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Hispanic Heritage Month - Celebrate the Culture through Books
Hispanic Hertiage Month
Hispanic Heritage Month is from September 15 - October 15. There are number of ways to celebrate, but for me, I'm talking about books! Many Hispanic and Latine authors have touched the literary world with their words.
Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá: He published Historia de Nuevo México in 1610, an epic poem chronicling the Spanish expedition and settlement of New Mexico led by Juan de Oñate.
María Amparo Ruiz de Burton: She is widely considered the first Mexican American author and the first Latina to publish a novel in English in the United States with Who Would Have Thought It? in 1872.
Oscar Hijuelos: He became the first Hispanic writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1990 for his novel The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love.
Those pioneers paved the way for writers like Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Isabel Canas, V. Castro, and Gabino Iglesias.
The list goes on! I highly recommend checking out more authors here: 2026: Hispanic Authors to Know
Many Hispanic authors also occupy the indie author space or are represented by small presses. I happen to be one of them! Each year, I like to highlight some of my colleagues and their work. Please take a moment to check them out!
HAZELWOOD
An ancient evil manor infested with spirits haunts an elite group of families with the task of feeding it fresh souls during an annual festival where they bring in sacrifices to play twisted games while forfeiting their lives in order to keep the seal between our world and Hell closed. Past secrets and new deceits swirl around three main characters who hunger for revenge and each other.
BACK TO JURASSIC
“They were dragged into prehistory, but nothing here belongs to history.” Neera is plagued by vivid dinosaur nightmares that feel disturbingly real. When she and her young son, Leo, are suddenly pulled back in time to an ancient version of Puerto Rico, those nightmares become a living horror. Dinosaurs roam the land, but they are nothing like the creatures of history. Twisted by genetic mutations, they are faster, smarter, and far more lethal. Stranded in this brutal prehistoric world, Neera must uncover the truth behind the mysterious time shift and the creatures’ unnatural evolution. With danger closing in and survival uncertain, her only goal is to protect her son and find a way back to their own time, before this distorted past destroys them both. “A gripping tale of family, survival, and the terrifying consequences when past and present collide.”
THE CLOSEST THING TO A NORMAL LIFE
There’s nothing remotely normal about seventeen-year-old Ethan-Matthew Cruz Canton’s life. His parents, journalists in Spain, were killed in a terrorist attack and now he’s living with his grandparents in San Antonio, attending his father’s high school for senior year. Narrated in the young man’s perceptive, witty voice, the novel opens with his plan to keep his head down, make it until June and then follow his parents’ footsteps to Northwestern University’s journalism program. But his idea to keep a low profile is quickly blown out of the water.
As Ethan-Matthew deals with incessant questions about his hyphenated name and his grief, he looks forward to the only “normal” thing available: writing for the school newspaper. He was set to be the editor at his high school in Spain, but now his story ideas are being ignored! With the encouragement and help of his new friends, he starts an alternative online newspaper to cover the overlooked students and staff. Things escalate, though, when he writes about a racist incident―instigated by the school’s mostly white, privileged student body―that turns violent!
Amidst all the drama, Ethan-Matthew suddenly and unexpectedly finds himself romantically involved with another boy, his cross-country teammate and best friend Reid. Author Michael Méndez Guevara, a former high school teacher, writes convincingly about the lives of young adults on the path to self-discovery. This refreshing, intelligent novel dealing with the loss of loved ones, prejudice and the clash of social mores is sure to capture the imagination of teen readers.
Midnight Heat now in Audiobook!
Some monsters kill. Others kiss like sin. Ronan does both—and far too well.
When medical examiner Alex Vasquez returns to her sleepy Alabama hometown, the last thing she expects is for her next corpse to wake up—tall, cold, impossibly gorgeous… and very much undead.
Ronan is a vampire—ancient, dangerous, and frustratingly irresistible. And he's only "alive" because of a strange power Alex didn't know she had.
With a brutal snowstorm closing in and savage werewolf attacks tearing through the town, Alex and Ronan are forced into a deadly alliance. But the heat between them threatens to ignite something far more dangerous than desire.
She's not just the key to saving the town—she's the spark of a power that could change everything. And Ronan? He might be the monster she was born for.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Latina Lit & Southern Grit:
Tales by Amanda Guerrero-Porter
Welcome to Latina Lit & Southern Grit: Tales by Amanda Guerrero-Porter
Here, you will find stories that always feature Mexican-American FMC/MMC characters, who are always from the Deep South, and they are always at odds (or falling in love) with the supernatural.
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