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¿Te gusta leer? Check this list about Latino writers.

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7 Most Famous Latino Writers of All Times | Sounds and Colours

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We take a look at seven of the most famous Latino writers and their contributions to Spanish and world literature.

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Check out this list of books by Latin authors. Which one caught your attention?

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There are so many wonderful Latino and Hispanic middle grade books being published right now I had such a great time reading titles for this book list. I was able to include a wide variety of genres: contemporary, historical fiction, fantasy and even a verse novel. In addition to the novels on this list, most of these authors have other wonderful books with charismatic Latino and Hispanic protagonists so you can double and triple your reading list!

(Note: book covers and titles are affiliate links.)

13 Latino and Hispanic Middle Grade Books

Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez. My son listened to this on audiobook and loved it! He was alternating between gasping and laughing. Salvador Vidón is the new kid, but he is also an unusual kid because he is able to open portals into alternate universes with his mind. He meets Gabi Reál who is a bit suspicious of his explanation about the mysterious things that happen when he is around. This is a really fun book, with lots of fast-paced action and crazy humor. Highly recommended!

The Other Half of Happy by Rebecca Balcárcel. Quijana is biracial Guatemalan-Anglo and has conflicted feelings about her mixed race identity. She doesn't speak Spanish and doesn't want to go with her family on a trip to Guatemala. Instead she plans on running away to visit her maternal grandmother in Florida. A lovely coming of age story.

The Wind Called My Name by Mary Louise Sanchez. During the Great Depression, Margarita Sandoval's family farm in New Mexico is devastated by drought and her father takes a job with the railroad, moving the family to Wyoming. Her new community doesn't appreciate the Sandoval's Hispanic heritage, her father works to organize rail workers into a union and her family must prevent the loss of Abuelita's land in New Mexico. This book fills a much needed gap in children's literature by portraying the diversity of the American frontier.
MORE: Latino-Centered Graphic Novels

Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar. In the 1960s, Ruthie and her family are recent Jewish-Cuban immigrants living in New York City. After a car accident, Ruthie suffers terrible injuries and she is placed in a full body cast. Confined to bed and totally dependent on others, Ruthie's physical world narrows, but as others come to visit her, Ruthie begins to collect stories and her emotional and intellectual world expands. The author based the story on her own experiences and this is a wonderful, moving book.

The Storm Runner (series) by J.C. Cervantes. Rick Riordan Presents is a new publishers imprint that publishes fantasies based on multicultural mythology written by authors other than Riordan. In The Storm Runner, Mayan mythology is front and center. Thirteen year old Zane learns that the volcano in his New Mexico backyard is a actually a prison for a Mayan god. When Brooks, a mysterious shape-shifting girl shows up to help Zane fulfill his destiny, the adventure begins.

Charlie Hernández & the League of Shadows by Ryan Calejo. Charlie spent his childhood listening to his abuela's tales of Hispanic mythology. One day, in middle school Charlie experiences a strange transformation which suggests those tales weren't myths after all. He is thrown into a world which is both familiar and bizarre, and with the help of his friend, Violet, Charlie follows clues from a map in his mother's locket that takes him on a hair-raising adventure. Charlie switches fluently from English to Spanish, but the meaning will be perfectly clear to non-Spanish speaker and there is a helpful glossary of Hispanic mythology in the endnotes.

Each Tiny Spark by Pablo Cartaya. Cuban-American sixth grader Emilia has ADHD and has a lot of difficulty staying focused at school. After her father returns home from deployment, Emilia notices that he seems a bit different, moody and more distant. And the difficulties keep coming; a school assignment which illuminates social injustice threatens her oldest friendships.

The Wild Book by Margarita Engle. Fefa lives on the family farm in Cuba with her 10 siblings. A doctor tells Fefa that because of her dyslexia she will never read or write. Her mother, fortunately, is not so easily convinced. She gives Fefa a journal as a word garden in which to practice. Set in 20th century Cuba, against the backdrop of some difficult times, this verse novel is a wonderful story of a girl and her perseverance.

