Chicanx Literature

This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, edited by Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa, is a feminist literary collection of essays, prose, poems, and transcripts on the experiences of women of color and Third World women, in a mainly United States context. While many of the contributors may have been lesser-known beforehand, this anthology has become a foundational text in feminist theory. Originally published in 1981, it set precedence by delving... Read This Bridge Called My Back Summary

Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall is a coming-of-age story about the importance of family, heritage, and perseverance. This young adult novel comes directly from McCall’s own experiences as a young Mexican immigrant, a writer with a dream, and a teenager who watches her mother die from cancer. Under the Mesquite infuses poetic form, free verse, imagery, and sprinkles of the Spanish language in order to portray a bildungsroman in which a young girl... Read Under The Mesquite Summary

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We Were Here is a Newbury-Award-winning, young adult novel written by Matt De La Pena. Published in 2011, the first person narrative is written in diary form in the voice of the teenaged protagonist, Miguel Castaneda. The story begins with Miguel’s description of his admission to juvenile hall, a detention facility near his family home in Stockton, California. His father, a member of the US Army, was killed in action the preceding year. While the... Read We Were Here Summary

Published in 2003, Carla Trujillo’s novel What Night Brings is set in the late 1960s in a town outside San Francisco. The novel centers on Marcía Cruz, an 11-year-old Chicana girl struggling with her sexual orientation and domestic abuse amidst a larger backdrop of the Vietnam War and a crisis of faith in America.What Night Brings is Trujillo’s first novel, but not her first published work relating to its central themes. She edited an anthology... Read What Night Brings Summary

Woman Hollering Creek, a short story collection published in 1991, presents compelling narratives featuring female characters of all ages, eras and walks of life. The youngest of the characters are girls still occupied with elementary school and making friends. Teenagers are also presented, exploring the new challenge of romantic and sexual relationships. Lastly, adult women’s stories are told, as they work to navigate complex lives filled with personal and professional relationships.The first section of the... Read Woman Hollering Creek Summary

Women Who Run With the Wolves (1992) is the most well-known book by author Clarissa Pinkola Estés. It became a New York Times bestseller and appeared on the bestseller lists of USA Today, Publisher’s Weekly, and Library Journal. Other books by the same author include The Gift of Story (1993), The Faithful Gardener (1996), and Untie the Strong Woman (2011). Estés has also recorded numerous audiobooks on related topics. She holds a Ph.D. in psychology... Read Women Who Run with the Wolves Summary

Written in 2014 and published by Delacorte Press, Written in My Own Heart’s Blood is the eighth book in the Outlander saga by author Diana Gabaldon. The series follows Claire Fraser, a time-traveling World War II nurse who married Jamie Fraser, an 18th-century Highlander and insurrectionist against the British crown. The Fraser family occupies multiple timelines in the series, which celebrates family and romantic love. The novel spans colonial America to the Highlands of Scotland... Read Written in My Own Heart's Blood Summary