15 Latina Audiobook Narrators You Should Know

Many book lovers prefer holding a physical copy of their favorite books but audiobooks are growing in popularity because it’s easier for many of us hustling. But for many of us in the Latinx community, we don’t always have the time to sit down and read while juggling home and work responsibilities. That’s why we love audiobooks because you can buy them instantly on your phone or computer and listen wherever you go, from the house during chores to the car running errands. But like the traditional publishing industry, audiobooks have a long way to go in terms of diversity and representation. After all, it’s so important that the person narrating the book shares similar experiences to the author or the protagonist whose voice they’re acting out. Yet as important as their work is, audiobook narrators rarely get the credit or recognition they deserve, especially if they come from an underrepresented community. That’s why we decided to put together this list of Latina audiobook narrators who are doing wonderful work in the book community, from Coral Peña who narrated Dominicana by Angie Cruz to Maria Liatas who narrated Holiday Home Run by Priscilla Oliveras. We hope you’ll not only find new books to read but also join us in celebrating Latina voiceover actors who deserve to be uplifted by the community. Read on to learn more about 15 Latina audiobook narrators you should know.

Coral Peña

Born in the Dominican Republic, Coral Peña grew up in Harlem and took acting classes at the Peddie School in New Jersey. After studying drama at the New York University Tisch School of the Arts and Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, she appeared as a television actress in shows like Blue Bloods, 24: Legacy, For All Mankind, and The Enemy Within. She has also appeared in films like The Post, Chemical Hearts, and Story Ave. Outside of film and TV, she’s led a prolific acting career in the voiceover industry, serving as one of the audiobook narrators for several novels by acclaimed Dominican American author Julia Alvarez including In the Name of Salome and Yo! She’s also well-known for her role as the protagonist Ana in Dominicana by Dominican American Angie Cruz, which was shortlisted for the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction and follows a young Dominican woman migrating to the U.S. and falling in love. She’s additionally featured on High Spirits by Afro-Dominican author Camille Gomera-Tavarez and The Lost Book of Adana Moreau by Ecuadorian American author Michael Zapata.

Sol Madariaga

Sol Madariaga is an Argentine actress with a BFA in Musical Theater, skills in flamenco and tango, and specialized Shakespeare and Chekovian/Stanislavski training. On stage, she’s appeared in multiple Shakespeare productions of Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona, as well as contemporary productions like A Chorus Line. As a voiceover actor, she’s well-known for her exemplary work on Romina Garber’s Wolves of No World Series, which includes Lobizona and Cazadora, both of which highlight Argentine Spanish and culture. She’s also narrated Furia by Argentine American author Yamile Saied Méndez, which follows a 17-year-old aspiring soccer star in Argentina and received the Pura Belpré Young Adult Author Medal in 2021. Additionally, Madariaga narrates books for children and teens including Across So Many Seas by Ruth Behar, Lulu and Milagro’s Search for Clarity by Angela Velez, and Dungeons & Dragons: Dungeon Club: Roll Call by Molly Knox Ostertag.

Elizabeth Acevedo

Dominican American author Elizabeth Acevedo may be best known for her young adult books The Poet X, Clap When You Land, and With the Fire on High and her poetry book Inheritance. In 2023, she published her adult debut Family Lore, which was shortlisted for the 2023 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. But did you know she’s also an audiobook narrator? She’s narrated every single one of her books, including one in collaboration with fellow Afro-Latina poet Melania Luisa Marte, and has earned acclaim for her style of acting and narration. She’s also narrated books by other authors including Pride by Ibi Zoboi, which was released in 2018 and is a retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice with an Afro-Latina lead.

Maria Liatis

Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Maria Liatis is a bilingual actress, audiobook narrator, acting coach, writer, producer, editor, and director. In addition to owning two production companies for creating actor demo reels and sketch comedy videos, she’s also narrated over 60 audiobooks in seven different genres since 2014 including young adult, romance, science fiction, fantasy, self-help, children’s, and nonfiction. Some of her most notable works as a voice actor have included The Wind Knows My Name by Chilean author Isabel Allende, Ophelia After All by Colombian and Cuban American author Racquel Marie, and Infinity Kings by Puerto Rican author Adam Silvera. Outside of audiobooks, she’s also provided her voice for audiobooks in museums, and audio learning courses in English and Spanish. For her work, she has won the AudioFile Earphones Awards twice, once for her narration work on Mercury by Amy Jo Burns and another as part of the cast of The Wind Knows My Name, in which she played the role of Anita. A national bestseller, The Wind Knows My Name follows two story strands: a Jewish boy escaping Nazi-occupied Europe and a mother and daughter fleeing twenty-first-century El Salvador. To date, it is Allende’s twenty-first novel.

