1. About the Database

Latino Literature is the most comprehensive collection yet created for students and scholars working in this field. We have now completed part of the project with 105,598 pages of fiction and poetry representing Chicano culture and the various ethnicities of Latin American writers working in the United States. Currently comprising 380 plays, the drama section will include over 450 plays when complete.

Although the collection includes materials from the 19th century, the vast majority of works are from the period spanning the Chicano Renaissance to the present day. They have been painstakingly licensed from estates, authors, and archives. We present them in their original language, English or Spanish. In cases where authors produced a version of a text in each language, both versions are included. Roughly 30% of the database is made up of previously unpublished or rare materials from various sources, including institutions like the Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños at Hunter College, scholars' personal archives, and the authors themselves.

The three major groups are represented-Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans-as well as Argentineans, Dominicans, and other Central and South Americans. Through their writings the authors included in the collection represent different immigration experiences, their efforts to adapt to a new culture and language without losing their own, and the struggle to pursue social, political, and economic advancement.

To illustrate and give additional information about the works, we have gathered supplementary resources, such as playbills and performance material, poetry readings, book presentation flyers, book covers, and photographs. All this material is indexed and linked to the texts. Among other precious material we have four recordings of theatrical performances from the early 1980s, over 500 photographs documenting Hispanic Theater activities from its beginning to the present, and hundreds of pages of Chicano folklore.

I would like to thank the editorial advisors, especially Jorge Huerta, who became a dear friend. I also want to acknowledge all the authors who have been as excited as I am about this project and everyone who generously put time and effort into the creation of Latino Literature. It's been a great personal pleasure to work with you all.

Latino Literature is part of the Alexander Street Literature package, which enables researchers to explore the rich literary heritage of diverse cultures from across the globe.

Isabel Lacerda
Editor

2. Editorial Criteria

We consulted many critical works to create this collection, including the following bibliographies:

• Dictionary of Literary Biography: Chicano Literature, first series, Francisco A. Lomeli, Carl R. Shirley and Mary Bruccoli. Gale Group, 1989.
• Dictionary of Literary Biography: Chicano Literature, second series, Francisco A. Lomeli and Carl R. Shirley. Gale Group, 1992.
• Dictionary of Literary Biography: Chicano Literature, third series, Francisco A. Lomeli and Carl R. Shirley. Gale Group, 1999.
• U.S. Latino Literature: an Essay and Annotated Bibliography, Marc Zimmerman. Chicago: MARCH/Abrazo Press, 1992.
• Latinos in English: a Selected Bibliography of Latino Fiction Writers of the United States, Harold Augenbraum, Hilda Mundo-Lopez, Ilan Stavans, Terry Quinn. New York: Mercantile Library of New York, 1992.
• A Current Bibliography of Chicano Literature: Creative and Critical Writings through 1984, Roberto G. Trujillo and Andres Rodriguez. Stanford: Stanford University Libraries, 1984.
• Chicano Perspectives in Literature: a Critical and Annotated Bibliography, Francisco A. Lomelí and Donaldo W. Urioste. Albuquerque: Pajarito Publications, 1976.

A scholarly editorial board assisted in the selection of the content:

Jorge A. Huerta, Professor of Theater at the University of California, San Diego, is a leading authority on contemporary Chicano and U.S. Latino Theater, as well as a professional director. He has published a number of articles; written and produced two plays; edited three anthologies of plays; and published two landmark books: Chicano Theatre: Themes and Forms (Bilingual Press, 1982) and Chicano Drama: Performance, Society, and Myth (Cambridge, 2000). He is a founding member of TENAZ, Teatro Nacional de Aztlan and the founder of Teatro de la Esperanza, one of the first major Chicano theaters. Dr. Huerta has lectured and conducted workshops on Chicano theater throughout the United States, Latin America and Western Europe. He has directed more than 60 plays for professional and university theaters. He was the first Chicano to earn a Ph.D. in Theater, 1974, from University of California, Santa Barbara.

