WELCOME TO THIS BLOG!

You'll meet talented American writers

you've probably not read about before

but who deserve your attention.

You'll read excerpts of poetry and stories

that deserve your attention

and will win your admiration.

WELCOME...AND ENJOY!

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Who Are These Latino Writers?

First, they are wonderfully-talented men and women--some younger, others mellowed like fine wine--who create with the same passion that has fired literary giants through the eons throughout our world. A glance at Nobel Prize for Literature listings since the inception of the prestigious international Nobel Prizes affirms that writers from throughout the Latin world have been honored for their literary achievements for more than a century. But these aren't the admirable "Latino Writers" about whom I'll write in my blog.

No. Instead, I focus on wonderfully-talented men and women, most of whom were born and raised in the United States but whose voices, for the most part, have not yet earned widespread appreciation. Some of these writers--like Sandra Cisneros, Rudolfo Anaya, Estela Portillo-Trambley, and Julia Alvarez--have rightfully attained national and international recognition for their work.

Others such as Nina Marie Martinez, author of the 2004 novel, Caramba!, have recently entered the American literary arena and are starting to make their marks.

And yet others whom I'll profile in my blogs toil in obscurity or near-obscurity, but their voices are also important, and these writers need to have a spotlight trained on them as well.

Fellow Americans all, but with experiences and perspectives that remind us how our nation relishes individuality, and of how all our diverse groups ultimately, as Rudolfo Anaya wrote, "affect each other." He goes on to say, in Tiffany Ana Lopez' book, Growing Up Chicana/o (1993): "Perhaps learning how 'we can all get along' is one of the most important functions in literature....Chicano literature...now assumes a place in the literature of the United States."

This blog aims to help us all learn more about the dynamic writers who created and are creating this exciting literature and to become more enriched as human beings in the process.

--Thelma T. Reyna, Ph.D.