In honor of National Hispanic Heritage month, we updated our list of leadership books (including memoirs) written by those who identify as Americans of Hispanic/Latino/Latinx heritage. It now includes 181 titles.
In honor of National Hispanic Heritage month, we updated our list of leadership books (including memoirs) written by those who identify as Americans of Hispanic/Latino/Latinx heritage. It now includes 182 titles.
I read Christopher Rivas’sBrown Enough: True Stories About Love, Violence, the Student Loan Crisis, Hollywood, Race, Familia, and Making It in America. Rivas is an actor, author, and podcaster who describes himself as “Brown man, a Dominican, Colombian Afro-Latino,” born and raised in New York. The book is part memoir and part social commentary.
Rivas opens the book by recounting a pivotal interaction with renowned race relations scholar Ta-Nehisi Coates. When Rivas asked Coates where his Brown identity lived in conversations on race, Coates replied that Brown was “not in it.”
It took Rivas a long time to realize Coates was stating a fact of “what is,” not his opinion of, “what should be.” Rivas then understood, “My Brown identity was and often is not pertinent to this conversation in which whiteness and Blackness are seen as polar opposites….” The book retraces Rivas’ subsequent exploration of what Brownness means to him a Black and white world.
Much of Rivas’ understanding of Browness is rooted in growing up in a multiethnic, 164-unit housing complex where his father worked as the superintendent for decades. He wrote:
That melting pot of a building in Queens was the foundation for….How very different people, from very different backgrounds can love each other, and take care of one another. And that difference is in essence, Brownness….Brownness honors unique identities rooted in race and ethnicity rather than whiteness that embraces assimilation and marginalizes any deviance from a sinisterly crafted default ideal.
To Rivas, Brownness does not exclude white people who celebrated their own culture, as his Russian and Jewish neighbors did. In contrast, whiteness represents monolithism.
Anyone who doesn’t feel like their racial experiences can be easily explained through a Black and white lens should check out Brown Enough. Rivas’ own personal stories will prompt you to get more curious about yourself and others. Whether you agree with Rivas’ opinions on issues like interracial relationships, plastic surgery, and cultural assimilation, you can’t help but reflect on your own beliefs.
You can check out Rivas’ memoir and others on our updated list. Big thanks to Hady Méndez, author of Calladita No More: My Latina Journey and the Lessons that Shaped Me, for adding so many new titles to this year’s list.
Since we work really hard on these lists, we hope these authors will get the attention they deserve. If you think this list is valuable, please help spread the word by sharing it.
Here’s a sample text you can use when sending this booklist out to your network:
“Want to read leadership narratives written by Hispanic/Latino/Latinx Americans? Check this out! (https://tinyurl.com/2026LatinoLeadershipBooks). #diverseleadershipauthors #latinxleadershipauthors #latinoleadershipauthors #latinaleadershipauthors #hispanicleadershipauthors #latinxandhispanicheritagemonth #expandwhoweread #enrichhowwelead”
You can check out our other leadership book lists by authors who identify as Black, LGBTQIA+, AANHPI, Native American, women, and those who identify as having disabilities. We are always adding to these lists, so please send more recommendations our way.
Best,
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