We spoke with Gabriela Baeza Ventura, director of Arte Público Press, in our latest Member Spotlight.
What is the history behind Arte Público Press? When was it founded and what is its mission?
Arte Público Press is the oldest and largest publisher of US Hispanic literature. It was founded in 1979 by Dr. Nicolás Kanellos to address the exclusion of Latino writers from mainstream US publishing. Originally a literary magazine created to highlight emerging Hispanic voices, the press relocated to the University of Houston in 1980. Over the decades, Arte Público Press has provided a home for authors from across the US Latino diaspora—Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Cuban American, Dominican, Central and South American—publishing poetry, fiction, drama, and nonfiction that reflect the diverse experiences of Latinos in the United States.
The press’s mission is to recover, publish, and promote the creative, cultural, and scholarly contributions of US Latino authors—past and present—to American culture. Arte Público Press diversifies and decolonizes the US literary canon by centering Latino narratives; preserves and makes accessible forgotten or marginalized texts; fosters bilingual literacy and cross-cultural understanding through its children’s and young adult imprint, Piñata Books; and supports education and research through open-access digital platforms, archival projects, and academic collaborations.
Arte Público Press stands as a cornerstone of Latino cultural production in the United States. It has published over 750 titles; has launched the careers of influential writers such as Sandra Cisneros, Luis Valdez, and Helena María Viramontes; and continues to shape the national conversation about representation, access, and equity in literature, archives, and education.
You recently were named the director of Arte Público Press, succeeding the press’s founding director, Nicolás Kanellos. What are your hopes and goals for this next stage?
As I step into the role of director of Arte Público Press, I do so with profound respect for its extraordinary legacy and an unshakable belief in its enduring relevance. For more than four decades, Arte Público has amplified the voices of US Latino writers and transformed the national literary landscape. I am deeply honored to lead this next chapter—one grounded in our shared commitment to equity, access, and cultural transformation.
My vision is to ensure that Arte Público Press continues to serve as both a guardian of history and an engine of innovation. I aim to preserve and expand the press’s pioneering mission by uplifting diverse voices whose stories redefine what it means to be American and expand our collective imagination. My goals as director include:
- Preserving and amplifying Arte Público’s founding mission to recover lost literary works and feature emerging and historically underrepresented voices in the catalog. This includes curating new series focused on Afro-Latinx and Indigenous storytelling and reissuing key out-of-print Latino classics.
- Strengthening bilingual, public-facing digital platforms by integrating new tools for open digital reading, metadata enrichment, and interactive learning. Partnerships with libraries, schools, and digital repositories will extend Arte Público’s reach to new audiences, both nationally and internationally.
- Promoting literacy and equity through reading initiatives and community programs that bridge classrooms and cultural spaces. With book festivals, bilingual story-time events, and teacher toolkits aligned with Latino-authored texts, I hope to inspire a new generation of readers and foster cultural pride.
- Building institutional sustainability by securing the future of Arte Público through strategic partnerships, innovative publishing models, and philanthropic collaborations. I will work to expand relationships with universities, foundations, and local organizations to diversify our revenue streams and strengthen our role as a national cultural institution.
- Fostering a culture of collaboration and care by cultivating a professional environment grounded in mentorship, transparency, and shared purpose. By supporting staff development, author engagement, and ethical publishing practices, I plan to ensure that our work remains rooted in respect and reciprocity.
I am confident that Arte Público Press will continue to educate, empower, and inspire—building a vibrant future in which Latino voices are not only heard but celebrated as essential to the American story.
Can you tell us about some recent or upcoming Arte Público Press titles?
Arte Público Press has long been a home for stories that challenge, illuminate, and reimagine the American experience. Our upcoming and recent titles continue that tradition—none more striking than the light of your body by ire’ne lara silva, a collection of short stories that moves fluidly between the earthly and the divine, the intimate and the mythic. Set for publication in 2026, this book invites readers into a world where Santísima Muerte runs a taco truck in Austin, an extraterrestrial narrates La Malinche’s story, and the body itself becomes a map of memory, grief, and rebirth. Known for her poetic language and deep spirituality, lara silva blends the sacred and the sensual to remind us that our bodies carry both history and hope.
Of Dubious Origin by David I. Santiago, published in September 2025, follows Israel, a young man tired of his ambiguous background, who decides—comically—to reinvent himself as Portuguese. What begins as satire becomes a moving story about identity, family, and learning to embrace one’s heritage, no matter how complicated.
