Tres Libros Latinxs Que Quiero Leer (ft. me writing a Latinx book TBR post mostly in Spanish)

Hola amigos, y buenos días! Hoy, estoy escribiendo un post mayormente en Español. Habrá partes donde escribiré en ingles para mis seguidores que no entienden Español. Será dificil y probablemente usaré Google por ayudarme, pero intentaré.

Hey friends, welcome back! Today, I wanted to try something completely new: I will be writing this post mostly in Spanish.

I feel like I might have mentioned this before, but I love Spanish and I’m trying to be fluent in it. So, sometimes I just feel like writing everything in Spanish and that’s exactly what I’m going to do today.

I don’t know if I have that many Spanish speaking/understanding followers, so I will be doing a translation, making it a Spanish and English post just so that everybody can enjoy it. If you speak Spanish, do let me know how badly I did in the comments below (lol). Google Translate will probably be my friend a little bit, but I promise, I will put in some effort.

Entonces, creo que es solo derecho que esta post sea sobre libros latinxs que quiero leer. De acuerdo a mi cuenta de GoodReads, solo he leído un libro con representación latinx. Un libro. Solo UN libro. Pensé que habia leído más de eso, pero obviamente no. Así que, lo arreglaré por agregando tres libros con representación en español/latinx a mi TBR. (TBR significado la lista de libros que quiero leer)

So, I think it’s only right that this post should be about Latinx books that I want to read. According to my GR account, I’ve only read one book with Latinx representation. One book. Only ONE book. I thought that I had read more than that but obviously not. So, I will fix that by adding 3 books with Spanish/Latinx rep to my TBR. (TBR means a list of books that I want to read)

¡Vamos a empezar con este desastre!

Let’s get started with this disaster!

note, all the summaries that I included are my rewording & translation of the GoodReads synopsis

Salty, Bitter, Sweet de Mayra Cuevas es sobre una chica cubana cuya vida se ha derrumbado. Los padres de Isabella Fields se han divorciado y su abuela murió. Muda con su padre y su nueva esposa que viven en Francia.

Salty, Bitter, Sweet by Mayra Cuevas is about a Cuban girl whose life has fallen apart. Isabella Fields’ parents have divorced and her grandmother passed away. Eventually, she moves in with her father and his new wife who live in France.

La sola buena cosa? Ahora, vive a 30 minutos del restaurante de un cocinero muy famoso que tiene un aprendizaje muy prestigioso y competitivo. Este es el momento por Isabella para volver a encarrilar su vida.

The only good thing? Now, Isabella lives 30 minutes away from the restaurant of a very famous chef who has a very prestigious and competitive apprenticeship program. This is the moment for Isabella to get her life back on track.

Pero, con sus notas al final de la clase, su nueva madrastra embarazada, su dolor por perder a su abuela, y un chico muy mysterioso en su vida, ¿puede mantenerlo todo junto?

But with her grades at the bottom of the class, her new stepmother pregnant, her grief over losing her grandmother, and a mysterious new boy in her life, can Isabella keep it all together?

Este libro habla sobre comida y la perdida de un querido. Saben que a mí me gusta comida y siempre estoy buscando para libros con temas de la comida. Adémas, la tema de la muerte y lidiar con la pérdida es algo muy importante para mi porque tengo miedo de perdiendo los que amo.

Y por eso, estoy emocionada a ver que Mayra Cuevas tiene a ofrecer.

This books talks about food and the loss of a loved one. Y’all know that I love food, and I’m always looking for books with food themes. Also, the theme of death and dealing with loss is something important to me because I do have a fear of losing the people I love.

And for those reasons, I’m very excited to see what Mayra Cuevas has to offer.

Running de Natalia Sylvester es sobre una chica cubana-americana cuya padre se postula para presidente y el decisión que necesita hacer entre apoyar su padre y defender lo que es correcto.

Running by Natalia Sylvester is about a Cuban-American girl whose father is running for president and the decision she has to make between supporting her father and standing for what is right.

Senador Anthony Ruiz está postulando para presidente. Durante su próspero carrera en política, siempre tiene el voto de su hija. Sin embargo, con el crecimiento atención de la media y el interés en la vida de su familia, su hija Mariana está teniendo problemas con adaptarse al nuevo nivel de escrutinio que viene con la campaña de su padre.

Senator Anthony Ruiz is running for president. Throughout his successful political career, he has always had his daughter’s vote. However, with the growing attention of the media and the interest in his family’s life, his daughter Mariana is having trouble adjusting to the new level of scrutiny that comes with her father’s campaign.

Tambien, Mari está aprendiendo los detalles del posiciones politícas de su padre y se da cuenta que él no es el hombre que pensaba que era. Pero con el mundo mirando, ¿puede encontrar su voz y no está de acuerdo* con su padre?

Mari is also learning the details of her father’s political positions and realizing that he is not the man she thought he was. But with the world watching, can she find her voice and disagree with her father?

