On OprahMag.com, we celebrate Latinidad and all identities every day. But for Hispanic Heritage Month September 15 through October 15, we're highlighting stories from Latinx perspectives, which you can read here. Disfruten!
There was a moment a few years ago when I realized I was reading too many white people. Talented by all means, but as a Puerto Rican woman, I was ashamed to see how few Latinx authors I was reading. But thankfully, Al Gore’s internet is free, and there were thousands of #bookstagrams and book-ish YouTube channels (affectionately known as BookTube) to help me course correct.
The latter is where the hosts of the literary read-a-thon "Latinx-a-thon" found each other—and were inspired to create a 10-day reading challenge that kicked off Hispanic Heritage Month on September 15.
Like me, co-hosts Andrea Gomez, Jocelyn Bright, and Priscilla and Yvette Mata wanted to diversify their reading lists. As they connected via BookTube with each other and other readers, they realized there was an opportunity for a dedicated read-a-thon to purposefully celebrate Latinx authors and characters—similar to what their fellow BookTubers do for February’s Black-a-thon and May’s Asian Read-a-thon. Setting it during Hispanic Heritage Month made sense, since “it’s a time of year that is dedicated to Latinx people, which we are,” says Jocelyn, who is Cuban-American, while her three co-hosts are Mexican-American.
There are five challenges for the Latinx-a-thon: Voices, Latinidad, Roots, Heritage, and a group book, The Grief Keeper by Alexandra Villasante. These prompts aren't only to encourage you to read more Latinx authors, but to also think more about intersectionality. By design, the “x” in Latinx is a more inclusive, gender-neutral alternative to Latino or Latina, but the read-a-thon's other prompts consider the identities and experiences we don't hear as much about. The Voices challenge, for example, encourages readers to pick up a book written by an Indigenous or Afro-Latinx author; the Roots challenge is about reading a book that's been translated, and the Heritage challenge invites readers to discover an author from a non-Spanish speaking, Latin American country like Brazil.
“We wanted to make it well-known that our challenges are about uplifting voices from the community,” Jocelyn says.
Choosing The Grief Keeper as the years’ group book—essentially, the official book club pick for the 10-day challenge—was also intentional. It’s a story about two young girls from El Salvador who get caught crossing the U.S. border, a reality for so many today, Priscilla says—so the hosts felt it was an important story amid our current political climate. As further incentive, the author, Villasante, sent a signed copy of her book and some swag for the co-hosts to giveaway to one lucky reader. Through the giveaway, the hosts surpassed their $100 goal to raise funds for RAICES—but donations are still coming in, Andrea says.
The official Latinx-a-thon only lasts 10 days, but the hosts will engage with readers throughout the end of Hispanic Heritage Month on October 15, including a social media takeover with Latinx Book Club and Latinx Book Bingo, a Twitter Q&A with Villasante on October 3, and a collaborative YouTube video featuring Latinx readers' reviews of their favorite books. Already, the hosts have noticed an increase in excitement, and participants have been sharing their TBR (to be read) lists with some of the books the hosts introduced them to—titles they might not have picked up otherwise, Andrea says.
"We’re all really supportive of each other,” adds Yvette. “The Latinx community is small—but mighty."
8 Latinx Book Recommendations From the Founders of The Latinx Read-A-Thon
Gods of Jade and Shadow
The hosts all agree that Moreno-Garcia’s books, especially for fantasy lovers, aren’t on enough people’s shelves. This includes her most recent book, Gods of Jade and Shadow — a modern Indigenous fairy tale inspired by Mexican folklore.
“A big favorite in the Latinx community,” Andrea says, this as a “powerful, queer, revolutionary tale” that is broadly set in a Latinx world that draws elements from several different Latin American countries.
Elizabeth Acevedo is a lyrical and beautiful writer, Priscilla says. Her best-selling debut novel Poet X, which received the 2018 National Book Award for Young People's Literature, follows a young Afro-Latinx girl using slam poetry to understand her mother and the world around her.
One of the most highly-anticipated queer and feminist books of 2019, Cantoras follows a group of five women’s success and struggle in the midst of the Uruguayan dictatorship. Yvette also recommends de Robertis earlier book, The Gods of Tango, “a beautiful story” about a character’s immigration and trans experience.
If you enjoyed Nina Moreno’s debut Don’t Date Rosa Santos, then you will also enjoy this book, Andrea explains in her recommendations video for this year’s Latinx-a-thon. It follows 13-year-old Arturo, who is trying to get the girl and also save his town and family from gentrification.
Itzá
This debut novella from Rios de La Luz was the group book for last year’s Latinx-a-thon, and it is deeply underrated, Yvette says. The story is magical realism, a genre author Gabriel Garcia Marquez helped bring to prominence, and is a powerful story about a young girl reclaiming her body and identity after trauma.
In a live show ahead of this year’s Latinx-a-thon, Jocelyn recommends this book by Brazilian-English author Yara Rodrigues Fowler, especially for fans of Sally Rooney’s Normal People. It’s about a young woman struggling with “identity and living in the hyphen as diasporic people do.”
The Book of Lost Saints
Older plays around between sci-fi, fantasy, and alternative historical fiction, Jocelyn says, and in the live show she explains that his forthcoming book, The Book of Lost Saints (out November 5), is her “favorite way the Cuban revolution has been explored.” Other books by Older you can check out before then: Salsa Nocturna: Stories and his award-winning Shadowshaper Cypher series.
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