The incredible story of one man’s fight for Mexican-American civil rights, from award-winning picture book creator Duncan Tonatiuh A 2020 Pura Belpré Author Honor Book! José de la Luz Sáenz (Luz) believed in fighting for what was right. Though born in the United States, Luz often faced prejudice because of his Mexican heritage. Determined to help his community, even in the face of discrimination, he taught school—children during the day and adults in the evenings. When World War I broke out, Luz joined the army, as did many others. His ability to quickly learn languages made him an invaluable member of the Intelligence Office in Europe. However, Luz found that prejudice followed him even to war, and despite his efforts, he often didn’t receive credit for his contributions. Upon returning home to Texas, he joined with other Mexican American veterans to create the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), which today is the largest and oldest Latinx civil rights organization. Using his signature illustration style and Luz’s diary entries from the war, award-winning author and illustrator Duncan Tonatiuh tells the story of a Mexican American war hero and his fight for equality.

Undocumented is the story of immigrant workers who have come to the United States without papers. Every day, these men and women join the work force and contribute positively to society. The story is told via the ancient Mixtec codex—accordion fold—format. Juan grew up in Mexico working in the fields to help provide for his family. Struggling for money, Juan crosses over into the United States and becomes an undocumented worker, living in a poor neighborhood, working hard to survive. Though he is able to get a job as a busboy at a restaurant, he is severely undercompensated—he receives less than half of the minimum wage! Risking his boss reporting him to the authorities for not having proper resident papers, Juan risks everything and stands up for himself and the rest of the community.

No Greater Love is essential reading for both American civilians and past, present, and future military personnel. Written by Major General Freddie Valenzuela, who has served all over the world and throughout several wars, this book offers eye-opening discussions of:* Challenges faced by Hispanic soldiers in the U.S. Army.* The life and burial of the very first casualty of the Iraq War.* The relatively unknown lives of the other twenty-one casualties that General Valenzuela buried.* Advice for current and future soldiers in moving up the ranks in their military careers.* Life in a military family, as revealed through firsthand accounts by the general's wife and children.* And many other topics affecting today's soldiers.

Latro, a mercenary soldier, lost his memory after a head wound and must continually rediscover his identity. However, he is now able to converse with supernatural creatures which is both a triumph and a danger.

When "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the official U.S. policy on gays serving in the military, was repealed in September 2011, soldier Stephen Snyder-Hill (then Captain Hill) was serving in Iraq. Having endured years of this policy, which passively encouraged a culture of fear and secrecy for gay soldiers, Snyder-Hill submitted a video to a Republican primary debate held two days after the repeal. In the video he asked for the Republicans' thoughts regarding the repeal and their plans, if any, to extend spousal benefits to legally married gay and lesbian soldiers. His video was booed by the audience on national television. Soldier of Change captures not only the media frenzy that followed that moment, placing Snyder-Hill at the forefront of this modern civil rights movement, but also his twenty-year journey as a gay man in the army: from self-loathing to self-acceptance to the most important battle of his life-protecting the disenfranchised. Since that time, Snyder-Hill has traveled the country with his husband, giving interviews on major news networks and speaking at universities, community centers, and pride parades, a champion of LGBT equality.

Muslim, lawyer, soldier, hostage. As the daughter of an Indian Muslim father and a white Australian mother, growing up in the conservative environment of 1970s Perth, Rabia Siddique was always going to be marked as different. Escaping her traumatic childhood, Rabia moved to London after graduating from law school to pursue her passionate commitment to social justice. She joined the British Army as a military lawyer just days after 9/11, finally finding herself stationed in Southern Iraq, where she pushed herself to make a difference in one of the most dangerous and testing environments on earth. On 19 September 2005, Rabia and another soldier were taken hostage by Islamic insurgents as they tried to negotiate the release of two kidnapped British SAS operatives. She battled for hours to save their lives, using her legal expertise, knowledge of Islam and Arabic to negotiate with their captors as a violent mob tried to storm the compound where she was being held. After their release, her colleague received a Military Cross, while Rabia received nothing. Her subsequent sex and race discrimination case against the British Army made headlines around the world. Her memoir is a story of grit, courage and conviction, born out of a unique perspective.

African Americans' long campaign for "the right to fight" forced Harry Truman to issue his 1948 executive order calling for equality of treatment and opportunity in the armed forces. In War! What Is It Good For?, Kimberley Phillips examines how blacks' participation in the nation's wars after Truman's order and their protracted struggles for equal citizenship galvanized a vibrant antiwar activism that reshaped their struggles for freedom. Using an array of sources--from newspapers and government documents to literature, music, and film--and tracing the period from World War II to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Phillips considers how federal policies that desegregated the military also maintained racial, gender, and economic inequalities. Since 1945, the nation's need for military labor, blacks' unequal access to employment, and discriminatory draft policies have forced black men into the military at disproportionate rates. While mainstream civil rights leaders considered the integration of the military to be a civil rights success, many black soldiers, veterans, and antiwar activists perceived war as inimical to their struggles for economic and racial justice and sought to reshape the civil rights movement into an antiwar black freedom movement. Since the Vietnam War, Phillips argues, many African Americans have questioned linking militarism and war to their concepts of citizenship, equality, and freedom.

A People's Army documents the many distinctions between British regulars and Massachusetts provincial troops during the Seven Years' War. Originally published by UNC Press in 1984, the book was the first investigation of colonial military life to give equal attention to official records and to the diaries and other writings of the common soldier. The provincials' own accounts of their experiences in the campaign amplify statistical profiles that define the men, both as civilians and as soldiers. These writings reveal in intimate detail their misadventures, the drudgery of soldiering, the imminence of death, and the providential world view that helped reconcile them to their condition and to the war.

A blistering critique of the gulf between America's soldiers and the society that sends them off to war. As war has become normalized, armed conflict has become an "abstraction" and military service "something for other people to do." Bacevich takes stock of a nation with an abiding appetite for war waged at enormous expense by a standing army demonstrably unable to achieve victory.

Discover the life and legacy of celebrated Mexican artist Diego Rivera in this picture book by award-winning author and illustrator Duncan Tonatiuh A Pura Belpré Illustrator Award Winner! Diego Rivera, one of the most famous painters of the twentieth century, was once just a mischievous little boy who loved to draw. But this little boy would grow up to follow his passion and greatly influence the world of art. After studying in Spain and France as a young man, Diego was excited to return to his home country of Mexico. There, he toured from the coasts to the plains to the mountains. He met the peoples of different regions and explored the cultures, architecture, and history of those that had lived before. Returning to Mexico City, he painted great murals representing all that he had seen. He provided the Mexican people with a visual history of who they were and, most important, who they are. Award-winning author and illustrator Duncan Tonatiuh, who has also been inspired by the art and culture of his native Mexico, asks, if Diego was still painting today, what history would he tell through his artwork? What stories would he bring to life? Drawing inspiration from Rivera to create his own original work, Tonatiuh helps young readers to understand the importance of Diego Rivera’s artwork and to realize that they too can tell stories through art.