Reddit mentions: The best hispanic literary books

TL;DR: found out my great-uncle has a secret son with a terminal illness, and he still won’t acknowledge him. My grandparents (and everyone else in New Mexico) are related to each other.

I’ll share 2 stories related to 23andMe testing I had done. I tested my father, my mother’s father, and my mother’s mother’s brother (because my grandma has already passed on). So from this point I pretty much equate my maternal great-uncle with my grandma.

My father had a 1st cousin listed in his relatives who we didn’t recognize. Eventually the cousin reached out to me and asked me if I knew [name] which he had heard from his mother, and I said yes, that is my dad’s uncle. So this guy had been searching for his biological father because he had a type of end-stage disease which was genetic, and no one on his mother or supposed father’s side had it. This confirmed it, because my great-uncle and great-grandfather suffered from the same disease. I wanted to help him, so I secretly found out as much as I could and told him everything. The cousin tried contacting my great-uncle, but he didn’t want a relationship with him at all- the responses were not straight-up denials of being his father, it was like “good luck with your disease! Laters.” But I now have a long-lost cousin and we’re friends on Facebook.

Whew. Story 2. In New Mexico there’s a strong Hispanic culture that goes back hundreds of years. The DNA testing showed that my mom’s father and maternal uncle were distantly related- they share 0.92% of their DNA. 0.92% should be third-ish cousins, which I was sure they were not that closely related. My tree was already pretty far along at this point, but I HAD to find out how my grandma and grandpa were related, they weren’t even from the same part of the state. Eventually I was able to make so many connections, like 8th cousins, 7th cousins once removed, etc. I guess all those cross-relations added up, they shared so much DNA it looked like they were 3rd cousins. My coolest tree I made though, starts with one guy Miguel Quintana (1675-1748). It shows that my mom’s FOUR grandparents all lead back to this one guy. So all four of my great-grandparents are related to each other. So I have a very strong hunch that ALL Hispanic New Mexicans are related if you dig hard enough.

https://www.amazon.com/Account-Relacion-Recovering-Hispanic-Literary/dp/1558850600

This is the book I read in college. It is non-fiction, but his version of events are a little too fantastical for real life. It's formatted like a novel. It reminded me so much of David Brin's The Postman.

Now I'm going to have to buy it and read it again. I really enjoyed it 20 years ago. I might be biased, though, because it was a big deal at my alma mater. One of the original copies is in the library, and several of my professors and classmates went out and settled the dispute regarding which route he took through Texas and Mexico.

I'm still not fully decided and have to read more. Can't say I've seen like a definitive piece on it unfortunately, but I definitely recommend reading up on the WPA to see a glimpse of what massive jobs programs have looked like in America in the past. Here are a couple of books about it.

https://www.amazon.com/Soul-People-Writers-Uncovers-Depression/dp/0470403802

https://www.amazon.com/American-Made-Enduring-Legacy-When-Nation/dp/0553381326

And below is a book I recently read that is a product of the WPA writer's program. It's a collection of oral histories and stories from New Mexican women in the 30s. It's the kind of invaluable historical resource that there's just no financial incentive to produce.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/155885312X/ref=x_gr_w_glide_bb?ie=UTF8&tag=x_gr_w_glide_bb-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=155885312X&SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2