The Best New Books to Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month With

At this point, we already know what to expect from Moreno-Garcia: fall bangers. This time, the genre chameleon tells us the story of three women. In 1950s Hollywood, two of them are Tinseltown hopefuls. There’s the unknown Mexican ingenue, Vera Larios, who becomes the girl du jour after it’s announced that she’s to play the life-changing role of Salome—but there’s also Nancy Hartley, an actress still hoping to make it big, and who has fallen into desperation. Lastly, there’s Princess Salome herself, cursed to love the prophet who has doomed her stepfather, Herod.

With Tirado’s adult debut, we’re getting served Jordan Peele-esque suburban horror. Sol Reyes is licking her wounds after workplace contentiousness manifests into an accusation of plagiarism, and she’s put on probation. Visiting her homophobic father doesn’t help, and soon the wound licking turns to wine lapping, as she finds herself drinking more and more wine, earlier and earlier in the day. One thing seems to be on the up-and-up, though: her wife, Alice Song, is super hype about the house they were able to buy in the highly sought-after gated community, Maneless Grove. But something’s off. Sol feels like the neighbors are saccharinely sweet, the homeowner’s association is too bossy, and there are microaggressions after microaggressions. But Alice doesn’t see it. And, once Sol starts seeing disappearing doors and stairs, roots growing where they shouldn’t, and finds a journal from a resident who went missing, she may be the only one in their household who sees the coveted community for what it is.

At 15, Gutierrez was on track to go to college and achieve her dreams as a top-performing high school student. Then the worst thing ever happened: her parents’ visas expired, leaving her and her brother in the U.S. Suddenly, she was responsible not only for herself, but her brother and their education. In this memoir, she recounts what it was like persevering through moments when she lost her family, had to lean on her brother, and experienced houselessness as a youth.

When Daniel de La Luna starts his life as an undergraduate student at an elite East Coast school, it’s with a bit of baggage. As a scholarship student — and someone who carries the weight of his late uncle’s name — he’s a bit burdened. But then he meets Sam, his roommate, who changes everything. As their friendship changes into something more, Sam starts to pull away, and Daniel is met with tragedy. A trip back to his family’s ancestral home in México will have him reevaluating things. Hopefully for the better.

This historical fiction starts with a curse cast in 1951. In La Cienega, Texas, an older woman confronts Pilar Aguirre and curses her, thinking she stole her husband. Fast forward 40+ years and Lulu Muñoz’s life is a mess: her father is moody, she’s a secret punk band singer, and her grandmother has passed away. Then, at her grandmother’s funeral, a mysterious and glamorous stranger shows up. As the narrative shifts between two bold female voices — and things like rodeos, Selena concerts, and Tejano family gatherings — Lulu and this stranger grow closer, and their friendship threatens to unravel family secrets.

Multi-award-winning author Iglesias is following up 2022’s The Devil Takes You Home with a doomed story of vengeance and the cycle of violence. Childhood friends Gabe, Xavier, Tavo, Paul, and Bimbo grow up in Puerto Rico with death never far away, but then Bimbo’s mother is murdered, and everything changes. Now the boys want revenge. When Bimbo sets out to find his mother’s killer, he has no mercy, and he soon learns that a ruthless kingpin may have been involved. But with a hurricane steadily forming around the island, preparing to bring with it all manner of evil spirits, the boys may not be able to act out their vengeance as they’d hoped.

From an abuela-turned-marionette to mango farmers, reggaetón stars, and cyborgs, the characters and stories in this debut collection explore the past, present, and future of Central America.

Also, that cover is one of m favorites of the year so far.

In these essays, award-winning poet Villarreal bends genres to look at her personal experiences — like a difficult childhood and divorce — colonial consequences, and migration, and analyzes them through a pop culture lens. In one piece, she’s looking at gender performativity through Nirvana and Selena, and in the next, the racial implications of Game of Thrones’ Jon Snow. She also looks at fantasy and considers collective imagination and how magic and ancestral teachings become invalidated through colonialism.