The Library

A Ballad of Love and Glory : A Novel by Reyna Grande
In 1846 a gifted Mexican healer dreams of building a family with the man she loves on the coveted land she calls home. But when Texas Rangers storm her ranch and shoot her husband dead, her dreams are burned to ashes. Using her healing skills as an army nurse on the frontlines of the ravaging war, she meets the leader of a band of Irish soldiers willing to fight to the death for Mexico's freedom. Inspired by true events, these two unforgettable characters are brought to life and illuminate a largely forgotten moment in history that impacts the US-Mexico border to this day.

How to Date a Flying Mexican : New and Collected Stories by Daniel A Olivas
A collection of strange tales derived from Chicano and Mexican culture, ranging through worlds of magical realism, fairy tales, fables, and dystopian futures. Unforgettable and magical characters confront questions of morality, justice, and self-determination.

Let No One Sleep by Juan José Millás García
An obsessed, opera loving taxi driver, Lucia drives through Madrid meeting intriquing characters along the way. A surreal tale of superstition and coincidence, featuring Millás's singular dark humor, and a delirious novel in which the mundane and extraordinary collide, art revives and devastates, and identity is unhinged by the forces of globalized capitalism.

Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez
The tale of a tony, status-driven wedding planner for Manhattan's powerbrokers, grappling with her social ambitions, her absent mother, and her Puerto Rican roots, all in the wake of Hurricane María. Olga Dies Dreaming examines political corruption, familial strife, and the very notion of the American dream -all while asking what it really means to weather a storm.

The Girls in Queens : A Novel by Christine Kandic Torres
Two young Latinas -one sweet, sensitive, and observant; the other free-sprirted, flirtatious, and bold- share everything and anything with each other, until one of them falls deeply in love with the local baseball legend, Brian. Years later the two friends reconnect with Brian after years of silence. When Brian is charged with sexual assault, the lifelong friends find themselves on opposite sides of the accusation, viewing their past and past traumas from completely different vantage points.

Twice a Quinceañera / Yamile Saied Méndez. by Yamile Saied Méndez
One month short of her wedding day--and her thirtieth birthday--Nadia Palacio finds herself standing up to her infuriating, cheating fiancé for the first time in...well, ever. With a wedding venue already paid for, and family from all over the world with plane tickets, Nadia is determined to create her own happily-ever-after. Since the math adds up perfectly, she'll celebrate her treintañera, her double quinces. Pure delight for every woman who needs to be her own biggest fan -and who dreams of a second chance at first love.

Violeta : A Novel by Isabel Allende
Born in 1920 as the ripples of the Great War are still being felt, Violeta Del Valle tells her story in the form of a letter to someone she loves, recounting a life shaped be some of the most important events of history: the fight for women's rights, the rise and fall of tyrants, and ultimately not one, but two pandemics.

AOC : The Fearless Rise and Powerful Resonance of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez by Lynda Lopez
As the youngest Congresswoman ever elected, AOC became one of a handful of Latina politicians in Washington, D.C. Just thirty, she represents her generation, the millennials, in many groundbreaking ways: proudly working class, Democratic Socialist, of Puerto Rican descent, master of social media, not to mention of the Bronx, feminist--and a great dancer. AOC investigates Ocasio-Cortez's symbolic and personal significance for so many, from her willingness to use her imperfect bi-lingualism, to the threat she poses by governing like a man, to the long history of Puerto Rican activism that she joins.

Finding Latinx : In Search of the Voices Redefining Latino Identity by Paola Ramos
Many young Latinos--Afrolatino, indigenous, Muslim, queer and undocumented, living in large cities and small towns--are voices who have been chronically overlooked in how the diverse population of almost sixty million Latinos in the U.S.A. has been represented. Journalist and activist Paola Ramos embarks on a journey to find the communities of people defining the controversial term, Latinx. Drawing on intensive field research as well as her own personal story, Ramos chronicles how Latinx has given rise to a sense of collectivity and solidarity among Latinos unseen in this country for decades.

Somewhere We Are Human : Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings by edited by Reyna Grande and Sonia Guiñansaca.
Essays, poems, and artwork by migrants, refugees and Dreamers-including award-winning writers, artists, and activists-that illuminate what it is like living undocumented today. This anthology seeks to shift the immigration debate towards one rooted in humanity and justice. A journey of memory and yearning created entirely by undocumented or formerly undocumented migrants, from people newly arrived to America, those who have been here for decades, and those who have ultimately chosen to leave or were deported.

The Kissing Bug : A True Story of a Family, an Insect, and a Nation's Neglect of a Deadly Disease by Daisy Hernández
Daisy Hernández knew that her aunt had died of a rare illness called Chagas. Crisscrossing the United States, Hernández interviews patients, epidemiologists, and even veterinarians with the Department of Defense. She learns that outside of Latin America, the United States is the only country with the native insects--the kissing bugs--that carry the Chagas parasite. The Kissing Bug tells the story of how poverty, racism, and public policies have conspired to keep this disease hidden.

The Line Becomes a River by Francisco (Essayist) Cantú
For Francisco Cantú, the border is in the blood: his mother, a park ranger and daughter of a Mexican immigrant, raised him in the scrublands of the Southwest. When Cantú joins the Border Patrol, he and his partners learn to track other humans under blistering sun and through frigid nights. Plagued by a growing awareness of his complicity in a dehumanizing enterprise, he abandons the Patrol for civilian life. But when an immigrant friend travels to Mexico to visit his dying mother and does not return, Cantú discovers that the border has migrated with him, and now he must know the full extent of the violence it wreaks, on both sides of the line

The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
Journalist Karla Cornejo Villavicencio risked arrest at every turn to report the extraordinary stories of her fellow undocumented Americans. In New York, we meet the undocumented workers who were recruited in the federally funded Ground Zero cleanup after 9/11. In Miami we enter the hidden botanicas, which offer witchcraft and homeopathy to those whose status blocks them from any other healthcare options. In Flint, Michigan, we witness how many live in fear as the government issues raids at grocery stores and demands identification before offering life-saving clean water.