Strange Birds: A Field Guide to Ruffling Feathers by Celia C. Pérez. Four very different girls come together to work towards a goal. The Floras is a beauty pageant girls club and and uses a crown made of bird feathers to crown the winner. Cat, Aster, Ofelia and Lane team up to get the Floras to stop using the crown. They hit some bumps along the way and form their own club, the Ostentation of Others and Outsiders. This is a wonderfully engaging story of friendship and justice.

Dactyl Hill Squad (series) by Daniel José Older. It's 1863 and the Civil War is being fought with troops on the backs of raptors! This is a spectacular and unique historical fantasy story. When Magdalys and several friends are on a field trip, children from the orphanage where they live are kidnapped. Magdalys and the others head to the Dactyl Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn where they learn how to ride pterodactyls as part of a plan to take down the evil magistrate behind the kidnappings. Magdalys has some trouble learning how to be a team player but her skill as a dinosaur telepath (!) helps lead the group to victory.

MORE: Latino and Hispanic Biographies for Kids

The Moon Within by Aida Salazar. This is a remarkable, much needed tale about Celi, a girl who is learning about how her body is changing and taking her into womanhood. Celi's mother wants to have a moon ceremony when Celi has her first period, but Celi doesn't want that. At school, Celi is adjusting to her best friend Mar's own transition, from girl to "xochihuah," or non-binary. This important book explores cultural and gender identity in an engaging and contemporary story.

The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora by Pablo Cartaya. 13 year old Arturo works part-time in his family's Cuban restaurant. But then a sketchy land developer, Pipo, wants to buy the lot next door and convince the city to let him develop a huge project with no room for the restaurant. Arturo, with the help of his friend Carmen work to undermine Pipo's plot. I loved the way Arturo finds inspiration to fight the good fight from the poetry of Cuban poet José Martí, as well as old letters written by his grandfather. Any teenager will laugh out loud at Arturo's antics.
More books with a Latino and Hispanic focus that you will love: Books for Hispanic Heritage Month Picture and Chapter Books with Latino and Hispanic Characters

Ana María Reyes Does Not Live in a Castle by Hilda Eunice Burgos. Ana María lives in a tiny New York apartment with her three sisters and another sibling on the way. Ana María is determined to win a scholarship to a private school but that means she will have to practice the piano as much as possible, which seems all but impossible, given the amount of chaos that is going on in her family!

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Latino and Hispanic Middle Grade Books - by #OwnVoices Authors

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Books list featuring Latino and Hispanic characters in middle grade books. A diverse book list filled with fantasy, contemporary and historical stories.

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11 Great Hispanic Artists Who Shaped Western Culture

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From Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí to Frida Kahlo and Fernando Botero, hispanic artists have contributed a great deal to the art world.

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The Nobel Prize in Literature 1971 was awarded to Pablo Neruda. Learn about it!

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The Nobel Prize in Literature 1971 was awarded to Pablo Neruda “for a poetry that with the action of an elemental force brings alive a continent’s destiny and dreams”

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This poem is the perfect place to begin our exploration of Pablo Neruda’s greatest poems, because it combines both intense feeling and a more realistic and level-headed approach to love. Sometimes known by the shorter title ‘Tonight I Can Write’, this poem is an example of metapoetry, or poetry written about writing poetry.

It is one of my favorites poems!!

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Have fun with this playlist of songs by Latin artists!!

Do you have suggestions for our playlist? leave it in the comments

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This billboards list have songs for everyone taste!!!

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Year-end Charts

Hot Latin Songs

THE YEAR'S MOST POPULAR LATIN SONGS, RANKED BY STREAMING ACTIVITY FROM DIGITAL MUSIC SOURCES TRACKED BY LUMINATE, RADIO AIRPLAY AUDIENCE IMPRESSIONS AS PROVIDED BY LUMINATE AND SALES DATA AS COMPILED BY LUMINATE.

see charts legends

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THE YEAR'S MOST POPULAR LATIN SONGS, RANKED BY STREAMING ACTIVITY FROM DIGITAL MUSIC SOURCES TRACKED BY LUMINATE, RADIO AIRPLAY AUDIENCE IMPRESSIONS AS PROVIDED BY LUMINATE AND SALES DATA AS COMPILED BY LUMINATE.

