[Last week commenced National Hispanic Heritage Month, which like all of our commemorations during this craptastic year is particularly fraught. But they’re also occasions to better remember inspiring American histories and communities, so this week I’ll highlight a handful of Hispanic women’s stories that can help us do just that. Leading up to a weekend tribute to scholars we should all read!]
On quick takeaways from three talented contemporary authors.
- Angie Cruz: I’ve taught Cruz’s phenomenal third novel, Dominicana (2019), in two sections of my Graduate Multiethnic American Literature course over the last few years, and so I’m most familiar with that vital work of historical fiction, based on her mother’s experiences as a teenage immigrant to the U.S. in the 1960s. But all five of her novels seem to be both distinct from one another in style and form and equally interested in Dominican American women’s experiences, identities, and multigenerational families and communities. My main takeaway for all three of the authors I’ll highlight in this post will be the same clear and I hope convincing request, a la LeVar Burton: Read the books!
- Cristina Henríquez: I’ve taught Henríquez’s bracing and beautiful, painful and powerful short story “Everything is Far from Here” (2017) in numerous sections of both American Lit II and The Short Story, and every time I see something new and even more timely in its depiction of a refugee mother incarcerated in a detention center at the border. In the Eighth Inning of my podcast’s second season, I talked at length about both that story and her stunning second novel The Book of Ordinary Americans (2014), which depicts multiple layers of a multigenerational family of undocumented immigrants with nuance and compassion that we desperately need here in late 2026. Her latest novel, The Great Divide: A Historical Novel of the Panama Canal (2024), makes for equally vital reading in this moment of the “Donroe Doctrine” and renewed hemispheric conflicts. I say again: read the books!
- Valeria Luiselli: I wanted to reserve this third space for an author I myself haven’t yet had the chance to read, but know that I should and will hopefully be prompted by writing about her. There are lots of folks who fit that bill, but high on the list is Luiselli, a young Mexican American author who has already published three novels and two essay collections (all since 2010). She publishes in both Spanish and English (with the Spanish-language works having been translated by the legendary Christina MacSweeney), which makes her a perfect final author to highlight in this week’s series. And she’s a reminder that there’s always more to discover and read. So I say again, once more with feeling, to myself and y’all alike: read (all) the books!
Tribute post this weekend,
Ben
PS. What do you think? Hispanic histories you’d highlight?
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