Aztlan Reads, A Site Created To Promote Latino Writers

It all started on Twitter. A conversation about being able to find literature by Latino writers morphed into a hashtag, then a Twitter account, and finally a website. David Cid, a teacher who is currently a graduate student of Chicana & Chicano Studies at California State University Los Angeles, has coordinated the efforts of many and the site, Aztlan Reads, went up in August.

“I’ve been wanting to contribute knowledge that I have gained at the university, and this shows that there is a literary heritage in our community that goes back hundreds of years,” he said.

Perusing the website yields a plethora of different types of information. There are biographies of Latino authors. There are poems. There are announcements about readings or art exhibits. Then, of course, there are book reviews. And Cid says this is just the beginning, in the long term he told NewsTaco, he hopes that the site will also offer film reviews.

The site itself notes:

The initial idea behind an #aztlanreads hashtag was to facilitate easy access to an expansive list of Xicana/o fiction and non-fiction literary work that could be used for our personal reading enjoyment or for academic research purposes.  The books could be on any topic be it history, women’s studies, cultural studies, literature, etc.  The next step, of course, was to create a separate and more accessible twitter feed to continue our endeavor.  So @aztlanreads was created.  One goal for this project is to promote literacy within the Twitter community and beyond. Another goal is to let the world know that Xicanas and Xicanos are reading and thereby asserting that we are not an uneducated group of people.  A third goal is to debunk the myth that there is small body of work by and for Xicana/os and to debunk the myth that these works are inaccessible.

“We are not only writing, but we are also reading,” he said by way of explaining the site’s mission. “We are all struggling to create a knowledge base that we hope incorporates other groups, since we are not a homogenous group.”

Cid said the site is looking to collaborate, for more information about Aztlan Reads check out the website, Twitter feed or email him at clshc@me.com.