Category: novels

Celebrate Hispanic heritage: read Hispanic/Latinx writers

‘… culture shapes identity and defines possibility’ and ‘teaches us who we are, what to believe, and how to dream.’

National Hispanic Heritage Month is upon us once again in the USA, and as has become my custom, I plan to devote quite a bit of my reading time to literature by people of Hispanic heritage this month.

I think it’s important to appreciate, learn from, and celebrate the contributions of cultures beyond our mainstream American culture. I agree with the words of actress, director, and producer America Ferrera, who writes in her introduction to America Like Me: Reflections on Life Between Cultures, “culture shapes identity and defines possibility” and “teaches us who we are, what to believe, and how to dream. We should all be able to look at the world around us and see a reflection of our true lived experiences. Until then, the American story will never be complete.”

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How do we make reading fun again?

Reading for pleasure is down. What’s a writer to do?

As a kid growing up in the ’60s and ’70s, I remember public service announcements interrupting my Saturday-morning cartoon time to tell me about an organization called Reading Is Fundamental. RIF is still around, and still working to promote literary among children in the U.S., but judging from a recent study of American’s reading habits, fewer people in this country are reading for pleasure than they were two decades ago.

A PSA for Reading Is Fundamental

According to this study, “reading for pleasure in the United States has declined by more than 40% over the last 20 years–raising urgent questions about the cultural, educational and health consequences of a nation reading less.”

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