Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from September 15 to October 15 each year, celebrates the contributions of Hispanic and Latino communities in the U.S. To celebrate this month, we’re recommending a few books and films that highlight different aspects of the Hispanic/Latino experience. All are available through the UVA Library via the links provided. Note that the first two novels mentioned here can be found in the Popular Books collection on the fourth floor of Shannon Library, which features several hundred recent fiction and non-fiction titles, primarily for pleasure reading.
Books
“Anita de Monte Laughs Last” by Xochitl Gonzalez (Flatiron Books, 2024)
In this lively and entertaining novel, Xochitl Gonzales intertwines the stories of two Latina characters based in the art world. In mid-1980s New York City, Anita de Monte, a talented and outspoken Cuban-American artist on the rise, is in a tumultuous marriage to Jack Martin, a world-renowned sculptor whose career has begun to plateau. When Anita is found dead under suspicious circumstances, it seems that she and her artistic legacy will be forgotten. A decade and a half later, Raquel Toro, an art history graduate student at Brown, begins researching Martin and encounters some shocking revelations. As the novel jumps back and forth between the decades, the convergence of Anita’s and Raquel’s stories seems inevitable, but Gonzalez takes the plot in some surprising and amusing directions. Anita is a larger-than-life character with a memorable narrative voice — she is funny, brash, and endearingly self-aware. The author’s extensive knowledge of art and art history brings depth and richness to the novel, which is ultimately a celebration of the rediscovery of marginalized voices and the power of art to communicate across cultures and time.
– Recommended by Chris Ruotolo, Director of Research in the Arts and Humanities
“My Name Is Emilia del Valle: A Novel” by Isabel Allende (Ballantine Books, 2025)
Isabel Allende’s most recent novel traces the story of Emilia del Valle, born to a single mother in San Francisco in the waning years of the Gold Rush. Adventurous and independent, Emilia launches a career as a pseudonymous novelist and newspaper columnist before fighting her way to a position as a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner under her own name. Emilia’s restless spirit eventually leads her to Chile, both to report on the deteriorating political situation and to confront the biological father she has never met. She eventually finds herself near the front lines of the Chilean Civil War of 1891. The novel tracks Emilia’s journey of self-discovery as is she is torn between two worlds: her professional ambitions and romantic relationships, rooted in San Francisco, and her deepening connection to her Chilean heritage and identity. Allende interlaces Emilia’s first-person narration with samples from her fictional newspaper column, which give her an opportunity to dig deeply into the political and economic history of Chile and the factors that ultimately led to war. The result is an interesting fusion of bildungsroman and historical fiction that paints a vivid picture of Chilean society, in the bustling European-influenced cities of Valparaiso and Santiago and then, toward the end of the novel, in the rural indigenous regions further south.
– Chris Ruotolo
“The Five Wounds” by Kirstin Valdez Quade (W. W. Norton & Company, 2021)
Kirstin Valdez Quade’s well-crafted novel “The Five Wounds” centers on the struggles of the Padilla family of Espanola, New Mexico, a small mountain town plagued by drug abuse and limited economic prospects. The title reflects a recurring theme of the novel: the heritage of Spanish-style Catholicism that remains the town’s majority faith. Amadeo Padilla, unemployed and facing grandfatherhood in his early 30s, seeks redemption and renewal by playing Jesus in the Good Friday procession and receiving the five wounds that Christ suffered on the Cross. Real life doesn’t work out so simply, and the novel compassionately chronicles the gritty oscillations towards growth made by Amadeo, his pregnant teenaged daughter Angel, and his mother Yolanda. The Latino community’s Native American heritage also makes a subtle appearance via a mysterious coyote encountered by both Amadeo and Angel.
– Recommended by Keith Weimer, Librarian for History and Religious Studies
Films
“Problemista” (Universal Studios, 2024)
Director and writer Julio Torres, creator of “Los Espookys” and “Fantasmas,” offers a surrealist look at the U.S. immigration system and at the New York Art World in “Problemista.” The film follows Alejandro (Ale) Martinez, played by Torres, who emigrates to New York City from El Salvador with dreams of becoming a toy maker at Hasbro. He applies to an incubator program, sharing many unconventional toy ideas, but hears nothing from them. Ale’s close bond with his artist mother (Catalina Saavedra), provides emotional grounding throughout the movie.
To remain in the U.S., Ale takes a job at FreezeCorp, a company that freezes bodies in hopes of future revival. This position grants him a work visa. He serves as the archivist for Bobby (RZA), a painter known for large-scale egg-themed works, managing both Bobby’s legacy and his cryogenic container. A chance encounter introduces Ale to Elizabeth (Tilda Swinton), an art critic, nicknamed “the Hydra” because of her fierce personality, and Bobby’s widow. When an accident at FreezeCorp causes Ale to lose his job and his visa, the clock starts on Ale finding a new sponsor.
He starts working with Elizabeth, hoping she will help him. She is obsessed with the FileMaker Pro Database of Bobby’s work and staging a final exhibition to fund the continued freezing of Bobby. Elizabeth is an extreme figure — determined and focused — but often weaponizing her difficult personality to get what she wants. In the meantime, due to immigration rules, Ale must find off-the-books jobs to cover his rent and visa fees. He navigates Craigslist, which is visualized as a personified entity, whispering precarious cash jobs. Despite Elizabeth’s volatility, Ale sees a shared determination in her. They manage to get a show on Roosevelt Island and sell all the paintings. While Ale goes to pick up wine to celebrate, Elizabeth decides to freeze herself, leaving Ale without a sponsor. But she does give him the name of an executive of Hasbro and encourages him to stand up for himself. Ale, inhabiting the problemista, secures a job and sponsorship.
Torres brilliantly visualizes the absurdity of immigration bureaucracy — using imagery like a sandglass to represent time running out and characters fading as their visa status expires. “Problemista” is a surreal, sincere, and sharply satirical look at the systems people must navigate to pursue their dreams.
– Recommended by Rose Oliveira-Abbey, Accessioning Archivist
“In the Heights” (Warner Bros. Pictures, 2021)
Directed by John Chu and written by Quiara Alegría Hudes and Lin-Manuel Miranda, “In the Heights” is a musical love song to Washington Heights and its many Latino communities. The narrator and protagonist of the film is Usnavi de la Vega (Anthony Ramos), who is from the Dominican Republic and came to the U.S. as a child, and owns a local neighborhood bodega. His audience is a set of neighborhood children who listen to him as he shares his story of this community. He explains the idea of a sueñito, a little dream, a thread that moves all the characters in the choices they make.
Set in the backdrop of a New York City heat wave, we meet a dense cast of characters, including Abuela Claudia (Olga Merediz), a Cuban matriarch of the neighborhood who raised Usnavi after his parents died, and Usnavi’s cousin Sonny (Gregory Diaz IV), who works at the bodega. While Usnavi dreams of returning to the Dominican Republic, he is also deeply infatuated with Vanessa (Melissa Barrera), who works at the local salon. But Vanessa has her own dreams of leaving the neighborhood, moving downtown, and being a fashion designer. At the same time, Nina Rosario (Leslie Grace) has just returned from her first year at Stanford. She is praised as a golden girl who left the neighborhood and “made it” by those in the neighborhood. But her first year was crushing and isolating, leaving her feeling lost and leading her to drop out. Her decision to quit school surprises many people, including Benny (Corey Hawkins), who works for her father and is her ex but still in love with her, and is unacceptable to Kevin (Jimmy Smits), her father. Kevin is willing to sacrifice everything, including his business, to help her attend college. Amidst this drama, the gossipy ladies who work and own the salon, including Daniela (Daphne Rubin-Vega), Carla (Stephanie Beatriz), and Cuca (Dascha Polanco), are a sign of the changing times, as they must move from the neighborhood to the Bronx due to rising prices.
The stories weave together as individual dreams diverge, seeming to separate but then come back together as each character defines for themselves where home is. The musical score is electric, and the choreography intricate, including a truly stunning scene in a city pool, which makes this a joy to watch. Ultimately, “In the Heights” reminds us that home is not just a place — it’s a community.
– Rose Oliveira-Abbey
“Beatriz at Dinner” (Lions Gate Entertainment, 2017)
Directed by Miguel Arteta and written by Mike White, “Beatriz at Dinner” is a drama-comedy that is a clash of culture and class set around a dining table and perhaps one of the most uncomfortable movies I have watched — intentionally so. Beatriz (Salma Hayek) is a Mexican-American immigrant, who works as a massage therapist at an alternative cancer treatment center in Los Angeles. The film opens with Beatriz, starting in her dream, and then as we transition into her life where we witness her compassion with her animals and those she works with at the treatment center. She visits Cathy (Connie Britton), a wealthy client she bonded with during Cathy’s daughter’s cancer treatment. When Beatriz’s car breaks down, Cathy invites her to an important dinner hosted by her husband, Grant (David Warshofsky) a building mogul. The guests include a billionaire real estate developer, Doug Strutt (John Lithgow) and his wife (Amy Landecker) and a junior partner and his wife (Jay Duplass and Chloë Sevigny). Arteta subtly shows Beatriz as an outsider — not introduced, sitting on the margins and mistaken as a maid. The discomfort escalates as Beatriz and Doug clash ideologically. The tension grows and culminates with Beatriz throwing his phone at him when he shares a photo of himself with a rhinoceros he has hunted. Eventually, she is sent home, and the film ends ambiguously. It’s a complex and unsettling watch, not just because of the social and class tensions, but because it resists resolution. Nothing fundamentally changes, leaving viewers to sit with the discomfort.
– Rose Oliveira-Abbey