Chica, Why Not?: How to Live with Intention and Manifest a Life That Loves You Back, by Sandra Hinojosa Ludwig.

For those who feel stuck in life, don't see a way forward, and don't believe they deserve to claim their dreams, Sandra Hinojosa Ludwig has one question: "Chica, Why Not?" This book is an invitation to overcome family and cultural expectations, fears, and limiting beliefs, while remaining true to yourself and your roots. 

The book is inspired in Hinojosa’s personal story: she grew up in Mexico, where she experienced violence, frustration, and sadness as everyday things. After unsuccessfully chasing happiness in a corporate career, she found deeper meaning in spirituality and now helps others to realize their dreams while still being true to themselves and their roots.

In the book, she guides you through her six-step program for manifesting the life you want, addressing career, family, love, wealth, and health. She gently breaks down the most common fears and excuses people make that hold them back, inviting you to practice self-compassion as you overcome your own fears and limiting beliefs as well as outside pressures — including familial and cultural expectations familiar to some in the Latino community.

Martita, I Remember You/Martita, te recuerdo: A Story in English and Spanish, by Sandra Cisneros

In this dual-language edition, the celebrated best-selling author of The House on Mango Street wrote a story of memory and friendship, and the experiences young women endure as immigrants worldwide. 

The main character is Corina, a young Latina that leaves her Mexican family in Chicago to pursue her dream of becoming a writer in the cafés of Paris. Instead, she spends her brief time in the City of Light running out of money and lining up with other immigrants to call home from a broken pay phone. But the months of befriending panhandling artists on the metro, sleeping on crowded floors, and dancing the tango at underground parties are given a lasting glow by her intense friendships with Martita and Paola. Over the years, the three women disperse to three continents, falling out of touch and out of mind — until a rediscovered letter brings Corina’s days in Paris back with breathtaking immediacy.

Told with intimacy and searing tenderness, the book is a tribute to the life-changing power of youthful friendship.

For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts: A Love Letter to Women of Color, by Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez 

For generations, Brown girls have had to push against powerful forces of sexism, racism, and classism, often feeling alone in the struggle. By founding Latina Rebels, Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez arms women of color with the tools and knowledge they need to find success on their own terms.

In For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts, she offers wisdom and a liberating path forward for all women of color. She crafts powerful ways to address the challenges Brown girls face, from imposter syndrome to colorism. She empowers women to decolonize their worldview, and defy “universal” white narratives, by telling their own stories. Her book guides women of color toward a sense of pride and sisterhood and offers essential tools to energize a movement.

Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The author of Gods of Jade and Shadow has written a horror novel set in glamorous 1950s Mexico.

The plot is intriguing: after receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find — her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.   

Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough and smart, with an indomitable will, and is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.

Her only ally in the inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness. 

Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave the enigmatic house behind.