Sadly this list--which defines a classic as at least 50 years old--contains not 1 book authored by a Latin@ from the USA and/or Puerto Rico. That absence also reflects ignorance of las luchas experienced by nuestra comunidad to even be recognized as authors, a struggle felt even more by Latinas (thus the need to go beyond the 1970s). So as a public service here is a short-list of “classics” from the diverse experience of latinidad in the USA: 1959 Pocho, José Antonio Villareal Pocho 1963 City of Night, John Rechy 1966 Island in Harlem, Manuel Manrique 1967 Down These Mean Streets, Piri Thomas 1969 The Plum Plum Pickers, Raymond Barrio 1970 Chicano, Richard Vasquez 1971 Y No Se Lo Trago La Tierra / And the Earth Did Not Devour Him Tomás Rivera 1971 The Day of the Swallows, Estela Portillo-Trambley 1972 Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya 1973 The Revolt of the Cockroach People, Oscar Zeta Acosta 1975 Nuyorican Poetry: An Anthology of Puerto Rican Words and Feelings with Miguel Piñero 1979 La Carreta Made a U-Turn, Jesús Abraham Laviera 1983 The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros 1983 Loving in the War Years: Lo que nunca pasó por sus labios, Cherrie Moraga 1991 How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, Julia Alvarez 1993 In Search of Bernabé, Graciela Limón 1994 When I was Puerto Rican, Esmeralda Santiago

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