Knowledge is Power
Saludos Aztlan!
Welcome to Aztlan Reads. We came into existence in a relatively quick and surprisingly amazing way. A conversation on twitter.com between @anneperez and @xicano007 about Xicana/o books prompted the searchable hashtag: #aztlanreads. Within hours of creating the #aztlanreads hashtag, many friends/allies on twitter.com with an interest in Xicana/o Studies began to contribute their personal favorites. It was beautiful to see so many Xicana/o titles and the meaning that they held for some contributors who shared that information as well.
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 accesible 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 a also a hard working and intelligent community. From hashtag to twitter feed to website! Thanks to the dedicated work of @ginaruiz, @Chicano_Soul and @mexicanwoman, a simple conversation about a common interest in Chicana/o Studies reading has metamorphosed into a budding website.
Those of us supporting Aztlan Reads hope that our endeavor becomes one of the largest databases of Xicana/o Studies fiction & non-fiction work. It is made available by a community of readers and therefore sacred. We invite you to join us by contributing your recommendations and reviews. This website will eventually be a site for community book readings and discussions, as well as a forum for Xicana/o authors to discuss their own personal work.
We hope that you’ll visit often.
aztlanreads 