The University of Minnesota Libraries holds thousands of books on Hispanic history and culture. This collection includes books published by academic presses as well as by commercial publishers. Some of the publishers whose books are included in this collection specialize on Hispanic themes or authors, like Arte Publico. 

Today Hispanics are the second largest minority in the United States of America, and their presence is noticeable in American literature, art, and popular culture.

This month the University of Minnesota Libraries celebrates their history and achievements by highlighting its collection of books by and about Hispanics. This collection includes reference works like “Latino History Day by Day. A Reference Guide to Events” (Greenwood Press), and “Latinos in the New Millennium. An Almanac of opinion, behavior and Policy Preferences” (Cambridge University Press); works on popular culture like Elizabeth Drake-Boyt’s “Latin Dance” (Greenwood); and literary criticism, like Rodolfo Cortina’s “Hispanic American Literature” (NTC Publishing Group). 

Creative literature written by Hispanics has become part of American literature. The books collection at the University of Minnesota Libraries includes works by now classic authors such as Chicana poet Sandra Cisneros, Dominican-American novelist Julia Alvarez, and Cuban-American playwright Nilo Cruz. It includes also the works of up-and-coming writers like Dominican-American Junot Diaz, whose novel “The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao “(New York, 2007) won the Pulitzer Prize in 2008.