Cindy L. Rodriguez was a newspaper reporter for The Hartford Courant and researcher at The Boston Globe before becoming a public school teacher. She is now a reading specialist at a Connecticut middle school. Cindy is a U.S.-born Latina of Puerto Rican and Brazilian descent. She has degrees from UConn and CCSU. Her debut contemporary YA novel is When Reason Breaks (Bloomsbury 2015). She also has an essay in Life Inside My Mind (Simon Pulse 2018) and wrote the text for Volleyball Ace, a Jake Maddox book (Capstone 2020). She can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.
.
![]() |
![]() |
OUR REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS:

Emily R. Aguiló-Pérez is an Assistant Professor of English (Children’s Literature) at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Her teaching and research are in the areas of children’s literature (particularly Latinx literature), girlhood studies, and children’s cultures. Her published work has focused on girlhood as represented in literature and Puerto Rican girls’ identity formation with Barbie dolls. She has presented research on Latinx children’s books at various conferences and has served on children’s book award committees such as the 2017 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award and the 2018 Pura Belpré Award. Currently, she is part of the Pennsylvania Center for the Book’s “A Baker’s Dozen” committee.
.

Ingrid Campos is a 19-year-old college student interested in Latinx Literature. After graduating from LaGuardia Community College (CUNY) this year with an associates in Writing and Literature, she will continue her studies at Queens College to earn her Bachelors in English Education 7-12 . Ingrid was born and raised in Queens, New York. As a Mexican-American living in Queens and graduating from the public school system, Ingrid is inspired to become a high school teacher. One of her main goals is to center academic curriculums around more diversity and inclusivity towards Black and Brown students.
.

Elena Foulis has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies from the University of Arkansas. Her research and teaching interests include U.S. Latina/o literature, and Digital Oral History. She is working on a digital oral history project about Latin@s in Ohio; some of these narratives can be found in her eBook titled, Latin@ Stories Across Ohio. She is also the host and creator of OhioHabla, a podcast that seeks to amplify the Latin@ experience with interviews in Spanish, English and Spanglish. Elena was born in El Salvador, grew up in the U.S.-Mexico border, and moved to Ohio in 1992.
.

Dora Guzmán is a bilingual reading specialist for grades K-5 and also teaches college courses in Children’s Literature and Teaching Beginning Literacy. She is currently a doctoral student with a major in Reading, Language, and Literacy. When she is not sharing her love of reading with her students, you can find her in the nearest library, bookstore, or online, finding more great reads to add to her never-ending “to read” pile!
.
.

Katrina Ortega (M.L.I.S.) is the manager of the New York Public Library’s College and Career Pathways program. Originally from El Paso, Texas, she has lived in New York City for six years. She is a strong advocate of continuing education (in all of its forms) and is very interested in learning new ways that public libraries can provide higher education to all. She is also very interested in working with non-traditional communities in the library, particularly incarcerated and homeless populations. While pursuing her own higher education, she received two Bachelors of Arts degrees (in English and in History), a Masters of Arts in English, and a Masters of Library and Information Sciences. Katrina loves reading most anything, but particularly loves literary fiction, YA novels, and any type of graphic novel or comic. In her free time, if she’s not reading, Katrina loves to walk around New York, looking for good places to eat.
.

Maria Ramos-Chertok is a writer, workshop leader and coach who facilitates The Butterfly Series, a writing and creative arts workshop for women who want to explore what’s next in their life journey. In December 2016, she won 1st place in the 2016 Intergenerational Story Contest for her piece, Family Recipes Should Never be Lost. Her work has appeared in the Apogee Journal, Entropy Magazine, and A Quiet Courage. Her piece Meet me by the River will be published in Deborah Santana’s forthcoming anthology All the Women in my Family Sing (Jan 2018) http://nothingbutthetruth.com/all-the-women-in-my-family-sing/. She is a trainer with Rockwood Leadership Institute www.rockwoodleadership.organd a member of the Bay Area chapter of Write on Mamas. For more information, visit her website at www.mariaramoschertok.com
.