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What did you think of the nominations? Have you listened to an artist from this list?

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2024 Latin GRAMMYs: See The Full Winners & Nominations List | GRAMMY.com

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Read the full list of winners and nominees in all 58 categories at the 2024 Latin GRAMMYs here, including Best New Artist, Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year, Record Of The Year, and more.

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Follow Bad Bunny on Instagram @badbunnypr

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Hot off his new album release, the Puerto Rican rapper is gearing up for concerts across 31 cities.

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Salvador Dalí is among the most versatile and prolific Spanish artists of the 20th century and the most famous Surrealist.

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Who was Salvador Dalí? What was his art about? Check out this short reading!

Salvador Dalí in 60 seconds video

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Salvador Dalí /The Persistence of Memory (1931)

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Do you want to learn more about Dali's most famous paint?

Visit the MoMA museum

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What surprised you the most?

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Romance and revolution: The poetry of Pablo Neruda - Ilan Stavans

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Look at this list!!!

Did you know any of them?

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Spanish speaking countries love soccer, including myself. Read this article and learn how soccer shapes Hispanic culture.

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Last Friday was my son's tenth birthday. A summer baby, he annually confronts the absence of routine, structure, and often friends in town during this, the best of seasons. If that last bit didn't give it away, I can relate because I, too, have a summer birthday, and so I usually compensate for us both by planning celebrations that capitalize on the best bits of the hot months, things like pools, water parks, and highly air conditioned movie theaters. When this year my son suggested we take him and a few buddies to an evening baseball game in high-tech, well-ventilated Marlins Park, I was thrilled.

The kid didn't even let us finish the sentence before he announced his decision: fútbol for sure. He remembered how in the last two World Cups (2018 and 2014), Colombia's games have magically dovetailed with the anniversary of his summer birth. Both times, Colombia has won, convincing this kid (who would say he's not superstitious but he's a little "stitious") that combining his special day to the game gives the players that extra vote of confidence that will push them toward victory.

In the past, he'd enlisted his younger brother's help in producing handmade signs and crafting cheers. He also tends to quickly invoke the family rule that stadium speak can include terms and formulations more vulgar than those of our regular life - swearing without consequences is a huge draw for a tween. But to trade in all the cotton candy, mystery dogs and popcorn so salty my kidneys contort at the thought for a more wholesome homemade party? A rowdy and reprimand-less mess for the constraints of having to party in his own home? Would he be satisfied by the birthday soccer-viewing experience?

For his father and I, and certainly for our parent's generation, holds an importance ascribed to few other phenomena, which moves far more millions of dollars around and influences the aspirations of so many people worldwide. We all grew up in a country in which these effects of an organized sport on the life and culture of entire nations was palpable in every walk of life and across the rigidly divided social classes. At the stadium, everyone feels equal, as individuals become a unit: or the cheering squad. The players on the field run and score, all eyes and hearts stay with their stats and their stories, like gladiators of a democratic moment that only exists beyond the reach of government and dissolves into the ether when the stands empty out into the city streets.

Much like basketball fits the topography of an American city, with its fenced in concrete courts and conservative team sizes, easily scaled as far down as a pick-up game of just one on one, so, too, is soccer the game that best suits packs of numerous youth in rural and underserved regions. is the most popular in Europe, where the soccer clubs have the cash to train amazing athletes and to recruit more amazing athletes from Latin America, Asia, and Africa. It is also the most popular sport in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, where one soccer ball and an open, bare space can entertain up to 22 young people at a time, making use of the rural or under-built spaces they inhabit and requiring little to no additional equipment, in many cases not even a pair of shoes.

