Hispanic Heritage: Latinx Comics & Graphic Novels

At last! Everyone's favorite no-nonsense powerhouse, America Chavez, gets her own series! Critically acclaimed young-adult novelist Gabby Rivera and all-star artist Joe Quinones unite to shine a solo spotlight on America's high-octane and hard-hitting adventures! She was a Young Avenger. She leads the Ultimates. And now she officially claims her place as the preeminent butt-kicker of the entire Marvel Universe! But what's a super-powered teenager to do when she's looking for a little personal fulfi llment? She goes to college! America just has to stop an interdimensional monster or two first and shut down a pesky alien cult that's begun worshipping her exploits before work can begin. Then she can get on with her first assignment: a field trip to the front lines of World War II - with Captain America as her wingman!

It begins with the story you've been waiting for: the origin of America Chavez! But everyone's favorite no-nonsense powerhouse soon meets her match -- in the form of the deadly and exotic Exterminatrix! Can America stand against this vile villainess, backed by the full power of the ominous Midas Corporation? America gains all-new but untested abilities -- and she'll need them against the oncoming horde! But what does Exterminatrix want with Sotomayor University? With America in lockup, it's up to Prodigy to find out -- and that won't be easy when campus queen X'Andria is working for the enemy! As the Midas Corporation reignites a decades-old danger, America's newly discovered home comes under threat -- but they're about to learn that you don't mess with a Fuertona. And you definitely don't mess with a Chavez!

La Borinqueña is a patriotic symbol presented in a classic superhero story. Her powers are drawn from elements and mysticism found on the island of Puerto Rico. The fictional character, Marisol Rios De La Luz, is a Columbia University Earth and Environmental Sciences Undergraduate student living with her parents Flor De La Luz Rojas and Oscar 'Chango' Rios Velez in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She takes a semester of study abroad in collaboration with the University of Puerto Rico. There she explores the caves of Puerto Rico: Ventana, La Cueva del Indio, Las Cuevas de Camuy, La Cueva del Viento and the caves at the Julio Enrique Monagas National Park. At each of these caves she finds five similar sized crystals. Atabex, the Taino mother goddess, appears before Marisol once the crystals are united and summons her sons Yúcahu and Juracan. Yúcahu, God of the seas and the mountains gives Marisol her superhuman strength. Juracan, god of the hurricanes gives her the power of flight and control of the wind.

MARISOL RIOS DE LA LUZ is back in Puerto Rico sometime after the Hurricane that hit the island in the first issue (La Borinqueña #1 was released December 2016, 9 months before Hurricane Maria). She is continuing the research for her senior thesis while coming to terms with not only her new powers but her perception as a hero by the people of Puerto Rico. In the midst of the island's recovery, Marisol meets young people across Puerto Rico that are either involved in direct protest of the displacement of families and wildlife to a group of science students from the University of Puerto Rico who are torn between marching or continuing their studies in the face of the austerity measures that are jeopardizing not only their education but their livelihood. During this her alter ego La Borinqueña time travels to witness an important event that will affect not only her, but the fate of Puerto Rico.

Oil waste was everywhere--on the roads, in the rivers where they fished, and in the water that they used for bathing, cooking, and washing. Children became sick and died, cases of stomach cancer skyrocketed, and women miscarried or gave birth to children with congenital disorders. The American oil company Texaco--now part of Chevron--extracted its first barrel of crude oil from Amazonian Ecuador in 1972. It left behind millions of gallons of spilled oil and more than eighteen million gallons of toxic waste. In Crude, Ecuadorian lawyer and activist Pablo Fajardo gives a firsthand account of Texaco's involvement in the Amazon as well as the ensuing legal battles between the oil company, the Ecuadorian government, and the region's inhabitants. As a teenager, Fajardo worked in the Amazonian oil fields, where he witnessed the consequences of Texaco/Chevron's indifference to the environment and to the inhabitants of the Amazon. Fajardo mobilized with his peers to seek reparations and in time became the lead counsel for UDAPT (Union of People Affected by Texaco), a group of more than thirty thousand small farmers and indigenous people from the northern Ecuadorian Amazon who continue to fight for reparations and remediation to this day. Eye-opening and galvanizing, Crude brings to light one of the least well-known but most important cases of environmental and racial injustice of our time.

DAYTRIPPER follows the life of one man, Bras de Olivias Dominguez. Every chapter features an important period in Bras' life in Brazil, and each story ends the same way--with his death. And then, the following story starts up at a different point in his life, oblivious to his death in the previous issue--and then ends with him dying again. In every chapter, Bras dies at different moments in his life, as the story follows him through his entire existence--one filled with possibilities of happiness and sorrow, good and bad, love and loneliness. Each issue rediscovers the many varieties of daily life, in a story about living life to its fullest--because any of us can die at any moment.

Marlene loves three things: art, her cool tía Ruby and hanging out with her best friend, Camilla. But according to her mother, Paola, the only things she needs to focus on are school and growing up. That means straightening her hair every weekend so she can have "presentable," "good" hair. But Marlene hates being in the salon and doesn't understand why her curls are not considered pretty by those around her. With a few hiccups, a dash of embarrassment, and the much-needed help of Camila and Tía Ruby -- she slowly starts a journey to learn to appreciate and proudly wear her curly hair.

In this delightfully compelling full-color graphic memoir, the author shares her process of undoing the effects of a patriarchal, colonial society on her self-image, her sexuality, and her concept of freedom. Reflecting on the ways in which oppression was the cause for her late bloom into queerness, we are invited to discover people and things in the author's life that helped shape and inform her LGBTQ identity. And we come to an understanding of her holistic definition of queerness.