Almarie Guerra

Almarie Guerra is a Puerto Rican actress who has appeared in films such as Calle de la Resistencia, Night of the Living Deb, and Fat, Dumb and Happy. However, she is more well-known as a voice actor, having performed as a narrator for almost 150 different audiobook projects in a variety of genres. Besides being part of the ensemble for the fifth edition of What to Expect When You’re Expecting by Heidi Murkoff, she’s also narrated many notable books by Latina authors including Ordinary Girls by Puerto Rican author Jaquira Diaz, A Forgotten Kill by Isabella Maldonado, Olga Dies Dreaming by Puerto Rican author Xochitl Gonzalez (which was turned into a Hulu TV pilot), and Wayward Witch by Ecuadorian American author Zoraida Cordova. She has an impressive selection of books for children as well like Cece Rios and the Desert of Souls by Kaela Rivera. Besides being bilingual in English and Spanish, she’s known as an adaptable performer with the ability to do New York, British, Puerto Rican, and Spanish accents.

Inés del Castillo

Inés del Castillo is an actress of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent based in New York City who studied theater at NYU Tisch. As a voice actor, she’s starred in various podcast and audio drama projects, and as an audiobook narrator, she has lent her talents to adult fiction books like Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From by Guatemalan American author Jennifer De Leon, Olga Dies Dreaming by Puerto Rican author Xochitl Gonzalez, Infinite Country by Colombian American author Patricia Engel, which won the 2021 New American Voices Award, and The Lost Dreamer by Mexican and Puerto Rican author Lizz Huerta, which centers an Indigenous Latin American cast of characters. She’s also done many books for kids including the acclaimed novelization of Disney’s Encanto, which follows the Madrigal family in the heart of Colombia.

Marisol Ramirez

You may have seen Marisol Ramirez in films and TV shows like The Curse of La Llorona, Circle, Shameless, and NCIS: Los Angeles. After studying and living abroad in Spain and England, she’s risen to prominence as a voiceover actress for over 50 audiobooks, both as part of an ensemble and as a solo artist. You can currently hear her on audiobooks including The House of the Spirits by Chilean author Isabel Allende, which was turned into an award-winning film in 1993; The House in the Pines by Guatemalan American author Ana Reyes; Leaf Storm by Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez; and Twice a Quinceañera by Argentine American author Yamile Saied Méndez, which follows a 30-year-old woman throwing herself a double quinceanera for her birthday after she breaks up with her fianceé.

Alma Cuervo

Originally from Florida, Alma Cuervo earned her M.F.A. in acting from the Yale School of Drama and has starred in dozens of theatrical productions since 1978. She was part of the first national tours of Wicked and My Fair Lady, and has gone on to star in other shows like The Showmaker, Into the Woods, and Cabaret. Within the Latinx community, however, she’s perhaps most well-known for originating the role of Gloria Estefan’s grandmother Consuelo in On Your Feet!, which is currently in the process of becoming a feature film. Outside of theater, she’s also established a career as an audiobook narrator, appearing as part of the casts for The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, Cuba: An American History by Cuban American author Ada Ferrer, and In the Time of the Butterflies and Afterlife, both by Dominican American author Julia Alvarez. Alvarez has since written six books of fiction, with her most recent one, The Cemetery of Untold Stories, being published earlier this year.

Elena Rey

Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Elena Rey, who uses both they/them and she/her pronouns, is a queer, genderqueer, and biracial Latina performer, theater artist, voice actor, and narrator of Mexican descent. In 2022, they were chosen to complete the selective Penguin Random House Narrator Mentorship Program. Since then, they have recorded more than 20 audiobooks for some of the largest names in publishing including Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, and Hachette Book Group. Elena’s vocal talents can be heard on audiobooks including Oye by Colombian American author Melissa Mogollon (which came out earlier this year), Lucky Red by Claudia Cravens, and The Monsters of Chavez Ravine by Colombian and Italian author Debra Castaneda, among many others. For their work, they have accrued accolades and acclaim including an Audiofile Magazine Earphones Award.