Playing soccer professionally is aspirational, one of the only ways in which some of these nations are positively represented, the only route for certain young men to escape poverty. Players since the great Pelé of Brazil, inclusive of so many others since him, many of them stars of national line-ups who play for European clubs during the year, were made on their native streets, learning to dribble and shoot barefoot. Following the black-and-white ball all the way out of the or has been a decidedly positive recourse for many individuals from Latin America, who have shared their world renown, mentorship, and fortune with their country. Nations that tend to appear within headlines over negative news stories about unstable governments or crime and inequality, can shine in their role on this particular playing field.

All of this good press and transcending our human condition has been a positive outlet for many developing nations, no doubt, but to think that this particular playing field is completely even would be naive. in its major-league, life-altering, nation-driving applications has drummed up a lot of positivity, yes, though its ability to influence economies and politics has also produced some toxic side-effects. Beginning with its regulating body, is an organization based out of politically neutral, financially discreet Switzerland, headed up by...you guessed it: a panel of older, white males. A bunch of white guys move around a ton of funds to engage a motley crew, including lots of brown guys, to play for the amusement of the world television viewers. This lucrative enterprise is not always pure.

Whatever positive press a winning soccer team's performance on the world stage can bring, this perpetuation of social and economic inequality lies in contradiction to the machinery of democracy. In the opinion of Mexican economists, the United States has solved this underlying problem of disparate earning potentials by recruiting professional players through a more egalitarian "draft" method and placing earning caps on players, for example on David Beckham, brought in to elevate, not bankrupt, the Los Angeles Astros. Despite the American's lower enthusiasm towards soccer than that of most other nations, the lessons of politics applied here hold up: the more equal treatment and compensation of players, the more that pitch gets leveled, every player given equal opportunity to dazzle the fans.

And while the sporting events are certainly highly lucrative, such as the large subsidy Brazil received for the construction of World Cup infrastructure, the clear winners in these cases are the big builders and contractors, not the developing nation or its citizens. Some of the players are disadvantaged kids who strike it big, yes, but the percentage of people who will get ahead through a career in soccer is minute compared to those who will be receive a sort of mass hypnosis as they experience an adrenaline rush and catharsis through their national sports team, a virtual experience with little lasting psychological or sociological value, according to German journalist and philologist, Santiago Flores Alvarez-Ossorio .

Perhaps most obvious to us is the historical exclusion of one half of the population from the soccer pitch. None of the leagues on any of the continents featured female players until FIFA made space for the national women's leagues that now play in the Women's Cup, also held every four years. Despite the widespread fandom amongst women, 46% of us worldwide identifying as fiercely passionate about our local or national team, we didn't have a stage for our own fancy footwork until 1991 saw China host the first female tournament. Since then, the Women's Cup has grown exponentially, in viewership, participation, and revenue production.

Just as in the may other realms in which women are capable of holding their own just as well as men, the world of is built around a gender inequality that governs a large pay gap that favors men at the individual, team, and national levels. Even less inspiring is the trend that has only widened the gap in recent years. Even though the women's teams bring in more fans each day, everything from player salaries to the prize money for the winners of the women's and men's Cup has only grown more disparate. Individual players of international renown earn a fraction of what their male counterparts are awarded. , who started clamoring for pay equality back in the 1990s when she was helping the USA team bring home trophies, now stands by Megan Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd, and Alex Morgan, who are so underpaid they have been able to bring a suit against the US Soccer Federation.

Of course, it isn't just FIFA who pays women less; the is wide and real between women and men across sports. Women in the league continue to make their case for pay equality and to provide representation, with many of them playing the kind of world-class soccer that makes men famous Women have demonstrated their on the pitch, setting records as impressive as the men's. The only real difference seems to be how hard they have to work at being supported, respected, taken seriously, and paid their worth.

