Arte Público Press is a publishing house associated with the

University of Houston The University of Houston (; ) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas, United States. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, a coeducational institution and one of multiple junior colleges formed in ...

(

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

). It is the largest US publisher of contemporary and recovered literature by

Hispanic-American Hispanic and Latino Americans are Americans who have a Spanish or Latin American background, culture, or family origin. This demographic group includes all Americans who identify as Hispanic or Latino, regardless of race. According to the ...

authors, publishing approximately 30 titles per year.

History

Arte Público was founded in 1979 by its current director, Nicolás Kanellos, who taught

Hispanic literature Spanish-language literature or Hispanic literature is the sum of the literary works written in the Spanish language across the Hispanic world. The principal elements are the Spanish literature of Spain, and Latin American literature. There is also ...

Indiana University Northwest Indiana University Northwest (IU Northwest or IUN) is a public university in Gary, Indiana, United States. It is one of seven regional campuses of Indiana University and was established in 1963. The university enrolls approximately 3,500 degree ...

during the

Chicano Movement The Chicano Movement, also referred to as El Movimiento (Spanish for "the Movement"), was a civil rights movements, social and political movement in the United States that worked to embrace a Chicano, Chicano identity and worldview that combated ...

. Already having established himself as co-founder and editor of '' Revista Chicana-Riqueña'' since 1973, he was motivated by communal concern regarding publishing accessibility. In 1980, he accepted a position at the

, which integrated Arte Público. In 1990, Arte Público launched the "Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage" project in order to recover, index and publish lost Latino writings dating from the

American colonial American colonial architecture includes several building design styles associated with the colonial period of the United States, including First Period English (late-medieval), Spanish Colonial, French Colonial, Dutch Colonial, and Georgian. ...

period to 1960. By 1991, the press published approximately 25 books annually, with about 40% of their material being used as textbooks. In 1994, they created Piñata Books, their children's and young adult literature imprint. By 1997, it published 20 books. Arte Público Press was honored with the 2018

Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award The Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, established in 1981, is an annual literary award presented by the National Book Critics Circle in honor of its first president, Ivan Sandrof. The award "is given to a person or institution who has, ove ...

given by the

National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English".Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...

funded the initial meeting and the first decade of operation, along with numerous other foundations including

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, commonly known as the Mellon Foundation, is a New York City-based private foundation with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the product of the 1969 merger ...

, Houston Endowment Inc., and the

Ford Foundation The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a $25,000 (about $550,000 in 2023) gift from Edsel Ford. ...

. Over 18,000 pamphlets and books written by Hispanics have been located. 1,000 books have been digitized, and over 500,000 literary items have been digitized from 1,700 periodicals.

Notable publications

* ''The House on Mango Street'' by Sandra Cisneros * ''Zoot Suit and Other Plays'' by Luis Valdez * ''Rain of Gold'' by Victor Villaseñor * ''Chants'' by Pat Mora * ''y no se lo tragó la tierra (And the Earth Did Not Devour Him)'' by

Tomás Rivera Tomás Rivera (December 22, 1935 – May 16, 1984) was a Mexican American author, poet, and educator. He was born in Texas to migrant farm workers, and worked in the fields as a young boy. However, he achieved social mobility through education� ...

Notable authors

* Lamberto Alvarez * C. Ondine Chavoya * Victor Villaseñor * Nicholasa Mohr *

Luis Valdez Luis Miguel Valdez (born June 26, 1940) is an American playwright, screenwriter, film director and actor. Regarded as the father of Chicano film and playwriting, Valdez is best known for his play '' Zoot Suit'', his movie '' La Bamba'', and his ...

Miguel Piñero Miguel Piñero (December 19, 1946 – June 16, 1988) was a Puerto Rican born American playwright, actor and co-founder of the Nuyorican Poets Café. He was a leading member of the Nuyorican literary movement. Early years Piñero was born on ...

Sandra Cisneros Sandra Cisneros (born December 20, 1954) is an American writer. She is best known for her first novel, ''The House on Mango Street'' (1984), and her subsequent short story collection, ''Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories'' (1991). Her wo ...

Julia Alvarez Julia Alvarez (born March 27, 1950) is an American New Formalist poet, novelist, and essayist. She rose to prominence with the novels '' How the García Girls Lost Their Accents'' (1991), ''In the Time of the Butterflies'' (1994), and ''Yo! ...

* Helena Maria Viramontes * Sergio Troncoso *

Miguel Algarín Miguel Algarín Jr. (11 September 1941 – 30 November 2020) was a Puerto Rican poet, writer, co-founder of the Nuyorican Poets Café, and a Rutgers University professor of English. Early years Algarín was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, and ...

* Graciela Limón *

Gwendolyn Zepeda Gwendolyn Zepeda (born December 27, 1971, in Houston, Texas) is an American author and poet of Mexican American descent. Zepeda is Houston's first Poet Laureate, serving a two-year term from 2013 to 2015. She was succeeded by Leslie Contreras S ...

Daniel Olivas Daniel Anthony Olivas is an American author and attorney. Biography Daniel Olivas was raised near downtown Los Angeles, the middle of five children and the grandson of Mexican immigrants. He attended St. Thomas the Apostle grammar school, and ...

* Daniel Chacón, * Pat Mora * Richard A. Tapia * José Ángel Gutiérrez

References

External links

*
Lamberto and Beto Alvarez Illustrated Book "Muffler Man"
Book publishing companies based in Texas University of Houston Hispanic and Latino American literature Publishing companies established in 1979 Literary publishing companies {{US-publish-company-stub

History

Notable publications

Notable authors

See also

References

External links