7 Must-Read Influential Latino Authors

Julia Alvarez

If you haven't already read Julia Alvarez's work, now is the time.

Alvarez was born in the New York City in 1950, then soon after her family moved back to their native country, Dominican Republic. A decade later, they were forced to flee the brutal regime of dictator Rafael Trujillo. They resettled in Queens, New York and Alvarez went on to pursue poetry in school. By 1991, when she published her first novel, "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents," she had settled in Vermont. She hasn't stopped writing since, and she has written award-winning stories for readers of all ages. In 2024 she published her seventh fiction novel, "A Cemetery of Untold Stories."

This clip from American Masters give you a small sample of her creative process:

For her second novel, "In the Time of the Butterflies," Julia Alvarez wanted to write about dictatorship from a female perspective. She chose the stories of the Mirabal sisters, Patria, Minerva, María Teresa and Adela, the first three of which were assassinated by the Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic for opposing the government.

Juan Rulfo

Juan Rulfo (1917-1986) was born in Jalisco, Mexico. He lived in Mexico his entire life, and he wrote one novel. One significant and influential novel. In 1955, Rulfo published "Pedro Páramo," a book that continues to be read around the world and revered as trailblazing fiction. In his lifetime, he was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship, a Rockefeller fellowship, and the National Prize for Literature in Mexico. In addition to the numerous awards and recognition, Rulfo influenced many other writers, including another iconic Latino author: Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Garcia Marquez famously said he could recite "Pedro Páramo" by heart because he was so influenced by it.

In addition to writing that one incredible novel about a man discovering a ghost town, Rulfo wrote a novella (El Gallo de Oro/The Golden Cockerel), three screenplays and a collection of short stories (El Llano en Llamas/The Burning Plains). Rulfo was also an acclaimed photographer who captured evocative photos of Mexican movie stars (like the iconic María Félix) while on film sets. He also documented poignant scenes that reflect Mexico's archaeological and Indigenous heritage through his work at Mexico's National Institute for Indigenous People.

You can hear him read from his book of short stories, El Llano en Llamas, in this archived recording from the Library of Congress.

Sandra Cisneros

How many of us felt seen completely for the first time when we read "The House on Mango Street" and "Woman Hollering Creek" in school? I know I wasn't the only middle schooler who read Sandra Cisneros' work and immediately connected with this authentic Latina voice jumping off the pages! We are deeply grateful for author and poet Sandra Cisneros, for the volumes of powerful storytelling she continues to give us.

Cisneros was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Her parents were from Mexico and Cisneros was one of seven children. After studying at Loyola University she earned her M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. She has worked in education and published works of poetry, novels, short stories, essays, and children's books. Cisneros' work has been translated into more than 20 languages and she has received dozens of awards and fellowships for her phenomenal work, including the National Medal of Arts, presented by President Barack Obama in 2016.

From PBS Books:

Celebrate the 40 year anniversary of “The House on Mango Street”, one of the most cherished novels of the last 50 years. Readers from all walks of life have fallen for the voice of Esperanza Cordero, growing up in Chicago and inventing for herself who and what she will become. “In English my name means hope,” she says. “In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting.”

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Gabriel Garcia Marquez was born in 1927 in a small town in Colombia called Aracataca. As a college student he first studied law, but pivoted when he started working as a journalist. He was sent to Europe on assignment from his newspaper in 1954 and spent the rest of his life abroad. Garcia Marquez later settled in Mexico City, where he remained until he died in 2014.

Garcia Marquez published "100 Years of Solitude" in 1967 and the world was never the same again. This book has sold millions of copies and been translated into dozens of languages. With this opus, he also contributed to the global popularity of magical realism. Garcia Marquez wrote characters who experienced fantastical events while also living through real historical events. The Buendia family of Macondo was deeply relatable yet wildly dream-like. It's a must-read for anyone, no doubt.

In his lifetime, Garcia Marquez wrote nine more novels, a screenplay, a play, dozens of short stories, and several non-fiction works (including his posthumously published memoir "Living to Tell the Tale.") In 1982 he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. His work has been and continues to be read, reread, interpreted, and beloved. If you're interested, you can listen to Garcia Marquez read from his 1975 novel "The Autumn of the Patriarch" courtesy of the Library of Congress. 

Isabel Allende

Chilean-American writer Isabel Allende has given us unforgettable fictional characters as well as deeply moving non-fiction throughout the 28 books she has published to date. Allende has written for all ages, including a children's book about the bond between children and their pets that inspired by her own dog, Perla. Her contribution to literature cannot be understated.

Allende was born in Peru in 1942, to Chilean diplomat parents. She grew up living in many different countries, in addition to her home country of Chile. She was later forced into exile when Salvador Allende (her uncle and then president of Chile) was overthrown in 1973. In 1987 she moved to California and has lived there since.

Perhaps her most famous novel is her 1982 novel "House of Spirits." It an instant bestseller and first published in Spanish, with translations in dozens of other languages to follow. This book cemented Allende's status as one of the greatest writers of magical realism. In it, we follow generations of a family traversing and transcending a fictional place that we recognize as Allende's birth country: Chile. Latino family history and heritage fuels this masterpiece, with supernatural forces crossing in and out of the characters' realities. 

Lucky for us, Allende hasn't stopped writing (five decades of writing and still going strong!) In 2020 she spoke with PBS News Hour's Jeffrey Brown to discuss her novel "A Long Petal of the Sea." It is a historical novel that explores the experiences of displaced people, a theme she has known personally and that millions of people connect with as well.

Rudolfo Anaya

When we talk about Chicano literature, we must discuss American novelist Rudolfo Anaya (1937-2020.) His debut novel "Bless Me, Ultima" has been referred to as a founding work in the genre and one of the most influential books in contemporary literature. Anaya's stories of the American Southwest are told through poetry, plays, children's books, essays, and novels.

"Bless Me, Ultima" has been required reading throughout high school classrooms since it was published in 1972. Anaya's dedication to sharing the experiences of New Mexicans, Chicanos, and Indigenous people shows through in all his work. 

Oscar Hijuelos

American novelist Oscar Hijuelos (1951-20013) was born in New York to Cuban parents. He studied writing in school and earned an M.A. in Creative Writing at City College of New York in 1976. In 1989 Hijuelos published the bestselling novel, "The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love." The story follows two musician brothers from Cuba who move to New York in the 1950s. The book (Hijuelos' second novel) gives a powerful voice to an immigrant experience with all its dreams of success and challenges to adapting in a new culture. In 1990 Hijuelos received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for "Mambo Kings," making him the first Hispanic author to win the prize.

You can watch an interview Hijuelos did with PBS News Hour correspondent Ray Suarez about his memoir "Thoughts Without Cigarettes: A Memoir" and get a sense of the personality behind one of the most influential Latino authors.