Héctor Calderón, professor of Chicana and Chicano studies in the UCLA College, was awarded the Best Academic Themed Book at the 21st Annual International Latino Book Awards for his work on “The Aztlán Mexican Studies Reader, 1974-2016.”
The International Latino Book Awards are the largest Latino cultural awards in the United States, with the 261 finalists this year in 95 categories. In the span of two decades it has honored the achievements of 2,897 authors and publishers. The awards are produced by Latino Literacy Now, a nonprofit organization co-founded in 1997 by Edward James Olmos and Kirk Whisler. Celebrating books in English, Spanish and Portuguese, finalists for the awards come from across the Unites States, Puerto Rico and 18 other countries.
“The Aztlán Mexican Studies Reader, 1974-2016” was also awarded second place in the category Best Latino Focused Nonfiction Book — English and in May the reader was recognized at the 2019 Independent Publisher Book Awards with a bronze award in the Book Series category for nonfiction.
Calderón was the founding chair of the César E. Chávez Center at UCLA, and he has also served as director of the University of California, Education Abroad Program’s Mexico Study Center as well as Executive Director of la Casa de la Universidad de California en México, A.C. He specializes in Spanish American, Mexican and Chicano literature and cultures, and his current research projects revolve around Mexican literature, film, rock and Mexican American fiction of Los Angeles.