Boost Your Empathy: 9 Hispanic Author Must-Reads
Build your empathy with stories as diverse as their settings: from Los Angeles to Puerto Rico, and Mexico City to Morocco
The next episode of La Vida Más Chévere is going to require an open heart. To prepare, grab a selection from this list of 9 exceptional books by Hispanic1 authors.
Why read any of these? It’s been scientifically proven that reading improves your ability to empathize with other people. And the next episode…well, the subject matter might shock you. It could be hard to listen to. It’s probably going to make you uncomfortable.
And it will tax your empathy, that thing that makes you relate to other people. The remedy: read more fiction! Especially fiction by brown women.
On the recent Self-Love episode, a friend of the podcast listed reading as something she does to show herself love. Yes, reading has numerous benefits beyond empathy, as outlined in this Real Simple article.
To help you expand your ability to relate, here’s my personal recommendations for 9 books by Hispanic and Latina authors. Yup, I’ve read them all!
Are you on Goodreads? I’ve linked back to each author’s page, and feel free to send me a friend request on that platform. I’m always interested in what other people are reading!
Also, the list includes more than novels, with a couple of non-fiction books recommended too.
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Certain Dark Things
Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a celebrated Mexican author whose latest Mexican Gothic was highly anticipated last year. But I suggest digging deeper into her catalog for Certain Dark Things. Set in a futuristic Mexico where vampire gangs rule the streets and the last descendent of Aztec vampires has to escape with only the help of a street urchin.
Get Certain Dark Things.
Wealth Warrior
You heard author Linda García on episode 41 Dismantling the Toxic Latine Money Mentality, and hopefully you already picked up her book Wealth Warrior: Eight Steps for Communities of Color to Conquer the Stock Market. If not, now is a good time to get it. Part memoir and part how-to, the book is a brilliant introduction to investing.
Get Wealth Warrior: Eight Steps for Communities of Color to Conquer the Stock Market.
Olga Dies Dreaming
Xóchitl González weaves a beautiful story against the backdrop of Hurricane Maria in Olga Dies Dreaming. Two Nuyorican siblings abandoned by their radical Puerto Rican mother find their successful lives interrupted by her relentless deeds decades later. I read this before moving to Puerto Rico, and living in the ongoing aftermath gave me new appreciation for who the real villain is in this tale. ¡Pa’lante!
Get Olga Dies Dreaming.
The Likeability Trap
The second non-fiction book on this list is by award-winning journalist Alicia Menendez, The Likeability Trap: How to Break Free and Succeed as You Are. This was a podcast book club pick in 2022 and we discussed how each chapter applied to our own lives, plus vented about the bullshit toxic double-standards built into upward mobility in this misogynist system of ours. Bottom line: get a mentor and a sponsor, and when your time comes, speak other women’s names in the rooms you’re in, too.
Get The Likeability Trap.
L.A. Weather
Though I’m not one to follow celebrities or their advice, chef Pati Jinich gets a pass and a thank you for recommending her friend María Amparo Escandón’s L.A. Weather. It might feel weird to read about the California drought during our wettest season, but it’s a struggle we all know. The Chicano family at the center of the novel could very well remind you of your own. It’s also nice to see a successful Latine family set in predominantly white westside of Los Angeles.
Get L.A. Weather.
Pierced by the Sun
Laura Esquivel, better known for Like Water for Chocolate, gives us a novella about Lupita, a Mexican police officer who witnesses the assassination of a politician. The turmoil she finds herself in afterwards, and her redemption arc, mirrors our own stories of finding ourselves…even if our own lives aren’t as dramatic.
Get Pierced by the Sun.
The Time in Between
If you’re familiar with the Netflix series featuring actress Adriana Ugarte as the Spanish seamstress turned WW2 spy for the British, you’re in for a treat because the book is always better. Spanish author María Dueñas pens a brilliant story about hidden messages and subverting fascists. Though the tv show has gorgeous filmography and costuming, it’s the author who makes Sira the three-dimensional figure we’re all rooting for. Full of intrigue, it’s one of those books that’s hard to put down.
Get The Time in Between.
Conquistadora
My mother introduced me to Puerto Rican writer Esmeralda Santiago with her memoir When I Was Puerto Rican, which I read as a teenager, which is truly excellent. But it wasn’t until I read Conquistadora that I fully appreciated the history of my father’s island. Still a colony to this day, Spanish-controlled Puerto Rico serves as the backdrop for this story told from the point of view of a young Spaniard who becomes a sugar plantation mistress, while Civil War erupts up north. This is the book that made me fall in love with historical fiction, and it might do the same for you.
Get Conquistadora.
Bonus: get When I Was Puerto Rican.
Why Hispanic and not Latina? Because one of the writers is from Spain, which is the key difference.
Thank you for creating & sharing this list. We could all benefit from a more diverse bookshelf of authors