‘Latinoland’ is one of The New Yorker’s 12 must-read books of the year Latinoland is an ambitious history of Latinos that dismantles entrenched stereotypes and offers a narrative of empowerment. Throughout its more than 600 pages, it lays out the Latino community’s potential for success, helps resolve identity crises, and transforms the way Latinos are perceived and treated by society. This is 75-year-old Peruvian author Marie Arana’s sixth book. She is also an editor at The Washington Post and the inaugural literary director of the Library of Congress. Her work has been widely acclaimed by critics and the public, and she has accumulated awards, including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize (2014), while being shortlisted for the National Book Award and the John Sargent Prize (2001). Having emigrated with her family to New York when she was only nine years old with her Peruvian father and American mother, Arana’s work is just one example of the brilliant contributions of America’s migrant population, which struggles with the rootlessness that comes with a dual identity. When I was 38 and working at The Washington Post, I was asked for the first time about my homeland and I realized that I had completely forgotten the little girl I had left behind in Peru. That encouraged me to write my memoir, American Chica. Then I realized that I needed to explain who we Latinos were, to tell our story, and I published two novels. From there I moved on to a biography of Bolívar. And finally I wrote the Silver, Sword and Stone stories. I mean, I went from telling my personal history to narrating the collective history.

Latin America has been the focus of all my work for 25 years, after I realized that the U.S. hardly knows anything about its neighbors to the south. A prime example of this was when [former President Ronald] Reagancame back from Latin America saying, “There are some little countries there and they are all different.” The U.S. has the largest Spanish-speaking population in the world after Mexico. I needed to explain who we are. I am building a monument to Latinos and every book I publish is a brick.