In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15—and the rich tradition of poetry from Latinx poets year-round—browse this selection of poems, essays, and multimedia features. 
 

Poems for Hispanic Heritage Month

“Ode to the Head Nod” by Elizabeth Acevedo
the slight angling up of the forehead ...

“Flowers from the Volcano” by Claribel Alegría
Fourteen volcanoes rise...

“Como Tú / Like You / Like Me” by Richard Blanco
Como tú, I question history's blur in my eyes...

“Poem in Which I Only Use Vowels” by Paola Capó-García
Poem in which I have wisdom …

“Untitled” by Jesús Castillo
Dear Empire, I am confused each time I wake inside you …

“Freeway 280” by Lorna Dee Cervantes
Las casitas near the gray cannery …

“Cayucos” by Eduardo C. Corral
A girl asleep beneath a fishing net …

“Problems with Hurricanes” by Victor Hernández Cruz
A campesino looked at the air …

“Driving at Night” by Rio Cortez
I think it’s quails lining the road but it's fallen Birchwood ...

“Diaspora Sonnet 25” by Oliver de la Paz
The planet pulls our bodies through …

“Heal the Cracks in the Bell of the World” by Martín Espada
Now the bells speak with their tongues of bronze …

“Spanish As Experienced by a Native Speaker” by John Olivares Espinoza
A George Washington quarter was a cuarta …

“How to Dismantle a Heart” by Rodney Gomez
My mother used to say the heart makes music …

“a brief meditation on breath” by Yesenia Montilla
i have diver's lungs from holding my ...

“Gila” by Rigoberto González
It’s no curse …

“Father’s Memory of a Mexican Mining Camp” by Cindy Williams Gutiérrez
Softly, it always began softly …

“Cumbia de Salvación” by Leticia Hernández-Linares
Cumbia sabrosa cumbia …

“Borderbus” by Juan Felipe Herrera
A dónde vamos  where are we going …

“Notes on the Below” by Ada Limón
Humongous cavern, tell me, wet limestone …

“Do Not Speak of the Dead” by Cecilia Llompart
I was born among the bodies. I was hurried …

“Xicano” by J. Michael Martinez
as light …

“declaration” by Andrés Montoya
i have found …

“No Longer Ode” by Urayoán Noel
A hurricane destroyed your sense of home …

“I Walk Into Every Room and Yell Where the Mexicans At” by José Olivarez
i know we exist because of what we make …

“A Few Things Are Explained to Me” by Ricardo Alberto Maldonado
It was five o'clock when paper handkerchiefs descended...

“XI” by Ruben Quesada
One morning the spirit of my lover’s uncle returned …

“Day of the Refugios” by Alberto Rios
I was born in Nogales, Arizona …

“All of Us” by Erika L. Sánchez
Every day I am born like this—

from Be Recorder by Carmen Giménez Smith
they work their fingers …

“What Now?” by Gary Soto
Where did the shooting stars go?

“Portrait of Atlantis as a Broken Home” by Vanessa Angélica Villarreal
I swim down to...

“Let Me Try Again” by Javier Zamora
I could bore you with the sunset, the way water tasted …

“You Are Who I Love” by Aracelis Girmay
You, selling roses out of a silver grocery cart ...