Another recent standout is Latino Leaders Speak, Volume II: Personal Stories of Struggle and Triumph, edited by Mickey Ibarra and María Pérez-Brown. This powerful anthology gathers 25 stories from prominent Latino leaders—including former Nevada governor Brian Sandoval and NALEO CEO Arturo Vargas—offering readers both inspiration and insight into what it takes to lead with courage and conviction.
And for readers who love a good mystery, Susie Hara’s Earthquake Shack: A Sadie García Miller Mystery sends its fearless protagonist on a search for one of San Francisco’s historic “earthquake shacks” that’s gone missing. It’s a story about uncovering the past, honoring community memory, and finding meaning in what endures.
You also publish YA novels and bilingual books for children via the imprint Piñata Books. What inspired this emphasis on books for younger readers? What are some recent or upcoming Piñata Books titles?
Piñata Books was founded in 1994 to meet the urgent need for culturally relevant, bilingual, and Spanish-language books for Latino children and youth. Its titles feature authentic portrayals of Latino families, communities, and experiences. By publishing stories that reflect bicultural life—stories of migration, belonging, resilience, and imagination—Piñata Books gives young readers the opportunity to see themselves and their worlds reflected with pride and nuance.
Recent and forthcoming titles include Una niña migrante / A Migrant Girl by Erika Said and Diana Zela, which tells the moving story of a young girl navigating migration and belonging between Mexico and the United States. ¿Qué es un poema? / What Is a Poem? by Jovi de la Jara invites children to explore language and creativity, bridging poetry and play. For older readers, In the Company of Wolves by Antonio Farias offers a powerful young adult narrative that examines survival, brotherhood, and identity. The Vincent Ventura mystery series by Xavier Garza combines humor and suspense to engage middle-grade readers while reflecting the everyday life and imagination of Mexican American youth. The Closest Thing to a Normal Life by Michael Méndez Guevara blends humor and heart as it explores themes of belonging, resilience, and love. And Cry by Alisa Valdés gives voice to a complex and emotional story of growth, resilience, and self-discovery.
Can you tell us about the Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage Program?
In 1990, Dr. Nicolás Kanellos joined a network of US Latino scholars, librarians, and archivists to establish the Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage Project (Recovery)—a groundbreaking national research initiative dedicated to identifying, preserving, and making available the written legacy of Latinas and Latinos in the United States from the colonial era to 1980. Recognizing that Latino contributions had been systematically excluded from mainstream archives and literary histories, Recovery set out to correct the record by locating materials housed in libraries, historical societies, private collections, and even family attics across the nation and the Americas.
Over the past three decades, Recovery has built the most comprehensive repository of USLatino historical materials in existence, encompassing thousands of digitized newspapers, rare books, photographs, manuscripts, and personal papers. These collections reveal a vibrant and diverse intellectual tradition that documents the political, cultural, and artistic life of Spanish-speaking communities throughout the United States.
Through sustained partnerships with universities, archives, and cultural organizations, Recovery has not only preserved fragile documents but also transformed access to knowledge, pioneering digital tools and bilingual platforms that make these resources freely available to scholars, educators, and the public. Its work has inspired generations of researchers and become a national model for inclusive archival practice, ensuring that the stories, writings, and lived experiences of Latino communities are recognized as an essential part of the nation’s cultural and historical fabric.
My relationship with Recovery began in the mid-1990s, when I joined the program as a research fellow. That formative experience shaped my understanding of archival work as an act of justice, preservation, and community building—values that continue to guide my leadership today. I witnessed firsthand the care, rigor, and collective vision that drove Recovery’s mission to recover forgotten voices and restore them to their rightful place in American history.
Building on that legacy, my colleague Carolina Villarroel and I cofounded the US Latino Digital Humanities (USLDH) Center to extend Recovery’s work into the digital era. The Center provides K-12, undergraduate, and graduate students, as well as scholars and community partners, with the tools and training to create digital projects that document and interpret Latino experiences. Together, Recovery and USLDH ensure that the preservation of Latino history continues to evolve—rooted in community, powered by technology, and guided by the principles of equity and access.
Are there any indie bookstores (or libraries) that you think do a particularly good job featuring titles from indie publishers? If so, what do they do?
Independent bookstores and community libraries play an essential role in ensuring that the work of independent publishers reaches readers who might otherwise never encounter these voices. Two spaces that exemplify this commitment are LibroMobile Arts Cooperative in Santa Ana, California, and Resistencia Bookstore, home of Casa de Red Salmon Arts, in Austin, Texas. Both institutions demonstrate how intentional curation, community engagement, and social purpose can transform a bookstore into a cultural movement.
