ROADS LESS TRAVELLED: APRIL 2026 - HISPANIC NORTH AMERICA

Of course this month evokes those hinterlands inside the American border, once Mexican, but now Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California - and we can see that - but Hispanic influence in the USA and Canada is much more than that - Cuban Americans in Florida and elsewhere, the teeming streets of LA and New York and the great impact made by the Spanish-American communities there and across the continent.

I am not looking to make any political points this month but the influence of the Hispanic community to the arts and literature in particular is impressive and culturally enriching. I am British and living for over thirty years in South East Asia so the nuances of community naming escapes me so please forgive my terminology if I am supposed to say LatinX or something else it is from genuine lack of knowledge and not an intention to hurt, offend or slight and I trust it to be taken as such.

I will be reading The Hummingbird’s Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea for April.

Some really great options:

Elizabeth Acevedo
Julia Alvarez
Rudolfo Anaya
Giannina Braschi
Sandra Cisneros
Angie Cruz
Junot Diaz
Oscar Hijuelos
Silvia Moreno Garcia
Benjamin Saenz
Luis Alberto Urrea

I will start off the month with

Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya

I have quite a few choices from your suggestions, Paul. I own The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love and it is a Pulitzer winner so I should read that one. I ordered Islandborn from the library. I think this is a children's illustrated book so I thought it might be fun to look at that one.

I can recommend Trust by Hernan Diaz.

>6 booksaplenty1949: Good shout

Have checked out library copy of The Mambo Kings & Other Novels by Oscar Hijuelos.

I plan to read Familia by Lauren E. Rico. If your library participates in Libby Reads, this book will be available with no waitlists or holds between April 23 and May 7.

Five Stars for each of Benjamin Alire Saenz adult books:

Names on a Map
The Inexplicable Logic of my Life
and In Perfect Light

5 also for YA Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

>1 PaulCranswick: Not to worry, Paul! Both terms are acceptable. Generally the over 50 age group uses Hispanic and the younger generations use Latino. LatinX means gender neutral Hispanic or Latino! At least...all this from my lil part of the country as told to me by Latino college students.

>11 Tess_W: Thanks Tess

>10 m.belljackson: And my library has the last one you named. Thanks!

Online SMITHSONIAN JOURNEYS - scroll down and you find a feature on CHILE!

This month, I plan to read Lost City radio by Daniel Alarcón. It has been on my wishlist for years, so it's the right time to finally read it.
What a coincidence! I went to the library last Saturday to look for this book, and it was on display as part of a bunch of book in French (translated here, obviously), but which title was in a foreign language.

On the same table, I spotted Santa Muerte by Gabino Iglesias and I figured it also fits this month theme, so I might read it as well, latter in the month.

I ended up reading Luis Alberto Urrea's Good Night, Irene, which was inspired by his mother's service in WWII working a Red Cross Clubmobile, serving coffee and donuts to soldiers all to near the front lines.

I think I have, unintentionally, read too many books about WWII lately. I certainly didn't dislike the book, and I learned about the Clubmobiles, something with which I was completely unfamiliar. I suspect I would have preferred a nonfiction book on the subject, which was Urrea's original intention. However, when he discovered that primary sources were limited, and he switched to fiction.

I was very impressed by Urrea's The Devil's Highway - I need to read more of his work.

I'd hoped to get to some Silvia Moreno-Garcia this month, but I over-committed. I doubt I'm the only one!

I am nearing the end of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love and still hope to get to Islandborn by Junot Diaz before the month is over. The last is a children's book with illustrations by Leo Espinosa.

>17 Kristelh: Finding Mambo Kings more like poetry—-pretty plot-free but deeply evocative.

>18 booksaplenty1949:. Yes, I am pondering the book while listening. Hijuelos had a way with words. Lyrical is the word.

>19 Kristelh: More ways of describing an orgasm than I would have believed possible.

>20 booksaplenty1949:. Yes, that is for sure. It is part of what I am not appreciating but the author had a way with words.

>21 Kristelh: Have finished Mambo Kings, just ahead of next month’s challenge. No time to dawdle here on LibraryThing. I gather the movie version sticks to the first half of the novel, which makes sense. It tends to wander a bit aimlessly as it goes on. But I’m glad I was motivated to read it. Unlike many here, I tend to avoid books that have won a prize of any kind, but glad I made an exception.

It sounds like you enjoyed it. I agree that it wandered and repeated itself too much. I do read "lists" and this was son the Pulitzer so I have it done now.

>23 Kristelh: A mixed bag, the Pulitzer, but not as incomprehensible as the Nobel. List of critically lauded authors passed over for the latter would make a good reading project.