Celebrated Sept. 15 – Oct. 15, Hispanic Heritage Month promotes the history and culture of Hispanic Americans. Books are an excellent way to better understand and support our diverse community. Check out some of my favorites!
Our Last Days in Barcelona
By Chanel Cleeton
In 1964, the eldest Perez daughter, Isabel, travels from Palm Beach to Barcelona looking for her sister Beatriz. Always the rebel, Beatriz was involved with the CIA and her family fears the worst. In Spain, Isabel finds the apartment empty and a handsome stranger named Diego offering his assistance. Isabel is searching for more than her sister as she admits she is in a loveless marriage. In 1936, Alicia Perez, Isabel’s mother, also traveled to Barcelona, running from her own crumbling union. As Spain exploded with fascism and violence, Alicia debated whether she should return to Cuba and face the only happiness a woman can possibly expect. She spent months with her parents and sister and reunited with a long lost love while contemplating her and her daughter’s future. As history and the present collide, these women learn to follow their hearts.
About the author: Growing up in Florida, Cleeton’s passion for politics and history is rooted in endless stories of her family’s life as they fled to the U.S. after the Cuban Revolution.
Shadow of the Wind
By Carlos Ruiz Zafron
On his 11th birthday, Daniel Sempere can select one book from the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, where every volume has a soul. Mourning the loss of his mother, Daniel is searching for a way to fill the hole in his heart. He carefully selects an intriguing novel by author Julian Carax. Daniel quickly reads the complex novel and decides to begin a search for other works by the elusive author. When he realizes that someone has begun systematically destroying every copy of the late author’s work, Daniel sets out to solve the mystery. As the lives of everyone around him unravel, so do answers. Set in post-civil war Barcelona 1945, this book is both intriguing and macabre. Beautifully translated, it is filled with dark alleys, murder and corruption and is the first in an epic series not to be missed.
About the author: This international bestselling novelist, who was born in Barcelona and moved to the U.S. in the 1990s, recently passed away. He was the most widely read Spanish author in the world.
The Wedding Crasher
By Mia Sosa
Solange Pereira, a gorgeous Brazilian-American firecracker, is helping her wedding planner cousin Lina with an affair when she mistakenly overhears a private conversation. Unable to keep quiet during the ceremony, this wedding crasher becomes the wedding destroyer and stops the handsome groom, Dean, from making the biggest mistake of his life. Little does she know that the couple had an agreement and Dean does not believe in true love. Mortified that she ruined his special day, Solange cannot refuse when Dean asks her for a favor. As he fights for a partnership track in his law firm, Dean must help recruit a woman from a well-connected family and needs Solange to “date” him to accomplish this task. One rom-com mishap after another leads these adorable characters and their fake romance to finally acknowledge their very real chemistry.
About the author: Born and raised in Harlem, this Puerto Rican and Brazilian author defines sassy romance in our multicultural world.
WATCH TIP:
“In The Time of the Butterflies.” Dominican-American author Julia Alvarez wrote this phenomenal novel in 1994, and it was adapted to the big screen in 2001. A fictionalized account of the brave Mirabal sisters fighting for freedom during the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. Watch on Hoopla, Vudu or Tubi.