By the time our son was done saying he'd rather watch the Colombia game, I had already planned to mix a batch of his favorite cereal and marshmallow bars (instead of a more labor-intensive cake), with guayaba y queso in honor of That night, despite his track record as a good luck charm, my Colombo-American kid could not save our country from their curse of always losing to Chile on the pitch. "Like the curse of the Bambino on the Sox," remarked my baseball fan. "It might ok that Colombia lost," he said later that week when I shared my annoyance that held concurrently with the Copa América finals, relieved that he can now root for his other team, the women's team USA, in their match on Saturday.

For Image credit or remove please email for immediate removal - info@belatina.com

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A Close Look at How Fútbol Shapes Our Culture

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Understanding the historical, social and cultural passion for fútbol, which is as much a sport in Latin America as it is a reflection of society.

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Argentine football player.

Did you already know Messi? What did you learn about him?

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Also called:

Leo Messi

(Show more)

Lionel Messi (born June 24, 1987, Rosario, Argentina) Argentine-born football (soccer) player who received a record-setting eight Ballon d'Or awards as the world's top male player (2009-12, 2015, 2019, 2021, and 2023). In 2022 he helped Argentina win the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)'s World Cup.

Early life

Messi started playing football as a boy and in 1995 joined the youth team of Newell's Old Boys (a Rosario-based top-division football club). Messi's phenomenal skills garnered the attention of prestigious clubs on both sides of the Atlantic. At age 13 Messi and his family relocated to Barcelona, and he began playing for FC Barcelona 's under-14 team. He scored 21 goals in 14 games for the junior team, and he quickly graduated through the higher-level teams until at age 16 he was given his informal debut with FC Barcelona in a friendly match.

Club play

In the 2004-05 season Messi, then 17, became the youngest official player and goal scorer in the Spanish La Liga (the country's highest division of football). Though only 5 feet 7 inches (1.7 metres) tall and weighing 148 pounds (67 kg), he was strong, well-balanced, and versatile on the field. Naturally left-footed, quick, and precise in control of the ball, Messi was a keen pass distributor and could readily thread his way through packed defenses. In 2005 he was granted Spanish citizenship, an honour greeted with mixed feelings by the fiercely Catalan supporters of Barcelona. The next year Messi and Barcelona won the Champions League (the European club championship) title.

Messi's play continued to rapidly improve over the years, and by 2008 he was one of the most dominant players in the world, finishing second to Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo in the voting for the 2008 Ballon d'Or. In early 2009 Messi capped off a spectacular 2008-09 season by helping FC Barcelona capture the club's first "treble" (winning three major European club titles in one season): the team won the La Liga championship, the Copa del Rey (Spain's major domestic cup), and the Champions League title. He scored 38 goals in 51 matches during that season, and he bested Ronaldo in the balloting for both the Ballon d'Or and FIFA's world player of the year by a record margin. During the 2009-10 season Messi scored 34 goals in domestic games as Barcelona repeated as La Liga champions. He earned the Golden Shoe award as Europe's leading scorer, and he received another Ballon d'Or (the award was known as the FIFA Ballon d'Or in 2010-15).

Messi led Barcelona to La Liga and Champions League titles the following season, which helped him capture an unprecedented third consecutive world player of the year award. In March 2012 he netted his 233rd goal for Barcelona, becoming the club's all-time leading scorer in La Liga play when only 24 years old. He finished Barcelona's 2011-12 season (which included another Copa del Rey win) with 73 goals in all competitions, breaking Gerd Müller 's 39-year-old record for single-season goals in a major European football league. His landmark season led to his being named the 2012 world player of the year, which made Messi the first player to win the honour four times. His 46 La Liga goals in 2012-13 led the league, and Barcelona captured another domestic top-division championship that season. In 2014 he set the overall Barcelona goal record when he scored his 370th goal as a member of the team. That same year he also broke the career scoring records for play in both the Champions League (with 72 goals) and La Liga (with 253 goals).

