Collection Highlight: October 2022

Contributed by Jordan Wohlfort, Collection Development Librarian

October 2022

National Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15th-October 15th. Check out this sampling of works from Hispanic authors.

Our America: A Hispanic History of the United States, by Felipe Fernández-Armesto.

DB 78528

History professor examines the Hispanic past of the United States, from Spain's colonization of Puerto Rico in 1505 to the twenty-first-century debate over immigration reform. Encourages the embrace of Hispanic culture and posits that doing so would be to the nation's advantage and enrichment.

Dominicana, by Angie Cruz

DB 96435 ; Spanish language DB 103848

1965. Fifteen-year-old Ana Canción has never dreamed of moving to America from the Dominican Republic, but marries Juan Ruiz to give her family the opportunity to do so. Stifled in New York City, she runs away. Juan's brother, César, persuades her to return and provides opportunities for her.

Violeta, by Isabel Allende,

DB 106459 ; Spanish language DB 107625

Violeta is born to a well-off family in 1920, and lives through the tumult of the twentieth century. She tells her story in letters to someone she loves above all others, recounting times of devastating heartbreak and passionate affairs, poverty and wealth, terrible loss and immense joy.

Everyone Knows You Go Home, by Natalia Sylvester

DB 91600 ; Spanish language DB 107109

Isabel meets her father-in-law, Omar, for the first time at her wedding--but he's a ghost. Her husband Martin confesses he didn't know Omar had died since they were estranged. Isabel tries to help Omar achieve redemption, but her husband and mother-in-law are reluctant.

Harsh Times, by Mario Vargas Llosa

DB 106145 ; Spanish language DB 100253

Guatemala, 1954. The military coup perpetrated by Carlos Castillo Armas and supported by the CIA topples the government of Jacobo Árbenz. Behind this violent act is a lie passed off as truth, which forever changes the development of Latin America: that Árbenz encouraged the spread of Soviet Communism in the Americas.