Arte Público Press

Arte Público Press is the largest U.S. publishing company that specializes in contemporary and rediscovered literature, which was written by American authors, who are among the Hispanics. The seat of the publishing house is in Houston, Texas. The publishing house belongs to the University of Houston. Every year is the publisher out about 30 titles.

Arte Público Press was founded in 1979 by Nicolás Kanellos, who is still the Head of Publishing. Just one year later, the publisher was taken over by the University of Houston, the publisher's headquarters is located on the site, which is part of this university. In 1992 Arte Público the project " Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage " ( Rediscovery of Hispanic- American literary heritage ). The aim of this project is to rediscover literature of Hispanics, scientifically worthy and publish that emerged since the European settlement of North America until 1960. So the publisher has published, for example, the letters of María Ruiz de Burton. The 1895 late Ruiz de Burton is considered the first female Mexican American who wrote in English. 1994 extended the publishing his program to " Piñata Books" aimed specifically at children and young people. The publisher is responding well to the changing ethnic composition of the U.S. population. In 1950, four million Hispanics in the United States. From nine million (1970 ), their number rose to about 15 million (1980) and by 2003 to about 45 million (approximately 13.4% of the total U.S. population ).

The Arte Público Press published authors include Lamberto Alvarez, Victor Villaseñor, Nicholasa Mohr, Luis Valdez, Miguel Piñero, Sandra Cisneros, Julia Alvarez, Helena Maria Viramontes, Sergio Troncoso, Miguel Algarin, Graciela Limón, Gwendolyn Zepeda, Daniel Olivas Daniel Chacón, Rubén Medina and José Ángel Gutiérrez. Susanne Weingarten, however, has also written about the publisher that it was a " Hispanic minority program in an honorable mini -Verlag ". The books published there do not reach the general American reading public. The fact that Sandra Cisneros Chicana literature -attributable novel The House on Mango Street was published after the first publication by Arte Público Press by the big publishing Random House, reaching the mainstream, has been hailed by literary critics as a great breakthrough of Chicano literature. Sandra Cisneros, for the first publication by Arte Público Press was the first step towards literary fame, said in an interview on National Public Radio on 19 September 1991:

" I think I can not be happy if I 'm the only one that will be published by Random House when so many other great writers - both Latinos and Latinas and Chicanas or Chicanos - is that in the U.S. not of great be published publishing houses or these are not even known. If my success would mean that publishers again a second look at these writers throw - and then run these in significant numbers, then we will finally arrive in this country. "