Latino Authors

Last week Luis Alberto Urrea visited Lake Forest to talk about his novel, Into the Beautiful North, as part of Lake Forest Reads: Ragdale our city’s one book/one community program.  This funny, poignant story deals with topical issues surrounding the United States’ relationship with Mexico and our policies along the Mexican-American border. 

Nineteen-year-old Nayeli is the heroine of this tale.  She works at a taco shop in her Mexican village and dreams about her father, who journeyed to the U.S. when she was young. He hasn't been home since then and his letters have stopped. While watching the film, The Magnificent Seven, she decides to go north herself and recruit seven men -- her own "Siete Magníficos"-- to repopulate her hometown and protect it from the bandidos who plan on taking it over.

If you haven’t had a chance to read it, there are still plenty of copies at the library. Stop by and check one out. But there are also other Latino authors that you may find interesting; you can’t go wrong with these classics:

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel is set in Mexico at the beginning of the 20^th century.   Tita, the youngest daughter of a well-born rancher, has always known her destiny: to remain single and care for her aging mother. When she falls in love, her mother prohibits the liaison and insists that Tita's sister marry Pedro, in her place.

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is told in a series of vignettes. It is the story of a young girl, Esperanza Cordero,  growing up in the Latino section of Chicago.

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez. Four sisters recount their adventures of growing up in two cultures after they are forced to flee the Dominican Republic and arrive in New York City in the 1960s.

Check out this list of books by other Latino authors including recently released Loteria by Mario Alberto Zambrano and This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz.