The Scott County Public Library celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month by paying tribute to the many contributions of American citizens from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South American descent. National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed from September 15 to October 15 by commemorating the histories, cultures, and contributions of Hispanic-American citizens.
This year, SCPL would like to recognize the many talented Latin-American authors, poets, and novelists who have shared their stories. We invite you to discover these titles and explore more at the library!
Isabel Allende – novelist, feminist, and philanthropist – is one of the most widely-read authors in the world, having sold more than 74 million books.
- A Long Petal of the Sea – In the late 1930s, civil war gripped Spain. When General Franco and his Fascists succeed in overthrowing the government, hundreds of thousands are forced to flee in a treacherous journey over the mountains to the French border.
- The House of the Spirits – is both a symbolic family saga and the story of an unnamed Latin American country’s turbulent history.
Sandra Cisneros is a poet, short story writer, novelist, essayist, performer, and artist whose work explores the lives of the working-class.
- Caramelo crosses the Mexican border over three generations, taking in history and cultural ironies, tragedy and huge amounts of laughter.
- The House on Mango Street is the remarkable story of Esperanza Cordero, a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become.
Gabriel García Márquez is a Colombian novelist and one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982, mostly for his masterpiece of magical realism, One Hundred Years of Solitude.
- Love in the Time of Cholera – a masterly evocation of an unrequited passion so strong that it binds two people’s lives together for more than half a century.
- One Hundred Years of Solitude – This multi-generational tale tells the story of one family’s struggle to cope with their once insular town becoming less isolated as it faces the challenges of modernization. Filled with both beauty and tragedy, Márquez’s book has become representative of magical realism, and has made its mark as a modern classic.
Pablo Neruda is one of the most influential and widely read 20th century poets of the Americas. He was a Chilean poet, diplomat and politician who won the Novel Prize for Literature in 1971.
- Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair – Pablo Neruda’s most beloved collection of poetry juxtaposes the exuberance of youthful passion with the desolation of grief, the sensuality of the body with the metaphorical nuances of nature.