Founded by writer and cultural organizer Sarah Rafael García, LibroMobile began as a mobile book cart inspired by the frutero stands of downtown Santa Ana—portable, accessible, and rooted in community life. It has since evolved into a hybrid space that includes a bookstore, small gallery, zine library, and arts cooperative dedicated to promoting BIPOC and bilingual literature. LibroMobile’s inventory foregrounds independent and small-press titles, self-published zines, and local authors whose work reflects the lived experiences of Southern California’s diverse Latinx and immigrant communities. What distinguishes LibroMobile is not only what it sells, but how it operates: García and her collaborators treat book distribution as an act of cultural equity. They bring literature directly to readers through pop-ups at community events, schools, and art markets. They host bilingual readings, writing workshops, and a “DIY MFA” program that mentors emerging writers from underrepresented backgrounds. In doing so, LibroMobile collapses the distance between author, publisher, and audience, showing that access to books is inseparable from access to creative expression.
Resistencia Bookstore, one of the oldest Chicanx and Latinx community bookstores in the United States, offers another model of longevity and cultural stewardship. Established in the early 1980s by poet and activist raúlrsalinas, Resistencia was founded as a “liberated space” for political education, poetry, and community dialogue. For more than four decades, it has maintained an unwavering focus on small-press and independently published works by Chicanx, Indigenous, African American, feminist, and queer writers. Resistencia’s strength lies in its continuity: It has sustained a community of readers, writers, and activists across generations, turning its shelves into a living archive of resistance and creativity. Its events—pláticas, readings, children’s storytelling, and performances—keep literature in active conversation with social issues such as prison reform, immigrant rights, and cultural sovereignty. The store’s close partnership with Red Salmon Arts reinforces its mission to merge art, activism, and education.
Both LibroMobile and Resistencia illustrate what it means to feature indie titles not as commodities, but as tools for connection and transformation. They curate beyond the market logic of bestsellers, centering the stories that major publishing often overlooks. They also create infrastructure for the circulation of small-press literature by nurturing relationships with independent publishers, hosting local authors, and reinvesting proceeds into community programming.
Together, these spaces remind us that the most successful indie bookstores are those that view bookselling as a form of cultural work—rooted in justice, care, and imagination. They prove that when readers see themselves reflected in the books around them, literature becomes not just a product but a public service, a home, and a way of building community across generations.
How can bookstores and libraries find and order your titles?
Arte Público Press’s full catalog is available in PDF format on our website. Titles can be searched by genre, theme, age group, or cultural focus, and MARC records or metadata files may available through wholesalers to simplify catalog integration for libraries.
Our books are distributed nationally and internationally through multiple channels that serve bookstores, libraries, schools, and other institutions. All titles are listed and fully returnable through Ingram, allowing independent bookstores to order easily through their existing accounts. For K-12 and educational libraries, Arte Público titles are available from standard wholesalers, including Brodart, Follett Content, Libraria, and Mackin Educational Resources. Books may also be purchased through re-binders such as Bound-to-Stay-Bound Books and Perma-Bound Books. Bookstores and institutions can order directly from Arte Público Press by visiting our website or by contacting our Sales Department at [email protected] or (713) 743-2998.
In addition, selected Arte Público Press titles are available in digital formats through OverDrive (for public and K–12 libraries), EBSCOhost and ProQuest (for academic libraries), and Amazon Kindle (for individual readers).
Arte Público Press also partners with independent bookstores, community libraries, and educational organizations to host author events, book festivals, and bilingual literacy initiatives that promote Latino voices and stories.
How can interested writers submit their work to Arte Público Press?
Arte Público seeks original, high-quality works that highlight the diversity and creativity of Latino life in the United States and advance our mission to make Latino literature visible, accessible, and celebrated. Arte Público Press welcomes submissions from writers (with or without agents) whose work reflects the diverse experiences and histories of the US Latino community. All submissions are reviewed by our editorial team. Because of the large number of manuscripts we receive, the review process may take several months.
Writers should submit a complete, book-length manuscript (no individual stories or poems) along with a brief cover letter that includes a synopsis, author biography, and contact information. For Piñata Books, please include the full manuscript for picture books or at least three chapters for middle-grade or YA works. Submissions may be sent through our website.
