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How have you been celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month? This annual month-long celebration of Hispanic culture & history continues until October 15. If you’re looking for some recommendations on art that will help you get into the spirit of the month, read on as we share some of our favorite books and films.
Watch A Community In Conversation
On October 6 Rio Salado celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month with a community breakfast and livestream event centered around the theme of Prosperity, Power, & Progress: Recognizing the significant achievements in the Hispanic Community. This event included a student-led discussion with special guests Alexis Meruelo (Chairwoman of the Arizona Coyotes Foundation Board of Director) and Alejandro Chavez (community leader, activist, and grandson of civil rights labor leader Cesar Chavez).
If you missed this special event, don’t worry: a recording of the event is available on YouTube.
Learn More About Hispanic Heritage Month
Our library staff has put together an informative guide on Hispanic Heritage Month. This guide includes a recommended reading list, film documentaries, historical resources, and helpful information on RIo’s Spanish language classes. You can read the guide here.
Recommended Reading
While we would heartily recommend any of the books in our library guide, there’s also a few additional titles we’d like to recommend. If you’re looking to expand your cultural horizons and are looking for some great art by Hispanic authors, check out some of these titles.
- Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado. Ghost stories, romances, body horror, and dark comedy: Machado covers a lot of ground in these sharp and precisely written stories.
- Love and Rockets by Jaime & Gilbert Hernandez. One of the longest-running independent comic series, the Hernandez Brothers’ pioneering comic continues to thrill with its experimental storytelling, its mix of wild fantasy with grounded stories about punks & blue-collar Latinos living their lives and features one of the greatest will-they/won’t-they best friends/lovers storylines in any medium.
- Prime Meridian by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. A sci-fi novella by the acclaimed novelist about gig work, precarity, and struggling to pay for a dream that keeps slipping further and further out of reach.
- Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo by Oscar Zeta Acosta. The real-life inspiration for Hunter S. Thompson's "Dr. Gonzo," Acosta was a freewheeling writer. This book is his memoir- a manic, psychedelic look into a man coming of age in one of the most turbulent times in American history.
- The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. A mysterious and beguiling book about strange books, pyromaniacs, forgotten secrets, and the enduring power of literature.
- Some New Kind Of Kick by Kid Congo Powers. A legend in the 80’s punk scene shares his life story, illuminating how Chicano and LGBT communities helped influence and shape underground music.
- Infomocracy by Malka Older. A gripping cyberpunk thriller with a unique perspective on technology, surveillance, and politics.
Celebrate With Cinema
Looking to add some Hispanic Heritage to your streaming watchlists? Here’s a few films from Hispanic filmmakers you’ll want to hit “play” on when you see them online.
- The Phantom of Liberty (Luis Bunuel 1974). One of cinema’s greatest Surrealists, this anthology film of bizarre stories that end right as they get more intriguing is an oddball masterpiece.
- El Norte (Gregory Nava, 1983). An acclaimed independent drama, Nava's heartfelt & unflinching look at two refugees fleeing persecution in Guatemala to find sanctuary in the U.S. remains as relevant as ever.
- The Devil's Backbone (Guillermo del Toro, 2001). Long before becoming an Academy Award-winning filmmaker, del Toro cut his teeth on horror cinema. This supernatural thriller about a haunted school for orphan boys is one of his finest efforts.
- La Ciénaga (Lucrecia Martel, 2001). This critically acclaimed comedy-drama by Martel focuses on one family's claustrophobic summer vacation. A tense, luminously photographed film with heartbreaking true-to-life details.
- Parallel Mothers (Pedro Almodovar, 2021). Two mothers form a strong connection that takes them down some very unexpected paths in this powerful film by the prolific and much-lauded auteur.
Article by Austin Brietta