The product of hundreds of scholars collaborating with the Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage program over ten years, this is the first Spanish-language anthology to bring together literature from the history of Hispanic writing in the United States, from the age of exploration to the present. Included are scores of previously unknown pieces by authors of diverse classes and ethnic backgrounds including Mexican, Cuban, Spanish and Puerto Rican. The most comprehensive literary collection of its type, this book spans more than three centuries and a broad range of genres.
Organized chronologically into three sections that represent the three major experiences of Latinos in the United States—Native, Exile and Immigration—this volume also incorporates oral tradition such as folk songs, personal experience narratives and even rhymes. It contains the political essays of revolutionaries and reactionaries, cultural elites and workers, academic creative writers and street poets, all reflecting the Hispanic condition from colonial times to the present day. Works by well-known names—Reinaldo Arenas, René Marqués, Cherríe Moraga, Dolores Prida, Piri Thomas and Luis Valdez—are found in its pages, as well as those by anonymous bards and unheralded writers whose works appeared in Spanish-language newspapers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Originally published in 2002, this updated and revised edition contains newly discovered texts, many by women whose work was even less available than their male contemporaries, and complete versions of masterpieces “Yo soy Joaquín” by Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, Zoot Suit by Luis Valdez and … y no se lo tragó la tierra by Tomás Rivera. This landmark of Latino literature in Spanish includes 150 photographs of authors, original book covers and historical events such as theatrical performances.
Click here to watch Dr. Nicolás Kanellos in the APP Authors Speak series talking about his creative process.
“Es una importante contribución que redefine lo que significa el hablar de literatura ‘americana’”.—Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
“Un texto indispensable para toda biblioteca”.—Críticas
“Por fin, un mapa importante, superior, fiable de la experiencia hispana en los EE.UU. Este libro magnífico abre sus páginas al lenguaje multicultural de nuestro mejor futuro”.—Julio Ortega
“Esta selección superior demostrará que es un texto indispensable para toda biblioteca”.—Booklist
“Absolutamente indispensable. Se recomienda para toda biblioteca académica y pública”.—Library Journal
NICOLÁS KANELLOS, the Brown Foundation Professor of Hispanic Literature at the University of Houston, is an award-winning author of reference and historical works on Hispanic culture of the United States, including Latinos and Nationhood: Two Centuries of Intellectual Thought (University of Arizona Press, 2023), Latino Almanac: From Early Explorers to Corporate Leaders (Visible Ink Press, 2022), Herencia: The Anthology of Hispanic Literature of the United States (Oxford University Press, 2001), Hispanic Periodicals in the United States, Origins to 1960: A Brief History and Comprehensive Bibliography (Arte Público Press, 2000), Nochebuena: Hispanic American Christmas Stories (Oxford University Press, 2000), Thirty Million Strong: Reclaiming our Hispanic Legacy (Fulcrum Press, 1998), and The Hispanic-American Almanac, Hispanic Firsts (Gale Research Inc., 1997). A fellow of the Ford, Lilly and Gulbenkian Foundations and the National Endowment for the Humanities, he received the Anderson Imbert Lifetime Achievement Award from the North American Academy of the Spanish Language in 2014 and was elected to the Spanish Royal Academy for Arts and Science in 2008. In 1994, President Bill Clinton appointed Dr. Kanellos to the National Council on the Humanities. He is a seasoned translator of books by distinguished Spanish-language authors, including works by Carmen Boullosa, José Agustín and Alberto Roblest.
