15 Books by Latinas That Should be Required Reading in Schools

Many of us grew up reading books in school but maybe it wasn’t always your choice what you were reading. Teachers often assign required reading, which is mandated by hundreds of school boards across the U.S. But you may know that required reading lists aren’t always diverse. On the contrary, they center and prioritize books written by white men like Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger or The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Rarely are Latinas (or any authors of color for that matter) viewed as worthy to be considered required reading. It also doesn’t help that Latinx representation in publishing remains low. That’s why we decided to put together a list of books by Latina authors that should be required reading including Afterlife by Julia Alvarez and Candelaria by Melissa Lozada-Oliva. From memoirs to fiction, hopefully there is a little something for students of all ages. Read on to learn more about 15 books by Latina authors that all students should be reading.

The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande

The Distance Between Us by Reyna Grande is one of the most well-known books about immigration today. In this memoir, Grande documents her childhood influenced by the traumas and terrors of immigration and life between two countries. When her parents decide to cross the border into the U.S., they’re thrust into the care of their grandmother, who is overburdened, stern, and unprepared to watch over her and her siblings. Some time later when her mother finally returns, she prepares to cross the border herself, at long last seeing her dream of freedom finally come true, only to face more of an unknown future than she’s ever known.

Why Didn’t You Tell Me?: A Memoir by Carmen Rita Wong

Why Didn’t You Tell Me? by TV host, advice columnist, and professor Carmen Rita Wong is a memoir following her journey as the daughter of a Latina mother and Chinese father and later, a white stepfather. Throughout her life, she always wanted to belong: in Harlem where she and her mother danced with Black and brown Latinas; in Chinatown where her father showed her and her older brother off in restaurants; and in the playgrounds of New Hampshire with dozens of white children. After her mother’s marriage to her stepfather and the birth of four more children, Wong’s relationship with her mother became charged with tension, suspicion, and conflict – only for her mother’s secrets to be revealed and clarity to be brought to Wong’s life. But after her mother passes away, it’s too late for answers and she uses her memoir to understand who she really is, explore her mother’s hidden history, and face the revelations. This is a powerful portrait of race and culture in the U.S. and how each one shapes our personal identity.

The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes

The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by nonbinary writer Sonora Reyes is the story of Yamilet Flores, a 16-year-old queer Mexican American girl who transfers to an all-white Catholic school after she’s outed by her former best friend. Now, she’s one of the only Mexican kids at Slayton Catholic where she has new to-do’s: protect her brother, make her mom proud, and don’t fall in love. Everything’s going great until she meets Bo, the only openly queer girl at school, forcing Yami to reconsider her plan to pretend to be a straight girl and instead, embrace her true self. This story sees Yami encountering racism, xenophobia, and homophobia, but also reclaiming joy, strength, confidence, and love.

Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio follows the wry and vulnerable titular character through one year of her life at Harvard. When Catalina Ituralde was first admitted to the Ive League school, she felt like she’d finally fulfilled her destiny as a miracle child who escaped death in Latin America, moved to Queens, New York, was raised by her undocumented grandparents, and became one of the chosen. But in her senior year, she realizes that after graduation, she will face a world that has no place for the undocumented. In the meantime, she infiltrates the school’s elite subcultures and finds herself drawn to a fellow student, an anthropologist eager to teach her about her home country. But day by day, the rest of her life grows closer in all its horror and uncertainty, forcing her to question if she can save her family, save herself, and what it even means to be saved.

A Nation of Women by Luisa Capetillo

A Nation of Women by Puerto Rican activist Luisa Capetillo is a collection of her feminist and socialist writings. Capetillo first rose to prominence when she was arrested and acquitted for being the first woman to wear men’s trousers in public. She became a feminist symbol of gender-nonconforming rebellion but she made so many other important contributions, which this book sheds light on. It includes several of her speeches, treatises, and manifestos. Many of them have been translated in English for the very first time including Mi opinión sobre las libertades, derechos y deberes de la Mujer, considered the first feminist treatise to be written in Latin America and the Caribbean. Throughout these essays, she passionately discusses workers’ rights, exploitation, subordination, socialism, divorce, sexuality, mental and physical health, spirituality, and nutrition. Even though this was written in the 20th century, there are many lessons that many today could learn from her vision of the world and her hopes for workers and women alike.

Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo

Family Lore is Elizabeth Acevedo‘s first adult fiction novel following the success of her young adult books including the novel-in-verse The Poet X and Clap When You Land. In this debut, we follow Flor Marte, the daughter of a Dominican American family who has the gift of predicting the day when someone will die. When she invites the family for a living wake to celebrate her life, no one, not even her sisters, knows what it means. Over the course of the three days before the wake, secrets are revealed, pasts remembered, and histories relived of all the lives of the Marte women spanning decades, generations, cities, and borders. This is a stunning, unforgettable portrait of a family across two countries.

Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia

Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia follows three women of a single family. First, there is Jeanette, the daughter of Carmen who is battling addiction in Miami, is determined to learn more about her family, and makes an impulsive decision to take in the daughter of a neighbor who was detained by ICE. Then there’s Carmen, who is still adjusting to displacement in a new country and wants to process her relationship with her own mother while trying to raise Jeanette. Then there’s Jeanette’s grandmother, who still lives in Cuba and holds the secrets of the past that are destined to come out. Spanning time and place, we travel from 19th-century cigar factories to present-day detention centers, from Cuba to Mexico, in order to piece together a portrait of the women and the betrayals they faced and how they have a built a life, legacy, and history.

Dominicana by Angie Cruz

Dominicana by Angie Cruz follows 15-year-old Ana Cancion who moves to New York City from the Dominican Republic after getting engaged to Juan Ruiz, a family friend who is decades older and established in the city. Despite Juan being twice her age, her mother pressures Ana to marry him for money and security not just for herself but for her family in DR. It’s only when she arrives at a cold apartment in Washington Heights that she realizes how frightened and lonely she has become as a young wife away from everyone and everything she knows. She eventually gets pregnant and begins to come to terms with her impending motherhood and what that means for her/their future. Then she befriends Cesar, Juan’s younger brother, and Juan returns to the D.R. to help his family, and she finds herself free for the first time in years: taking English lessons, exploring the city, and inadvertently falling for her brother-in-law. This coming-of-age story shows Ana’s growth as she begins to make decisions for the life she now has as a young immigrant soon-to-be mom living in the U.S.

Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From by Jennifer De Leon 

Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From by Jennifer De Leon follows first-gen American Latina Liliana Cruz, who keeps hitting walls: the wall her mom has put up ever since Liliana’s dad left again, the wall that delineates Liliana’s diverse inner-city Boston neighborhood from wealthy and white suburban high school Westburg, and the wall that Liliana creates within herself to survive at Westburg by “whitening up”. Even as she’s changing her name, the way she talks, and the way she sees her neighborhood, she discovers that her father can’t come home and that her whole family is in jeopardy. And when racial tensions at school reach a fever pitch, the walls that divide feel insurmountable. Ultimately, she must choose between using the wall as a platform to speak her truth or risk crumbling under its weight.

Afterlife by Julia Alvarez

Known for her best-selling books In the Time of the Butterflies and How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, renowned Dominican author Julia Alvarez released her newest book Afterlife in 2021, which quickly became a success. The novel follows Antonia Vega, an immigrant writer who retires from her job as a college professor when her husband Sam suddenly dies. Her life continues to destabilize when her sister disappears and a pregnant, undocumented teenager shows up on her doorstep. Throughout the story, we see Antonia at one of the most important points of her life navigating love and loss.

Candelaria by Melissa Lozada-Oliva

Candelaria by Melissa Lozada-Oliva follows three generations of Guatemalan women: the all-seeing grandmother Candelaria, her daughter Lucia, and her three daughters Bianca, Paola, and Candy who are all spread across the U.S. Spanning time and place, the book switches between the past seeing the women battling the everyday struggles of life, and a near-future when an earthquake unleashes a zombie apocalypse that only Candelaria can save her family from. The book offers a new take on family, womanhood, love, and the apocalypse genre as a whole.

Brother, Sister, Mother, Explorer by Jamie Figueroa

Brother, Sister, Mother, Explorer  is the debut novel of Afro-Taíno author Jamie Figueroa following Rufina and Rafa, two siblings who, after their mother passes, spend a weekend together in their childhood home in the tourist town of Ciudad de Tres Hermanas. When Rufina realizes that her brother is heading toward a dark place, she attempts to pull him out by devising a bet: if they can raise enough money from performing for tourists to buy a plane ticket, then Rafa must leave. If not, she will accept his plan, no matter how much she may dislike it. But it becomes clear that it won’t be that straightforward, thanks to mysterious, unexplainable hauntings that begin to take place in their home from ghostly and angelic beings.

Bird of Paradise: How I Became a Latina by Raquel Cepeda

Bird of Paradise by Dominican author Raquel Cepeda is a memoir that focuses on her journey of tracing her genealogy using DNA testing and discovering who she is. Beginning from when she was born in Harlem, she documents her childhood in Santo Domingo and later life back in the U.S. with divorced parents who both have new partners and encourage her to stifle the Dominican part of herself. Through hip-hop, her wider community, and her genetic history, Cepeda finds a way to form her own identity, discover family secrets and history, and embrace every facet of who she is.

Chula by Amanda Alcántara

Chula by Dominican American writer Amanda Alcántara is a collection of poetry, short stories, and vignettes following Alcántara’s life as a Dominican woman before and after moving to the U.S. Told in Spanish and English, she writes about identity, pleasure, childhood curiosity, the beauty of the Caribbean, the struggles of women, and ultimately, their triumphs with rich language and overt love for her people.

Perla by Carolina De Robertis

Perla by Carolina De Robertis follows Perla Correa, who grew up as the only child of a cold, polished mother and a strict naval officer father and in Argentina, a country that is still reeling in the aftermath of a deposed military dictatorship. While Perla understands that her parents were on the wrong side of history and that she must not dare speak about her father’s profession, her love for him is unconditional. But when her life is disrupted by an unexpected visitor, she is forced to confront the unease she has felt all her life, the devastating truth of her origins, and the importance of deciding who she is and who she wants to be.