Read Harder This Latine Heritage Month

When trans boy Yadriel’s traditional Latine family is reluctant to accept his gender, he decides to perform a ritual over Dia de Muertos to prove he’s a brujo and summons the wrong ghost. That ghost is Julian, a very cute classmate (and human golden retriever) who needs Yadriel’s help solving a mystery before he can cross over. This romantic fantasy is a witchy, magical, and culturally rich exploration of identity and so many kinds of love, including the cousin/bestie dynamic that is so special in Latine culture. It’s the kind of book I wish I could gift to my younger self, and I’m so glad it exists. Graveyard Gays forever.

This is a collection of beautiful stories of self-discovery, activism, resistance, and survival from queer elders of color. These testimonies are a necessary record of lived experience and hard-won progress, a love letter to queer history, and a reminder of the gift it is to have living elders among us. The joy in each of these stories is what has stayed with me, a joy that persisted even in periods of profound struggle and loss. We hear all the time that joy is resistance; this is the kind of work that really drives that point home and gives me hope for a better future.