*that sounds wrong? but I’m not sure if “to disagree” is an infinitive in Spanish

Realmente no me gustan libros politícas pero estoy hiciendo un exepción con este. Creo que será muy interesante porque Mari tiene solo 15 años, así que su perspectiva podría ser único. Además, se siento que habrá algunas discusiones sobre cultura y razas y estoy interesado en ver cómo se manejarán estos temas.

I don’t really like political books but I’m making an exception with this one. I think it will be very interesting because Mari is only 15 years old, so her perspective may be unique. Also, I feel like there will be some discussions about culture and race and I’m interested to see how that will be handled.

Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From de Jennifer De Leon

Lilliana Cruz que tiene quince años está bien, muchas gracias. Está bien que su amiga mejor, Jade, está obsesionado con su nueva novio. Está bien que su escuela secundaria está desorganizado y infradotado. Está bien que su padre salió de nuevo-actualmente eso no está bien, pero que puede hacer? ¡Solo tiene quince años! Quedarse con su madre? Bien. Sus hermanos menores molestos? Bien, bien, bien. Pero, su padre dejó otra cosa antes de salir: una solicitud para un programa de segregación escolar se llama METCO. Y ella ha sido aceptada.

Fifteen year old Liliana Cruz is fine, thank you very much. It’s fine that her best friend Jade is obsessed with her new boyfriend. It’s fine that her high school is disorganized and underfunded. It’s fine that her father has left again-actually, it’s not fine, but what can she do? She’s fifteen! Being left with her mom? Fine. Her annoying younger brothers? Fine, fine, fine. But, her dad did leave something else before he left: an application to a school desegregation program called METCO. And she’s been accepted.

Siendo aceptada en METCO no es el mismo que siendo aceptada en su nueva escuela. En su vieja escuela, Liliana – mitad guatemalteco y mitad salvadoreño – era parte de la mayoría donde casi todo era una persona de color. Pero ahora en Westburg, donde casi todo son blancos, las luchas de ser minoría son inevitables. Queda claro que la única manera para sobrevivir está actuando más blanca. Entonces, qué pasa si Liliana está ahora pasando por Lili? Qué pasa si actuá como si pensara que ella es mejor de su viejo amigos? No es gran cosa. Está bien.

Being accepted into METCO is not the same as being accepted at her new school. In her old school, Liliana – half Guatemalan and half Salvadorian – was part of the majority where nearly everyone was a person of color. But now at Westburg, where nearly everyone is white, the struggles of being a minority are inevitable. It becomes clear that the only way to survive is acting more white. So what if Liliana is now going by Lili? What if she’s acting like she thinks she’s better than her old friends? It’s not a big deal. It’s fine.

Pero luego ella descubre la verdad sobre donde está su padre. Él no está en uno de sus viajes paralelos. Él no está regresando porque no quiere, pero porque no puede. Él es indocumentado y ha sido deportado a Guatemala. Pronto, nada está bien y Lili necesita a tomar un decision. Ella ha terminado a cambiar quien es para hacer que sus compañeros y maestros blancos se sienten cómodos. Ha terminado a negar su cultura y de donde es. Ellos quieren saber de donde es y de que se trata ella? Liliana está lista para decirles.

But then she discovers the truth about where her dad is. He isn’t on one of his side trips. He isn’t returning because he doesn’t want to, but because he can’t. Soon, nothing is fine and Lili needs to make a decision. She’s done changing who she is to make her white classmates and teachers feel better. Done denying her culture and where she’s from. They want to know where she’s from and what she’s about? Liliana is ready to tell them.

I’m so proud of myself, this is almost a word for word translation of the English synopsis! 🎉🎉

Basado en el resumen, Lili ya parece el tip de personaje que me gustaría. Todo no está bien en su vida, pero ella está diciendo a su misma que todo está bien de todos modos. Es como si lo dice suficiente, será finalmente la verdad. Pero por supesto, eso no pasó y ella tiene que aceptar eso y hacer algo al respecto. ¡No puedo esperar para tener en mis manos este libro!

Based on the summary, Lili already seems like the type of character that I would love. Everything is not fine in her life, but she’s telling herself that it’s fine anyway. It’s like if she says it enough, it will finally be the truth. But of course that doesn’t happen and she has to accept that and do something about it. I really can’t wait to get my hands on this book!

Y eso es todo por hoy! This was actually kind of fun, but at the same very daunting. Translating the summaries into Spanish was the hardest part because I was trying to follow exactly what it says on GR. At the same time, I skimmed over some things just to save myself the pain of translating it.

It took me about a month to write this post because I kept doing it on and off. I originally planned to have 6 books in this post, but I’m so tired of working on it and I don’t want to discourage myself from doing similar posts in the future, so 3 books it shall be.

Some questions for you:

• Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them?
• Did you like this post? Would you like to see more posts like this (I could actually do one in Arabic too…that would be interesting)?
• Any more recommendations for Latinx rep books? Specifically any mystery/thriller/fantasy recommendations would be awesome!
• How many languages do you speak & which ones?

Talk to me in the comments below!