Cris Rhodes is an assistant professor of English at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania. She teaches courses of writing, culturally diverse literature, and ethnic literatures. In addition to teaching, Cris’s scholarship focuses on Latinx youth and their literature or related media. She also has a particular scholarly interest in activism and the ways that young Latinxs advocate for themselves and their communities.
.
.

Sonia Alejandra Rodriguez, PhD is an Associate Professor of English at LaGuardia Community College (CUNY) where she teaches composition, literature, and creative writing. Her academic research focuses on decolonial healing in Latinx children’s and young adult literature. Sonia is a Mellon Emerging Faculty Leader.
.
.

Sanjuana C. Rodriguez is an Assistant Professor of Literacy and Reading Education in the Elementary and Early Childhood Department at Kennesaw State University. Her research interests include the early literacy development of culturally and linguistically diverse students, early writing development, literacy development of students who are emergent bilinguals, and Latinx children’s literature. She has published in journals such as Journal of Language and Literacy Education, Language Arts, and Language Arts Journal of Michigan.
Pingback: Future of Latino/a Lit Is Being Written Now | Latin@s in Kid Lit
Pingback: Writing and Reading Latino/a Kid Lit is for Everyone, Not Just Latin@s | Latin@s in Kid Lit
Pingback: Give Kid Lit Readers a Broad Range with “Real” Characters | Latin@s in Kid Lit
Pingback: Through Reading, Anything Is Possible | Latin@s in Kid Lit
Pingback: Changes I’ve Seen, Changes I Hope to See | Latin@s in Kid Lit
Pingback: Road to Publishing: Receiving Feedback from Beta Readers & Critique Groups | Latin@s in Kid Lit
Pingback: The Road to Publishing: The Big Q–How to Write a Query Letter | Latin@s in Kid Lit
Pingback: The Road to Publishing: Juana Martinez-Neal on Landing an Agent | Latin@s in Kid Lit
Pingback: The Road to Publishing: Going on Submission | Latin@s in Kid Lit
Pingback: The Road to Publishing: One Take on Working with a (Rock Star) Editor | Latin@s in Kid Lit
Pingback: The Road to Publishing: a Q & A with Andrew Karre of Carolrhoda Books | Latin@s in Kid Lit
Pingback: A New Year = New Goals and Features | Latin@s in Kid Lit
Pingback: Want to Be a Better Writer? Then, Read. | Latin@s in Kid Lit
Pingback: Agent Chat with Adrienne Rosado of Nancy Yost Literary | Latin@s in Kid Lit
Pingback: Cover Reveal for When Reason Breaks, a 2015 Young Adult Debut | Latin@s in Kid Lit
Pingback: Great Websites for Kids! | DBRL KidsDBRL Kids
Pingback: Libros Latin@s: Celebrating When Reason Breaks by Cindy L. Rodriguez | Latin@s in Kid Lit
Pingback: We’re the People: Summer Reading 2015 |
Pingback: A Tuesday Ten: Hispanic/Latino Speculative Fiction for Kids | Views From the Tesseract
Glad I came upon this site. I am determined to find more Latino YA literature with BOYS! Looked at all the YA lit, all with girls on the covers, most rather highly sexualized, I might add. So much progress still needed to be made.
My children’s father is Salvadoran. I am trying to teach them Spanish and to teach them more about their father’s culture in our homeschooling class.
Pingback: March Madness – Bookish-style | Meg Medina's Blog
Pingback: We Are the People: Sujei Lugo | Crazy QuiltEdi
Pingback: Latin History for Dads – The Super Dads Project
Pingback: This is Random. Let’s Call It: Paying and Collecting Dues. | CrazyQuiltEdi
Pingback: Author Meg Medina Talks About Writing Villains | Latinxs in Kid Lit
Pingback: Las Calaveras Todas Blancas Son* Or What is the Day of the Dead? | Latinxs in Kid Lit