Hispanic Heritage Month
October 6, 2025
Author: Valeska Piedrasanta
Hispanic Heritage Month has arrived and we are celebrating it from September 15th to October 15th. The main countries that celebrate their independence in September are: Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Chile. Having so many countries gain independence around the same time has deemed September 15th the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month. To everyone that wants to expand their palette to other authors and their perspectives, this post is the one for you. A list with authors of hispanic/latino heritage will now commence.
The most notable work I had the honor of reading was by Sandra Cisneros. She has a novel called The House on Mango Street which explores the life of a Chicana living in between two different cultures: American and Mexican. She tells stories about identity, racism, womanhood, and more. Check out at the Library.
Julia Alvarez, is a Dominican-American author most notably known for her book, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent. The book follows the lives of four sisters, starting from their adulthood–living in New York City–and ending in their childhood, where their family is fleeing the Dominican Republic's dictatorship. Alvarez hones in on the feeling of displacement, assimilation, and the hardships of being an immigrant. You can find this book in the Beaman Library.
One of the most popular authors from Latin America is Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez. He is credited for popularizing the writing style, magical realism, which blends magical elements in realistic narratives. Márquez is known for his novella, No One Writes to the Colonel. This novella, is a story about a retired colonel who fought in the Thousand Days’ War. The novel is set during the ten year civil war of Colombia as the whole country was under martial law and censorship. You can Interlibrary loan the book here.
Miguel Ángel Asturias was a Guatemalan poet and novelist. One of his well-known novels was
Men of Maize, a book that centers around the indigenous people of Guatemala, the Mayans. He incorporated magic realism in this book, combining folklore and myths with the struggles Mayans faced at the hands of colonialism. If you are interested, Interlibrary loan book here.
Gabriela Mistral was a Chilean poet most notably known for being the first Latin American author to win a Nobel Prize in Literature. The work that launched her to success was Desolation, a poetry book where she explores many themes–grief, nature, desire, and motherhood. You can Interlibrary loan this poetry book here. Lipscomb also has a poetry collection of selected poems by Mistral.
I hope you get the chance to read some of these authors’ works and expand to other authors I did not mention. Happy Hispanic Heritage Month!
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