Discover the voices shaping our stories: A 2024 Hispanic Heritage Month reading list

This Hispanic Heritage Month, explore a curated selection of powerful books that capture the rich tapestry of the Latino experience in America. From personal memoirs to deep historical insights, these works celebrate our culture, reflect on our struggles and inspire future generations. 

Hispanic Heritage Month is a time to honor the contributions, history and culture of the Latino community in the United States. One of the most profound ways to connect with our heritage is through literature, which allows us to explore the diverse stories, experiences and perspectives that make up our various identities. This reading list highlights a selection of impactful works by Latino authors, offering a deeper understanding of our shared journey and the challenges we continue to overcome. Whether you’re looking for inspiration, reflection or education, these books are essential reading for this special month and beyond. 

Marie Arana – LatinoLand: A Portrait of America’s Largest and Least Understood Minority (February 2024)  

LatinoLand | Book by Marie Arana | Official Publisher Page | Simon & Schuster (simonandschuster.com)

Born in Lima, Peru to an American mother and Peruvian father, Marie Arana is an award-winning author of both fiction and non-fiction and served as the inaugural Literary Director of the Library of Congress. ( Marie Arana – Marie’s Story) 

Book Excerpts: “To tell the truth, we have no name. We never did. We were simply tribes of this hemisphere, inheritors of a natural world… We gave ourselves a multitude of names. Thousands of years later, when we were invaded and conquered, first by Spain, then by a battery of occupiers and usurpers, we became colonies to power—united by the boot, the sword, the crown, the cross, and the Spanish language….We may not have a single narrative, but we are united by a number of commonalities. By the fact that we are still considered newcomers, although our ancestors were the first inhabitants of this hemisphere, by being marginalized, virtually unseen, although we are a burgeoning, exuberant population, by being remarkably upwardly mobile. Successful, yet trammeled by prejudice and poverty, by sharing our collective reverence for family, work, and joy. Wherever our origin or station, by being a mind-boggling labyrinth of contradictions that is joined by a single tongue, even if we don’t speak it well anymore.” 

Compton in My Soul: A Life in Pursuit of Racial Equality (June 2024)- Albert Camarillo 

Compton in My Soul: A Life in Pursuit of Racial Equality – A… (sup.org) 

Born and raised in Compton, Albert Camarillo has been a member of the Stanford University History Department since 1975 and “is widely regarded as one of the founding scholars of the field of Mexican American history and Chicano Studies.” (Albert Camarillo | Department of History (stanford.edu) ) 

Book Prologue Excerpt: “When I left Compton in 1966, it was as a naïve, impressionable eighteen- year-old seeking to navigate an uncharted path as a “minority” student at a major public university. I had no way of understanding at the time how my experiences growing up in this multiracial city had deeply shaped me as a person, and later, as an educator. The values I hold dear about family and community, interracial relations, fairness, and equity were forged in Compton. I also had no way of knowing when I entered UCLA, at a time when Black and Mexican American students made up less than 1 percent of the student body, that being born and raised in Compton would launch me on an educational trajectory in search of racial justice during an era of anti-war and racial identity movements and the dawning of ethnic studies.” 

First Gen: A Memoir (September 2023)- Alejandra Campoverdi  

First Gen by Alejandra Campoverdi | Hachette Book Group

Author, women’s health advocate, and former White House aide to President Obama, Alejandra Campoverdi’s First Gen was a national best seller and winner of the Martin Cruz Smith Award (CALIBA) and 2024 Council for Opportunity in Education National Book Club Selection. She shared her story last year with an audience of 18- to 30-year-old Latinx changemakers 

at the UnidosUS Conference in Chicago. (Amazon.com: Alejandra Campoverdi: books, biography, latest update) 

Book Prologue Excerpt: “…it’s not easy to be what I refer to as a First and Only – those of us who are the “first generation” or the “only” person in our family, community or social demographic group to cross a threshold. Some of us are first-generation Americans, first-generation college students, first-generation professionals. Or we’re the only person of color, woman or LGBTQ+ person at the table…The specific borders we breach are different, but what unites us is a shared familiarity with a particular set of experiences, challenges, and expectations that come with the territory. What I call the Trailblazer Toll…To be first and only in America is a delicate balance of surviving where you come from while acting like you belong where you’re going…” 

Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino” (2023) – Héctor Tobar  

Our Migrant Souls (macmillan.com) 

At the 2024 Annual Conference, UnidosUS proudly presented the Ruben Salazar Award for Communications to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Héctor Tobar for his significant contributions to the betterment of the Latino community and to our nation. His most recent work, Our Migrant Souls – which dives deep into the twenty-first century Latino experience and identity – is the winner of the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction and was named to best of the year lists by The New York Times Sunday Book Review, Amazon, Time, NPR, and the Chicago Public Library. Tobar is a Professor of English and Chicano/Latino Studies at the University of California, Irvine. 

Book Prologue Excerpt (highlights the stories of his students who’ve shared many of their life -and their parents’ – experiences with Tobar): “This is my mission now. Here in my own pages, which are meant to honor your stories and add to them, I will weave what I know with what you have taught me, and together we will arrive at an understanding of our times, and our “people.” And we will be stronger and ready for the next fight, and the one after that, and all the many struggles to come.”