Virgil Suarez, Professor of creative writing at Florida State University, is the author of four novels, three collections of poetry, and one collection of short fiction. He also edited two landmark anthologies of Latino literature: Iguana Dreams (1992) and Little Havana Blues (1996). A noted poet, his work has been included in hundreds of magazines, journals, and anthologies. He was born in Havana, Cuba in 1962 and moved to the United States in 1974. He holds degrees from California State University, Long Beach and Louisiana State University.

Judith Ortiz Cofer is the Franklin Professor of English at the University of Georgia. She was the 1998 recipient of the Christ-Janner Award in Creative Research from the University of Georgia. The Rockefeller Foundation awarded her a residency at the Bellagio, Italy Conference Center in 1999. During spring 2001, she was Vanderbilt University's Gertrude and Harold S. Vanderbilt Visiting Writer in Residence. Judith Ortiz Cofer has written extensively on the experience of being a Puerto Rican in the United States. She is the author of Woman in Front of the Sun: On Becoming a Writer (a collection of essays), The Line of the Sun (a novel), and several other titles. Her work has been honored with awards including the first Pura Belpre Award, cosponsored by REFORMA and the Association for Library Services to Children.

Yolanda Retter Vargas (Ph.D., University of New Mexico) is the Chicano Studies Librarian at UCLA, where she manages a bilingual special collection focusing on the history and culture of Chicanos and Mexico. Dr. Retter has vast experience in Information Management and collection development. Her fields of expertise are history, biography, psychology, women's studies, ethnic studies and lesbian/gay studies. She has also created and maintains several web pages including "The Lesbian History Project." Her publications include several books and numerous articles in the field of lesbian history in the United States. She is a co-editor of Gay and Lesbian Rights in the United States: A Documentary History (Greenwood Press, 2003).

3. Acknowledgements

I'd like to thank the many individuals who have assisted us in the creation of the database. In addition to the help of the editorial board, many individuals gave wonderful advice. In particular, I'd like to acknowledge:

• Nelida Perez, Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, Hunter College, CUNY
• Pedro Juan Hernandez, Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, Hunter College, CUNY
• Pedro Monge-Rafuls, Ollantay Theater Magazine, NY
• Ashley Lucas, University of California, San Diego, Department of Theater and Dance

And the following people from Alexander Street Press:

• Jeff Bagato
• Pat Carlson
• John Cicero
• Graham Dimmock
• Niki Dowdell
• Andrea Eastman-Mullins
• Laura Gosling
• Milena Gruwell
• Athena Jackson
• Michael Kangal
• Christina Keller
• John G. West III
• Will Whalen

4. Subscription and Free Trial Information

Latino Literature is available for one-time purchase of perpetual access, or as an annual subscription. Please contact us at sales@alexanderstreet.com if you wish to begin a subscription or to request a free 30-day trial.

5. Editorial Contact Information

Questions and comments about the content, including errata reports, should be addressed to the Editor at editor@astreetpress.com.

6. Copyright and Performance Rights

All materials in the database are protected under U.S. and International Copyright Law. Fair use under the law permits reproduction of single copies for personal research and private use. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of protected items requires the written permission of the copyright owners.

Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that plays and materials in this database are fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America, and all other countries covered by the International Copyright Union (including the British Commonwealth and Canada), and of all countries covered by the Pan-American Copyright Convention, and the Universal Copyright Convention, and of all countries with which the United States has reciprocal copyright relations. All rights, including but not limited to professional, amateur, motion pictures, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio broadcasting, television, video or sound taping, all other forms of mechanical or electronic reproduction, including information storage and retrieval systems and photocopying, and the rights of translation into foreign languages, are strictly reserved.

Plays from this collection may not be performed without securing permission from the appropriate copyright holders, as listed in the bibliographic display for each play. Particular emphasis is laid upon the question of readings, permission for which must be secured in writing. All production rights reserved. Under no circumstances may any electronic form (CD-ROM, online, or other local storage medium) be used to create production copies of the play.

Specific performance rights information for each play can be found in the bibliographic detail display for that play. Alexander Street Press makes no guarantee that this information is correct. For plays where no performance rights information is listed, Alexander Street Press does not warrant that no performance rights exist.

We are eager to hear from any rights owners who are not properly identified so that appropriate information may be provided in the future. Please e-mail the editor at the editor@astreetpress.com.

7. Cataloging Records

MARC records are available for this collection.