The Library’s 2022-23 BIPOC Collection, curated by Karla Lainez, ‘24, opened with a discussion with Karla on November 17. The video is on Facebook.
The display remained in place through the 2022-23 academic year.
Karla’s curator’s statement:
Hi! I am so happy you are here, browsing through the 2022 Fall BIPOC Collection focused on Latinidad, identity, and queer love at the Hawthorne-Longfellow Library.
My name is Karla Lainez, and I am a junior at Bowdoin College. When beginning to think about this collection and what to include within it, I knew I wanted it to have a variety of stories, experiences, and voices that celebrate and show our strength and humanity: the love, the struggles, the family, the humor, the joy, the care, and the empowerment. Often, the narrative is one of lack of power and autonomy, but we are strong, le echamos ganas, continually show up, and are here. Our experiences matter, and finding a character or person to relate to is so crucial. I also wanted to have books in the collection I wished I had growing up, as seeing parts of my identity, and that of my friends represented and honored in school didn’t occur. My identities as a queer Mexcian and Salvadoran American daughter of immigrants have had an impact on how connected I’ve been able to feel. Books on queer love and joy were never on the shelves, much less by Latine/a/o authors, which is why I can’t wait to read these. The younger version of me would have loved seeing these books in the library or recommended by a professor. I probably would have read more. So, I am so glad they can be added here, and I hope you can enjoy them too.
I’ve tried to include an author from each part of Latin America, recognizing that while we have many shared experiences that unite us as a community, our cultures and countries are unique. Additionally, these works will increase the number of books Bowdoin has by Latine/a/o authors within the library, which must continue and expand even after the display of this collection ends. This collection contains a variety of formats, from essays, poems, children’s books, fiction, and anthologies, to even films. It includes stories that aren’t highlighted enough, and experiences that deserve to be shared and heard. Finding a space where you feel seen, welcomed, and understood at a predominantly white institution like Bowdoin is hard. So, I hope that within these works, you find a piece that resonates with you, even if just a line.
Thank you 🙂
The book list:
| Title | Author |
|---|---|
| La Señora Varsovia | Abend van Dalen, Raquel |
| The Poet X | Acevedo, Elizabeth |
| Inheritance: A Visual Poem | Acevedo, Elizabeth |
| Performing the US Latina and Latino borderlands | Aldama, Artuo . |
| Violeta: A novel | Allende, Isabel |
| The Woman I kept to myself | Alvarez, Julia |
| In the time of the butterflies | Alvarez, Julia |
| mala mala | Antonio Santini, Dan Sickles |
| Borderlands: the new mestiza = la frontera | Anzaldúa, Gloria |
| This bridge called my back: writings by radical women of color | Anzaldúa, Gloria and Moraga, Cherrie |
| Tía Fortuna’s New Home: A Jewish Cuban Journey | Behar, Ruth |
| Fire from the Andes: Short Fiction by Women from Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru | Benner, Susan and Leonard, Kathy |
| We Are Owed | Brown, Ariana |
| Tengo una tía que no es monjita | Cardoza, Melissa |
| 13 Colors of the Honduran Resitance | Cardoza, Melissa |
| So Far From God | Castillo, Ana |
| The House on Mango Street | Cisneros, Sandra |
| Caramelo | Cisneros, Sandra |
| Reclaim the stars: 17 tales across realms & space | Córdova, Zoraida |
| Latina Lesbian Writers and Authors | Costa, María Colores |
| Halsey Street | Coster, Naima |
| Homecoming queers : desire and difference in Chicana Latina cultural production | Danielson, Marivel |
| Mango Moon | de Anda, Diane |
| Kiwi | de Posadas, Carmen |
| Cantoras | De Robertis, Carolina |
| Vindictas: Cuentistas Latinoamericanas | Delgado, Susy |
| Here Comes the Sun | Dennis-Benn, Nicole |
| Ordinary Girls: A memoir | Díaz, Jaquira |
| Islandborn | Diaz, Junot |
| Boogie, Boogie, Yall | Esperanza, C. G. |
| “Sabrina & Corina” | Fajardo-Anstine, Kali |
| Brother, Sister, Mother, Explorer | Figueroa, Jamie |
| Empanada: A Lesbiana Story en Probaditas | Flores, Anel |
| Antonio’s card | Gonzalaez, rigoberto |
| Calling the doves | gonzales, grace cornell |
| All Around Us | Gonzalez, Xelena |
| Olga Dies Dreaming | Gonzalez, Xochitl |
| Catrachos | Guzmán, Roy |
| The book of Unknown Americans | Henriquez, Cristina |
| Mucha Muchacha, Too Much Girl | Hernández Linares, Leticia |
| A Cup of Water Under My Bed | Hernandez, Daisy |
| A Child Grows Up and Wonders | Hernandez, Felicia O |
| American Dreamer | Herrera, Adriana |
| Cafe con Lychee | Lee, Emery |
| Fiebre Tropical | Lopera, Julián Delgado |
| Cuentamelo | Lopera, Julián Delgado |
| Peluda | Lozada-Olivia, Melissa |
| Killing Marías: A Poem for Multiple Voices | Luna, Claudia Catro |
| No Filter and Oher Lies | Maldonado, Crystal |
| Our Shadows Have Claws | Many |
| Wild Tounges Can’t Be Tamed: 15 Voices from the Latinx Diaspora | many |
| Ophelia After All | Marie, Racquel |
| Alma and How She Got Her Name | Martinez-Neal, Juana |
| Here the Whole Time | Martins, Vitor |
| One of a kind like me | Mayeno, Laurin |
| Lake Lore | McLemore, Anna-Marie |
| Furia | Mendez, Yamile |
| Mexican Gothic | Moreno-Garcia, Silvia |
| Alicia and the Hurricane | Newman, Leslea |
| What’s Coming To Me | Padilla, Francesca |
| 500 years | Pamela Yates |
| Funeral for Flaca | Prado, Emily |
| The Five Wounds | Quade, Kirstin Valdez |
| Beauty Woke | Ramos, NoNieqa |
| The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School | Reyes, Sonora |
| A Girl’s Guide to Love & Magic | Rigaud, Debbie |
| They Call Me Mix/Me Llaman Maestre | Rivas, Lourdes |
| Juliet Takes a Breath | Rivera, Gabby |
| America Vol. 1: The Life And Times Of America Chavez | Rivera, Gabby |
| For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts: A Love Letter to Women of Color | Rodríguez, Prisca Dorcas Mojica |
| Aristotle and Dante Discover the secrets of the Universe | Sáenz, Benjamin Alire |
| Hermosa | Salgado, Yesika |
| I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter | Sanchez, Erika |
| With Lots of Love | Sanchez, Jenny Toress |
| Una Mujer Fantastica | Sebastián Lelio |
| Nameless Woman: An Anthology of Fiction by Trans Women of Color | Selenite, Venus |
| Cemetery Boys | Thomas, Aiden |
| Lotería | Valenti, Karla |
| Lulu and Milagro’s Search for Clarity | Velez, Angela |
| Fifteen Hunded Miles From The Sun | Villa, Jonny Garza |
| Las Malas | Villada, Camila Sosa |
| The Grief Keeper | Villasante, Alexandra |
| The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina | Zoraida Córdova |