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Must-Read Works from Mexican and Mexican-American Authors

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo and Mexican history and culture with these gripping books by Mexican and Mexican-American writers. Journey into the homes of Mexican-American families and into the heart of Mexico itself, from imaginative new novels to contemporary YA stories.

Billed as the definitive Mexican American immigrant story, Urrea crafts the San Diego-set story of a final birthday party thrown for fading patriarch Miguel Angel De La Cruz, known to everyone as Big Angel. When his ancient mother dies unexpectedly, the event turns into a celebration of the family’s history.

A poignant but often laugh-out-loud funny contemporary novel about a teenage girl who loses her sister and finds herself amid the pressures, expectations, and stereotypes of growing up in a Mexican-American home.

A streetwise heroine travels from Mexico to USA via the mythical and criminal underworlds in the search for her brother.

Told in two voices, Pen, whose dream of taking over her family’s restaurant has been destroyed, and Xander, a new, undocumented, employee seeking his father, form a bond.

Trying to forget the mysterious death of her little sister years earlier, Ana, a precocious twelve-year-old who lives in the heart of Mexico City, decides to plant a milpa in her backyard, which prompts her neighbors to dig into their own pasts.

This beautiful novel from the author of Marcelo in the Real World about life after a suicide attempt is perfect for fans of All the Bright Places and Thirteen Reasons Why.

A fiercely imaginative story about a family whose road trip across America collides with an immigration crisis at the southwestern border.

A Romeo and Juliet reimagining set in the midst of racial conflict and at the edges of a war at the Texas-Mexico border in 1915. Be sure to also read McCall’s companion novel, All the Stars Denied.

A daring, kaleidoscopic novel about the clash of empires and ideas in the sixteenth century that continue to reverberate throughout modernity-a story unlike anything you’ve ever heard before.

An intoxicating story of a teenage girl who trades her a middle–class upbringing for a quest for meaning in 1980s Mexico.