Márcia is a nurse in a hospital near Rio and lives in a favela with her boyfriend, Aluisio, and her daughter, Jaqueline, whom she had very young with another man. Jaqueline, a troubled young adult, makes life difficult for her mother and Aluisio and rebelliously hangs out with members of a neighborhood gang, leading to violent altercations between mother and daughter. The situation degenerates even more when Jaqueline is arrested. Márcia and Aluisio, distraught, realize that Jaqueline is in deeper trouble than they ever thought. Marcello Quintanilha's first English-language graphic novel is a tour de force -- a tightly wound drama filled with masterful suspense and a deep love for family and character.

The 25th anniversary Love and Rockets celebration continues with the first of three volumes collecting the adventures of the spunky Maggie, her annoying best friend and sometime lover Hopey, and their circle of friends. Maggie the Mechanic collects the earliest, punkiest, most heavily sci-fi Maggie stories, and you can see the artist (who drew like an angel from the very first panel) refine his approach: despite these strong shifts in tone, the stunning art and razor sharp characterisations keep this collection consistent and enthralling throughout.

This non-fiction comics anthology presents stories of survival and healing told by Latin American migrant farmworkers in Vermont, and drawn by New England cartoonists as part of the El Viaje Más Caro Project--a health care outreach effort of the Open Door Clinic and UVM Extension Bridges to Health aimed at addressing the overlooked mental health needs of these vulnerable immigrants. Originally distributed to farm workers as individual Spanish language comic books, this collected edition brings the lives and voices-as well as the challenges and hardships-of these workers to an English-language audience, granting insight into the experiences and lives of the people vital to producing the food we eat. Featuring a foreword by Julia Alvarez (Afterlife), introduction by Stephen R. Bissette (Swamp Thing) and preface by project founder, nurse Julia Doucet, these inspiring stories grapple with issues encountered by migrant workers everywhere-isolation, separation, depression, substance abuse-even as they celebrate resilience, family, community, and the ability of each storyteller to direct their own healing narrative. The Most Costly Journey is a gripping work that draws together non-fiction cartooning, graphic medicine and ethnography, channeling the skills of health care practitioners, artists and ethnographers into helping alleviate the pain of others.

Born in Mexico City in 1942, Graciela Iturbide wants to be a writer, but her conservative family has a different idea. Although she initially follows their wishes, she soon grows restless. After tragedy strikes, she turns to photography to better understand the world. The photographic journey she embarks on takes her throughout Mexico and around the globe, introducing her to fascinating people and cultures, and eventually bringing her success and fame. With more than two dozen photographs by Iturbide herself, Photographic explores the questions of what it means to become an artist.

Ricanstruction: Reminiscing & Rebuiliding Puerto Rico is an anthology featuring contributions from writers and artists from the comic book industry like Frank Miller, Gail Simone, Greg Pak, Reginald Hudlin, Denys Cowan, Tony Daniel, Ken Lashley, Bill Sienkiewicz, Yanick Paquette, Gabby Rivera, Will Rosado, Jorge Jimenez, Mike Allred, Chris Sotomayor, to Puerto Rican and Latinx celebrities like Rosario Dawson, Rubén Blades, Javier Muñoz, Sonia Manzano and over 100 more. Produced and also featuring stories written by Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez, this anthology teams up his original character LA BORINQUEÑA with some of the most iconic comic book heroes of all time from DC COMICS: Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, Aquaman, The Flash and many others. Original stories also take us to the past to explore the beautiful history of PUERTO RICO as well as tales that envision a stronger and rebuilt island.

Collection of comics created by Latinx artists and writers that comes together to shed light on their various autobiographical experiences as situated within the language, culture, history, and sociopolitics that inform Latinx hemispheric identities and subjectivities

Ballerinas are young when they first dream of dance. Siena was six--and her dreams kept skipping and leaping, circling and spinning, from airy runs along a beach near her home in Puerto Rico, to dance classes at the School of American Ballet, to her debut performance on stage with the New York City Ballet while working with ballet legend George Balanchine. Part family history, part backstage drama, this beautifully updated graphic memoir--which features a refreshed design and a brand-new scrapbook of Siena's mementoes--is an original, firsthand look a young dancer's beginnings.

This book tells the true stories of five brave teens fleeing their home countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guinea, on their own, traveling through unknown and unfriendly places, and ultimately crossing into the US to find refuge and seek asylum. Based on extensive interviews with teen refugees, lawyers, caseworkers, and activists, Tracy White shines a light on five individual kids from among the tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors who enter the US each year. In stark black and white illustrations, she helps us understand why some young people would literally risk their lives to seek safety in the US. Each one of them has been backed into a corner where emigration to the US seems like their only hope.

Undocumented is the story of immigrant workers who have come to the United States without papers. Every day, these men and women join the work force and contribute positively to society. The story is told via the ancient Mixtec codex--accordion fold--format. Juan grew up in Mexico working in the fields to help provide for his family. Struggling for money, Juan crosses over into the United States and becomes an undocumented worker, living in a poor neighborhood, working hard to survive. Though he is able to get a job as a busboy at a restaurant, he is severely undercompensated--he receives less than half of the minimum wage! Risking his boss reporting him to the authorities for not having proper resident papers, Juan risks everything and stands up for himself and the rest of the community.

Told in colorful graphic novel form, this is the story of four pioneers of feminist art: Judy Chicago, Faith Ringold, Ana Mendieta, and the Guerilla Girls. Each made their mark in their own powerful way. Judy Chicago made us reassess the female body, Faith Ringold taught us that feminism is for everyone, Ana Mendieta was a martyr to violence against women, while the Guerilla Girls have taken the fight to the male-dominated museum. This graphic novel tells each of their stories in a unique style.