Messi helped Barcelona capture another treble during the 2014-15 season, leading the team with 43 goals scored over the course of the campaign, which resulted in his fifth world player of the year honour. He scored 41 goals across all competitions for Barcelona in 2015-16, and the club won the La Liga title and the Copa del Rey during that season. Messi topped that with 53 goals for Barcelona in 2016-17, leading the team to another Copa del Rey title. In 2017-18 he scored 45 goals, and Barcelona won the La Liga-Copa del Rey double once again. Messi scored 51 goals across all domestic competitions in 2018-19 as Barcelona won another La Liga championship. In late 2019 he won his sixth career Ballon d'Or and was named FIFA's best male player of the year. In the 2020-21 season, Barcelona claimed the Copa del Rey title, the seventh of Messi's career. He became a free agent in 2021, and financial issues-some of which were the result of La Liga rules-largely prevented him from re-signing with Barcelona. He left the club after setting a number of records; notably, he was the leading goal scorer in the league's history (474).

Later in 2021 Messi signed with Paris St.-Germain (PSG), where he joined superstars Kylian Mbappé and Neymar, and that year he received yet another Ballon d'Or. He helped PSG win the Ligue 1 title in each of his two seasons with the team. In 2023 Messi joined Inter Miami of Major League Soccer.

International career

Despite his dual citizenship and professional success in Spain, Messi's ties with his homeland remained strong, and he was a key member of various Argentine national teams from 2005. He played on Argentina's victorious 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship squad, represented the country in the 2006 World Cup, and scored two goals in five matches as Argentina swept to the gold medal at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Messi helped Argentina reach the 2010 World Cup quarterfinals, where the team was eliminated by Germany for the second consecutive time in World Cup play. At the 2014 World Cup, Messi put on a dazzling display, scoring four goals and almost single-handedly propelling an offense-deficient Argentina team through the group stage and into the knockout rounds, where Argentina then advanced to the World Cup final for the first time in 24 years. Argentina lost that contest 1-0 to Germany, but Messi nevertheless won the Golden Ball award as the tournament's best player. During the 2016 Copa América Centenario tournament, he netted his 55th international goal to break Gabriel Batistuta 's Argentine scoring record.

After Argentina was defeated in the Copa final-the team's third consecutive finals loss in a major tournament-Messi said that he was quitting the national team, but his short-lived "retirement" lasted less than two months before he announced his return to the Argentine team. At the 2018 World Cup, he helped an overmatched Argentine side reach the knockout stage, where they were eliminated by eventual champion France in their first match. After a third-place finish at the 2019 Copa América, Messi led Argentina to victory in the tournament two years later, and he received the Golden Ball award. His success continued at the 2022 World Cup. There he guided Argentina to the finals, where he scored two goals-and made a penalty kick during the shootout-to help defeat France. Messi won the World Cup's Golden Ball, becoming the first male player to receive that award twice. In addition, his outstanding play in the tournament was instrumental in Messi winning his eighth Ballon d'Or in 2023.

Other activities and legal issues

Off the field, Messi was one of the biggest athletic stars in the world. In addition to earning a football salary that was frequently, with Ronaldo's, one of the two largest athletes' salaries in all professional sports, he was an extremely successful product pitchman, notably for the sportswear company Adidas. In 2013 Messi and his father (who handled his son's finances) were charged with tax fraud and accused of using overseas shell companies to avoid paying €4.2 million in Spanish taxes on endorsement earnings. Despite subsequently paying €5 million to the Spanish state, the pair were nevertheless ordered to stand trial on the charges in 2016. In July of that year, Messi and his father were each given suspended 21-month prison sentences (first-time offenders in Spain are given suspended sentences if the duration is under two years) and were fined €2 million and €1.5 million, respectively.

Jack Rollin The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

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Lionel Messi | Biography, Barcelona, PSG, Ballon d'Or, Inter Miami, & Facts

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Lionel Messi, the Argentine football prodigy with mesmerizing skills and record-breaking achievements, has captivated fans worldwide as one of the greatest players in history.

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Enjoy this video of Messi's plays while you listen Despacito.

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Lionel Messi ● Despacito | Luis Fonsi ft. Daddy Yankee ᴴᴰ