@THESPACEMECHANIC) shares his gripping story, from his childhood in Ecuador to his work on NASA's Mars 2020 mission.

Elio Morillo was four years old when a series of economic and family difficulties forced his mother to leave Ecuador with him. In New York, and later in Puerto Rico, thanks to the sacrifices and unconditional support of his mother, Elio discovered the transformative power of education and effort, as well as friendship and the selfless help of strangers. His determination led him to work at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the Mars 2020 Mission, where he was a system tested and operations engineer for the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity, the Mars helicopter. The boy who reached for the stars is a proof that, if you set your mind to it, you too can make your dreams come true, even if they are as big as reaching for the stars.

"Luiselli follows in the imaginative tradition of writers like Borges and Márquez, but her style and concerns are unmistakably her own. This deeply playful novel is about the passion and obsession of collecting, the nature of storytelling, the value of objects, and the complicated bonds of family. . . Luiselli has become a writer to watch, in part because it's truly hard to know (but exciting to wonder about) where she will go next."--The New York Times

I was born in Pachuca, the Beautiful Windy City, with four premature teeth and my body completely covered in a very fine coat of fuzz. But I'm grateful for that inauspicious start because ugliness, as my other uncle, Eurípides López Sánchez, was given to saying, is character forming.

Highway is a late-in-life world traveler, yarn spinner, collector, and legendary auctioneer. His most precious possessions are the teeth of the "notorious infamous" like Plato, Petrarch, and Virginia Woolf. Written in collaboration with the workers at a Jumex juice factory, Teeth is an elegant, witty, exhilarating romp through the industrial suburbs of Mexico City and Luiselli's own literary influences.

Valeria Luiselli was born in Mexico City in 1983 and grew up in South Africa. Her work has been translated into many languages and has appeared in publications including the New York Times, Granta, and McSweeney's. Her novel, The Story of My Teeth is the Winner of the LA Times Book Prize in Fiction.

Cuckoo is beautiful. Trouble is, she's lazy. She never does her share of work--that is, until a field fire threatens the season's seed crop and Cuckoo is the only one who can save it. But will she risk harming her lovely feathers by flying through the thick smoke and flames?

An NPR Best Book of 2022

"A master class in family and political drama, in star-crossed love stories and in capturing the enormity of what home is."--NPR

When Isabel Perez travels to Barcelona to save her sister Beatriz, she discovers a shocking family secret in New York Times bestselling author Chanel Cleeton's new novel.

Barcelona, 1964. Exiled from Cuba after the revolution, Isabel Perez has learned to guard her heart and protect her family at all costs. After Isabel's sister Beatriz disappears in Barcelona, Isabel goes to Spain in search of her. Joining forces with an unlikely ally thrusts Isabel into her sister's dangerous world of espionage, but it's an unearthed piece of family history that transforms Isabel's life.

Barcelona, 1936. Alicia Perez arrives in Barcelona after a difficult voyage from Cuba, her marriage in jeopardy and her young daughter Isabel in tow. Violence brews in Spain, the country on the brink of civil war, the rise of fascism threatening the world. When Cubans journey to Spain to join the International Brigades, Alicia's past comes back to haunt her as she is unexpectedly reunited with the man who once held her heart.

Alicia and Isabel's lives intertwine, and the past and present collide, as a mother and daughter are forced to choose between their family's expectations and following their hearts.

For María Isabel Salazar López, the hardest thing about being the new girl in school is that the teacher doesn't call her by her real name. "We already have two Marías in this class," says her teacher. "Why don't we call you Mary instead?"
But María Isabel has been named for her Papá's mother and for Chabela, her beloved Puerto Rican grandmother. Can she find a way to make her teacher see that if she loses her name, she's lost the most important part of herself?

Julia Alvarez's heartwarming novel--now in Spanish.

De cómo tía Lola vino de visita a quedarse, una novela juvenil de Julia Alvarez, cuenta la deliciosa historia de una familia dominicana, instalada en Vermont, que recibe la visita de una pariente muy especial. La irresistible, incontrolable e incluso mágica tía Lola transforma la vida de su familia. Sombreros, pañuelos, vestidos alegres, tacones, maracas, un tambor par alas fiestas, café, hierbabuena, orégano, anís, hojas de guanábana, ajíes..., su alegría invade la casa y--poco a poco--a todo el pueblo. Un relato rico, cálido y lleno de humor, que nos llevará a sonar con la posibilidad de tener una tía tan entrañable como tía Lola.

In Angela Dominguez's Stella Diaz to the Rescue, the beloved Stella learns that sometimes the best way to help others is just to be there for them when times get tough.

It's a new calendar year, and Stella is determined to make it her best one yet.

Not only are Stella and her family finally becoming U.S. citizens, but the Sea Musketeers are also presenting their plastics pledge to the school council. With her trusty schedule in hand, Stella is ready for anything!

But after life takes unexpected turns, Stella will have to fight to keep her perfect year on track.

Not to worry, because Stella Diaz is to the rescue! Right?