Hispanic Heritage Month Begins with a Spotlight on Afro-Latina Authors
3 min read
National Hispanic Heritage Month begins September 15, celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of Hispanic and Latino communities throughout the United States. It is also an opportunity to recognize the diversity that exists within those communities. Latinidad encompasses different races, nationalities, cultures and experiences. For Intellectual Ink, the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month is an opportunity to spotlight Afro-Latina writers whose work reflects the intersections of Black and Latino identity.
This year, we begin with two writers whose books offer powerful explorations of family, identity, culture, womanhood and belonging: Elizabeth Acevedo and Jaquira Díaz.
Elizabeth Acevedo
Elizabeth Acevedo is a Dominican American poet and novelist whose work frequently explores Blackness, Dominican culture, family and belonging. Acevedo has spoken publicly about her Afro-Latino identity and the development of her understanding of Blackness as a Dominican woman.
Her breakout novel, The Poet X, won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and introduced many readers to her distinctive combination of poetry and storytelling. She followed it with books including With the Fire on High, Clap When You Land and her adult novel Family Lore. Today gives readers another reason to revisit Acevedo’s work.
Her newest novel, Anger Is Only a Shadow, releases September 15, 2026, coinciding with the opening of Hispanic Heritage Month. The young adult novel follows 17-year-old Lil, an Afro-Dominican and Indigenous-Salvadoran teenager navigating probation, family responsibilities and questions about justice and freedom. Acevedo drew inspiration for the novel from her experiences leading poetry workshops for girls in a juvenile detention center.
Jaquira Díaz
Born in Puerto Rico and raised between Humacao, Fajardo and Miami Beach, Jaquira Díaz is an award-winning writer whose work examines family, race, identity, sexuality, violence and survival. Her memoir, Ordinary Girls, received a Whiting Award and the Florida Book Awards Gold Medal and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award.
In Ordinary Girls, Díaz writes about growing up between Puerto Rico and Miami while confronting poverty, family turmoil and the complicated process of finding a place for herself in the world. Her experiences as a queer Afro-Latina have also informed discussions surrounding her work and identity.
Her latest book, This Is the Only Kingdom, takes Díaz into fiction. Published in October 2025, the novel follows a mother and daughter living in a working-class Puerto Rican barrio as they confront the aftermath of a murder and the generational grief surrounding their family and community. The story centers Maricarmen and her daughter Nena across two periods separated by 15 years. Their lives become intertwined with questions of family loyalty, survival, sexuality, community and the consequences of a past that refuses to remain buried.
JAQUIRA DÍAZ – THIS IS THE ONLY KINGDOM
Expanding the Bookshelf
Hispanic Heritage Month gives readers an opportunity to discover stories from across the enormous spectrum of Latino experiences. That includes making space for writers whose work exists at the intersection of Blackness and Latinidad.
Elizabeth Acevedo and Jaquira Díaz offer two places to begin, but they should also open the door to further discovery. Follow the writers who influenced them. Explore Afro-Latino literature from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and throughout the diaspora. Look beyond the familiar names and discover the writers whose stories have yet to reach your bookshelf.
For avid readers, celebrating culture can begin with something remarkably simple: read the people writing its stories.
