Latinx Literature
I have many Latino students in my classes and as a teacher, I'm always looking for literature that can help them feel understood and represented. I'm also looking for ways to teach multicultural literature and open the eyes of my white students to experiences that are not their own.
I found several great resources in our school library:
Us in Progress: Short Stories About Young Latinos
Dreams From Many Rivers: A Hispanic History of the United States Told in Poems
Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United States
One thing I loved about these collections is just the wide variety of experience that it encapsulates. It shows that the term "Latino" encompasses so many different people. And these short stories give just a small sampling of them. There were stories about young Latinos living in all sorts of different situations, discovering themselves and what it means to be Latino.
Despite the fact that Red Hot Salsa is a poetry anthology, I still felt like the poetry was accessible and it was all translated in both English and Spanish. I have several Latino students who speak almost no Spanish and have a hard time identifying with their Hispanic roots. It would probably be comforting to them to read about Latino culture in English.
Us in Progress is also fun because it includes original artwork from Lulu Delacre. They are mixed media portraits representing the teens that inspired the stories. Many of the stories are based on real-life events and Delacre includes those articles in the end of the anthology.
These are hands down, texts that I would share with my students both Latino and not. I think there is a lot that my students could relate to as well as some stories that would open their eyes to other experiences.
I recommend this far Latinx literature lovers, short story enjoyers, and anyone looking for a window into other's lives!
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