Latin American Studies Library Resource Guide

"Books saved my sanity, knowledge opened the locked places in me and taught me first how to survive and then how to soar."

--Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Borderlands: The New Mestiza

The librarians and faculty who collaborated on this guide intend for it to provide resources to those interested in learning and thinking critically about the experiences of various Latinx groups, including:

• Affirmation of culture, identity, and contributions to literature, academia, and the arts
• Providing material for discussions of systemic racism, nativism and xenophobia, injustice, discrimination, and transformational change

• What Is Latin America? Definition and list of countries
  • Latin America spans two continents, North America (including Central America and the Caribbean) and South America.
  • Latin America includes 19 countries and one dependent territory, Puerto Rico.
• Hispanic vs. Latino/a/x - when to use each term
  • Hispanic specifically concerns the Spanish-language-speaking Latin America and Spain.
  • Latino and Latina specifically concern those coming from Latin American countries and cultures, regardless of whether the person speaks Spanish.
  • Latinx is a gender-neutral alternative for Latino/a.
    • Pew Research Survey (2020) on usage of the term Latinx
    • The X Factor: How Group Labels Shape Politics (2024): A study on the political consequences of group labels.
• History of the term Chicano 
  • Identifier for people of Mexican descent born in the United States, which came into popular use as a symbol of pride during the Chicano Movement of the 1960s.