{"id":12273,"date":"2018-05-30T01:26:30","date_gmt":"2018-05-30T01:26:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=12273"},"modified":"2018-05-31T01:31:00","modified_gmt":"2018-05-31T01:31:00","slug":"5-latino-authors-you-should-be-reading-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/5-latino-authors-you-should-be-reading-now\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Latino authors you should be reading now"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laura Lomas<\/a>, Rutgers University Newark <\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed and his son in New York in 1880.<\/span>
\n Wikipedia<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You likely recognize that the depiction of Latin American immigrants in politics today \u2013 as a menacing mass of recalcitrant Spanish-speaking invaders<\/a> \u2013 is overwhelmingly negative.<\/p>\n

What you may not know is that stereotypes suggesting that Latin Americans represent a threat to United States culture are not just morally repugnant \u2013 they\u2019re also historically inaccurate. Spanish-language literature<\/a> actually predates the Puritans\u2019 writing in English by nearly a century. <\/p>\n

As my research reveals<\/a>, many renowned Latin American writers actually produced some of their finest work while living in the United States. Latina and Latino writers have made exceptional contributions to American literary history. <\/p>\n

For a fresh take on what it means to be a Latina or Latino in the U.S. today, check out these five literary luminaries. <\/p>\n

1. Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed (Cuba, 1853-1895)<\/h2>\n

For Cubans, Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed<\/a> is the equivalent of George Washington, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman combined. Born in 1853 in Havana, Cuba, Mart\u00ed wrote the bulk of his 28 volumes of prose, poetry and speeches in late 19th-century New York.<\/p>\n

Working as a diplomat, translator, Spanish teacher and journalist, Mart\u00ed interpreted<\/a> current events and cultural questions from his office on Front Street, in lower Manhattan\u2019s South Street Seaport. <\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed and his son in New York in 1880.<\/span>
\n Wikipedia<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He witnessed immigrants arriving by the boatload to New York \u2013 except the Chinese, who were banned<\/a> in 1882. He knew about the lynching<\/a> of black Americans and of atrocities against Native Americans<\/a>. These stories found their way into Mart\u00ed\u2019s thinking about Latin America and its diaspora in the United States. <\/p>\n

Mart\u00ed also wrote dazzling accounts of New York, his adopted hometown, likening the cables of the brand-new Brooklyn Bridge to sated \u201ccolossal boa constrictors\u201d resting atop towers. <\/p>\n

Upon the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty in 1886, Mart\u00ed alluded<\/a> to the fact that his distant island home, Cuba, remained a Spanish colony: \u201cThose who have you, O Liberty, do not know you. Those deprived of you must not merely talk about, they must win you.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mart\u00ed died in 1895, fighting for Cuba\u2019s independence. In 2018, he was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame<\/a>, alongside local luminaries Colson Whitehead and Alexander Hamilton.<\/p>\n

2. Julia de Burgos (Puerto Rico, 1914-1953)<\/h2>\n

Puerto Rico\u2019s greatest poet also migrated from her Caribbean home island, where she was a teacher, to the isle of Manhattan. Julia de Burgos<\/a> recounts this literary journey in one of her most famous poems, \u201cYo misma fui mi ruta<\/a>\u201d \u2013 \u201cI was my own route.\u201d <\/p>\n

De Burgos\u2019<\/a> inventive, daring poetry did indeed forge a new path for feminists, Latina and otherwise, in the early 20th century. <\/p>\n

Against pressure to identify as white, the mixed-race de Burgos proclaimed her African heritage, calling herself<\/a> \u201cBlack, of pure tint.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n A postage stamp honoring de Burgos.<\/span>
\n William Arthur Fine Stationery\/flickr<\/a>, CC BY-ND<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In one experimental 1938 poem, de Burgos addresses the distance between her liberated identity as a writer and her constricted role as a woman. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou in yourself have no say; everyone governs you; your husband, your family,\u201d she writes in \u201cTo Julia de Burgos<\/a>.\u201d \u201cIn me only my heart governs, only my thought; who governs in me is me.\u201d <\/p>\n