Elisa Melendez

Based in Dallas, Texas, Elisa Meléndez is a Puerto Rican actress, singer-songwriter, and voice actor who can be heard in many audiobooks and commercials. As a doctorate student, she earned a Ph.D. in Sociology and has pursued other careers in college instruction and video game marketing. Besides making original music at her home studio, she has worked as an audiobook narrator for six projects thus far including Sonora Reyes’s second novel The Luis Ortega Survival Club after The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School, as well as The Lost Dreamer by Lizz Huerta, and Julieta and the Romeos by Argentine American author Maria E. Andreu. Julieta and the Romeos is a YA romance novel about a high schooler looking for her mysterious Romeo that is contributing to her rom-com book.

Frankie Corzo

Based in Los Angeles, Frankie Corzo is a Cuban American actress who has narrated over 200 books. Some of her most popular projects have included The Seventh Veil of Salome and Mexican Gothic, both by Mexican Canadian author Silvia Moreno-Garcia, as well as The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova, Of Women and Salt by Cuban American author Gabriela Garcia, and the YA novel A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Cuban American author Laura Taylor Namey, which is currently in the process of being adapted to film. She has garnered critical acclaim and accolades for her work including numerous AudioFile Magazine Earphones Awards, an Audie Award, and nominations for the Audie Award and SOVAS. She’s also been featured in the New York Times in their “Best of Lists” from Audible.

Victoria Villarreal

Victoria Villarreal is a bilingual actress of Mexican descent based in Los Angeles. She’s worked on audiobooks including Malas by Mexican American author Marcela Fuentes, Liliana’s Invincible Summer by Mexican author Cristina Rivera Garza, Familia by Puerto Rican author Lauren E. Rico, and The Seventh Veil of Salome by Mexican Canadian Silvia Moreno-Garcia, which is Moreno-Garcia’s most recently published book and follows a young woman who wins the role of a lifetime in a film about a legendary heroine, only to realize that there’s far more drama behind the scenes.

Aida Reluzco

Born and raised in New York, Aida Reluzco is a queer and bilingual Cuban American multidisciplinary artist with a background in performing arts, classical art history, illustration, literature, poetry, and spoken word. As a voice actor, she has lent her talents to over 60 audiobook projects with Audible and a variety of publishing houses. She narrates Certain Dark Things by Mexican Canadian author Silvia Moreno-Garcia from 2016, Big Chicas Don’t Cry by Mexican American author Annette Chavez Macias, The Shamshine Blind by Argentina author Paz Pardo, and The Faraway World by Colombian American author Patricia Engel, which was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice in 2023.

Joana Garcia

Before retiring, Joana Garcia worked as a U.S. Navy Aviation maintenance officer for over 20 years before tapping into her talents as a narrator. She’s completed more than 60 audio projects all from her home studio. Her distinctive voice can be heard on many nonfiction projects like Inventing Latinos by Mexican American author Laura E. Gómez (which explores how Latinx communities have redefined Americans’ understanding of race) and The Young Lords by Puerto Rican author Johanna Fernández (which sheds light in the Young Lords, the equivalent of the Black Panther party on the island). She’s also narrated the fiction novel Brother, Sister, Mother, Explorer, a ghost story set in the tropics by Boricua author Jamie Figueroa, among many others. She also mentors veterans and is an active member of the Audio Publishers Association.

Sixta Morel

Sixta Morel is a voice actress from the Dominican Republic who is bilingual and considered to have one of the most adaptable voices in the industry today. She initially started out in the media business as a teenager, working as a TV host, VO, emcee, producer, and actor. She is featured on a variety of audiobook projects including Family Lore by Dominican American Elizabeth Acevedo and Malicia by Dominican American author Steven Dos Santos, a YA horror novel about four teens as they go to an amusement park to film a documentary about a past tragedy that occurred there, only to realize that there are still horrors alive and well on the grounds.

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