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Hispanic Heritage Month - adults

President Lyndon B. Johnson first introduced National Hispanic Heritage week in 1968. 

At that time President Johnson wrote, “Wishing to pay special tribute to the Hispanic tradition, and having in mind the fact that our five Central American neighbors celebrate their Independence Day on the fifteenth of September and the Republic of Mexico on the sixteenth, the Congress by House Joint Resolution 1299, has requested the President to issue annually a proclamation designating the week including September 15 and 16 as National Hispanic Heritage Week.”

On August 17, 1988, Congress passed a law to extend it into a monthlong holiday during Ronald Reagan's presidency. The first Hispanic Heritage Month was celebrated in 1989.

Celebrate this year by reading a book describing or imagining the Hispanic experience in the US or elsewhere or written by a Hispanic author.  List includes both fiction and nonfiction titles. (revised September 2023)


Learn more from the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of the Latino


The House Of Spirits

by Isabel Allende


A Long Petal Of The Sea

by Isabel Allende


The Soul of a Woman

by Isabel Allende


How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

by Julia Alvarez




Our Last Days In Barcelona

by Chanel Cleeton


Fruit Of The Drunken Tree

by Ingrid Rojas Contreras




What Would Frida Do

by Arianna Davis


Cantoras

by Carolina De Robertis




Ordinary Girls

by Jaquira Diaz


The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao

by Junot Diaz


Like Water For Chocolate

by Laura Esquivel


Of Women And Salt

by Gabriela Garcia


Olga Dies Dreaming

by Xochitl Gonzalez


In The Country We Love

by Diane Guerrero


The Mambo Kings Play Songs Of Love

by Oscar Hijuelos


What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez?

by Claire Jimenez






One Hundred Years Of Solitude

by Gabriel Garcia Marquez


The Daughter of Doctor Moreau

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia


Mexican Gothic

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia


Neruda On The Park

by Cleyvis Natera


The Complete Memoirs

by Pablo Neruda


The Self-Made Widow

by Fabian Nicieza


Crying in the Bathroom

by Erika Sanchez


The Worst Best Man

by Mia Sosa


The House Of Broken Angels

by Luis Alberto Urrea


Undocumented Americans

by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio


In the Shadow of the Mountain

by Silvia Vasquez-Lavado


Why Didn't You Tell Me

by Carmen Rita Wong