In 1953, de Burgos was found dead, without identification, in uptown Manhattan and buried anonymously in a potter\u2019s field on Manhattan\u2019s Hart Island. A month later, her compatriots retrieved her remains and reburied her in Puerto Rico<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The New York Times featured de Burgos \u2013 a \u201cpoet who helped shape Puerto Rico\u2019s identity\u201d \u2013 in its overlooked women\u2019s obituary series<\/a> in May.<\/p>\n

3. Gloria Anzald\u00faa (Texas, 1942-2004)<\/h2>\n

The poet and essayist Gloria Anzald\u00faa<\/a> came from a family of Mexican-American farm laborers. <\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n Anzald\u00faa\u2019s work celebrated bilingualism.<\/span>
\n Sandstein\/flickr<\/a>, CC BY<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Her ancestors had for generations lived in Texas\u2019 Rio Grande Valley, near the border that Anzald\u00faa memorably defined<\/a> as \u201can open wound where the Third World grates against the first and bleeds.\u201d <\/p>\n

Anzald\u00faa\u2019s work often celebrates her community\u2019s bilingualism. She portrays it as an act of survival against the \u201clinguistic terrorism\u201d of the U.S. public school system<\/a>, which required English-only teaching and offered \u201caccent elimination\u201d classes<\/a> in a part of the U.S. that used to be Mexico. <\/p>\n

Anzald\u00faa found such insults to her nonstandard way of speaking excruciating. \u201cUntil I can take pride in my language,\u201d she once wrote, \u201cI cannot take pride in myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anzald\u00faa is increasingly recognized as one of the 20th century\u2019s most influential feminist<\/a> and anti-racist essayists.<\/p>\n

4. Sandra Cisneros (Chicago, 1954-present)<\/h2>\n

No list of Latino authors is complete without Sandra Cisneros<\/a>, author of the beloved \u201cThe House on Mango Street<\/a>,\u201d which has sold nearly 6 million copies and has been translated into over 20 languages<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Why Cisneros has not received the same acclaim as Junot D\u00edaz \u2013 a childhood sexual assault survivor<\/a> who was recently accused of his own sexual impropriety<\/a> \u2013 is perplexing. <\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n Sandra Cisneros.<\/span>
\n Gage Skidmore<\/a>, CC BY-SA<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My favorite of her novels is \u201cCaramelo<\/a>.\u201d In this transnational coming-of-age story, a Mexican-American woman digs into her family history. <\/p>\n

Learning from her abuela, Soledad, she discovers hidden truths about family tensions, border crossings and why her doting migrant pap\u00e1, Inocencio, is not so innocent after all. <\/p>\n

5. Cristina Henr\u00edquez (Delaware, 1971-present)<\/h2>\n

Cristina Henr\u00edquez, who was born in the U.S. after her Panamanian father went there to pursue graduate studies, is the best novelist you\u2019ve never heard of. <\/p>\n

Featuring first-person perspectives of Central and South Americans and Caribbean migrants, her books dramatically expand the popular conception of the U.S. Latino, long centered on Mexican-Americans and Puerto Ricans. <\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n The best book you haven\u2019t read.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe Book of Unknown Americans<\/a>\u201d tells the story of recent arrivals from Paraguay, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama, Puerto Rico and Mexico who live in a dingy apartment complex, enduring the back-breaking labor of harvesting mushrooms. Sometimes, after a 12-hour shift in the dark, they eat only oatmeal for dinner. <\/p>\n

The teenage love story between the characters Maribel and Mayor \u2013 written in prose that The Washington Post says rises \u201cto the level of poetry<\/a>\u201d \u2013 may help American readers appreciate the myriad reasons why Latin Americans migrate north, including dictatorships, a lack of specialized health care and violence. <\/p>\n

That is, I think, Henr\u00edquez\u2019s hope. As one Mexican character angrily states, in the U.S. he feels both invisible and vilified. <\/p>\n

\"The\u201cI want them to see a guy who works hard, or a guy who loves his family,\u201d he says. \u201cI wish just one of those people, just one, would actually talk to me. \u2026 But none of them even want to try. We\u2019re the unknown Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laura Lomas<\/a>, Associate Professor of English, Rutgers University Newark <\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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