Hispanic Heritage Month honors the contributions and influence of Hispanic and Latine Americans to the history, culture, and achievements of the United States. It is celebrated from September 15 to October 15 annually. Check out one of these recent fiction reads by Hispanic/Latine authors to kick off the month!
I describe The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas as a trans, queer, Mexican mashup of The Hunger Games and Hercules. Are you hooked yet? Follow Teo, a transgender demigod, the sun of the bird goddess Quetzal, in the Sunbearer Trials, a competition in which one demigod becomes the exalted Sunbearer and the loser is sacrificed to the god Sol. Teo is a Jade, of a lower rank than the Golds, and one of the first Jades to be chosen for the Trials. He'll have to rely on his best friend (a Gold) and the one other Jade to get through each stage intact. Thomas paints a beautiful, queernormative world inspired by his Mexican heritage, and his pride for his culture is evident on every page. Bonus: the sequel, Celestial Monsters, just came out!
I loved Camila Sosa Villada's Bad Girls when it came out a few years ago, and I can't wait to see what she does in I'm a Fool to Want You, a short story collection coming out now. The Argentine author imbibes magical realism into her stories of queer folks, especially travestis (transgender sex workers in Argentina), struggling to find their place in a world that often doesn't make space for them.
In Familia, Lauren Rico introduces readers to Gabby DiMarco, a fact checker who discovers from a DNA test her boss makes her take that she has a biological relative in Puerto Rico. A parallel narrative in San Juan sees Isabella in her decades-long quest to find her sister, who was kidnapped as a baby because of money owned to a gang leader by their father. When they find each other on an ancestry website, Isabella is sure that Gabby is the missing Marianna, though Gabby finds it hard to believe, as that would go against everything she knows about her own life. A powerful look at identity and what makes a family.
My colleague Misha recommends Tomas Moniz's All Friends Are Necessary, about Chino, a Latinx bisexual man in his 30s, reconnecting with friends and his sexuality in the wake of the loss of a child and marriage. While this book does touch on grief and loss, it also explores rediscovery and connection. He moves from Seattle to San Francisco where he assembles a group of friends and lovers to help him navigate the altered landscape of his life. Chino is also a biology teacher and interspersed in his narrative are asides about ferns and plant life, but mostly about ferns and their rugged and often misunderstood resiliency.
I've never read anything like Say Hello to My Little Friend by Jennine Capó Crucet, which alternates perspectives between a Pitbull impersonator named Izzy and Lolita, a captive orca in Miami's aquarium. Both are grieving from family separation; while Lolita was taken from her pod into captivity, Izzy's mother drowned when he was seven on their journey to the United States from Cuba. When he's laid off from his Pitbull job, Izzy decides to impersonate Al Pacino's Scarface character, Tony Montana, but instead of a tiger, he sets out to get Lolita as his sidekick. Both laugh-out-loud funny and unexpectedly tender.
Looking for more book ideas? Check out Hispanic Heritage Month 2024: Recent Fiction for Adults and Latine / Latinx Nonfiction.
~posted by Jane S.
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