I loved this graphic novel. It was like a rewritten history textbook focusing on just influential Latine figures throughout the US's history. The information was easy to read and digest, but I go into every graphic novel thinking I can read it in one sitting. Sí, Se Puede should be read chapter by chapter with breaks in between. My history-loving heart couldn't help it, but I think that would be my number one suggestion for readers. There is a lot of information here, and readers should take the time to sit with what they learned about in between to better grasp what's being taught.

I agree with other reviewers that setting this in a museum felt like a good way to introduce these concepts, with the museum goers being people from different Latine backgrounds to put the lessons into perspective. But it also felt a bit cliché. It works well, but there were some moments of dialogue that I felt like could have been taken out and the impact of the stories would have been just as powerful.

Overall, this is a 100% recommended read from me. A great history to have on your shelf to learn more about how influential Latine people have been, and a good resource for a classroom or high school library. Thank you to NetGalley and Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press. This title publishes October 10, 2023.

First of all I want to thank netgalley for providing me with this graphic novel.

The novel tells us about various Latino people who immigrated to the United States, from singers to scientists, how each year affected the history of the country and the lives of others.

Although I liked the way of telling the life of each one of the characters, I felt that it was missing, that there could have been a little more interaction between the protagonists and the historical characters. Make them guide your lives. rather it was like watching a program from the outside and for a short time.

but in itself it is a good way to learn a little more about historical characters, ideal for children and for those who enjoy simpler books.

For me I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars

Wow, the research that went into this graphic novel. Julio did such a good job.

Yasmin's illustrations are phenomal.

This collection of stories/information about Latinx figures in history and now was so fascinating. Ranging from sad, anger, and hopefulness.

I love graphic novels like these, because it makes it easier to digest history. Which I do want to learn about, but find it hard to digest in full book form.

In Julio Anta's forthcoming graphic novel (October, Ten Speed Press) a museum guide/narrator takes a group of Latinx folx through a museum dedicated to "The Latino Heroes Who Changed the United States." Featuring colorful art by Yasmín Flores Montañez, the book is split into seven chapters with an introduction by Julián Castro (MSNBC commentator, former Mayor of San Antonio & Obama's HUD Secretary 2014-2017). As Castro says in the introduction, the Latinx population of the US is around 20% and rising. But the history taught in U.S. schools is still very much centering Euro-American narratives. In some states, it's now illegal to teach the parallel and essential histories of Native Americans, African-Americans, and Latinx. As a historian myself, I'm often frustrated by overly simplified histories and often enraged by histories that erase anyone who's not white and male. What would it mean for our country if our kids were raised learning the varied and complex narratives that truly make up our problematic history? A history that doesn't reside in an assumption of exceptionalism and white superiority.

Si Se Puede is a story about Latino strength, love, and perseverance. Julio Anta crafts a beautiful masterpiece surrounging a group of Latinos who attend a virtual reality museum to understand the history of our community in the United States. Throughout this virtual exhibit, we get to experience important moments in the history of Latino involvement as well as learn from the many Latinos who have made this country what it is. As a Latina myself, I was extremely touched by Anta's graphic novel, and I felt like I learned so much more about my culture that I did not know. I particularly appreciated the mixture of more well known characters in history, like AOC, Cesar Chavez, and even Beyonce, alongside lesser known but equally as important ones like Dara Torres, Felipe Luciano, and Mercedes "La Tia" Cubria.

Overall, I felt like Julio Anta's Si Se Puede was a piece of my own world, and I am so excited to bring this book home to share with my family as well as use it in the classes I teach at the college level to help my students understand the importance of Latino heritage.

I hope everyone RUNS to buy this book because it is THAT good! I highly recommend this book to everyone and anyone who enjoys reading.

I liked the engaging conversational tone of this graphic novel that frames the content as a tour through a museum of historical Latinx figures. This book doesn’t shy away from the debate about terminology (Latinx, Latine, Latino) and how it relates to colonization, or the history of US intervention in Latin America that destabilized countries. I will definitely recommend this title to educators and librarians.

"Si Se Puede: The Latino Heroes Who Shaped the United States" is a beautiful and inspiring book that highlights some of the most influential Latino leaders who have made a significant impact on the United States.

The opening page of this book asks how many influential Latinos can you name. Which is very true, Latino American history and a celebration of Latinos in America is overshadowed. Sí Se Puede is a graphic novel recounting Latino American history. It is very readable and relatable. I can see middle grade students gravitating to this and learning a lot. I look forward to getting my hands on a paper copy to see the details of the pictures versus reading it on a tiny screen.

Si, Se Puede is a very good overview of Latines who have had a major impact on the United States — in terms of politics, social movements, science, and culture. This graphic novel centers around a small group of Latines being guided through a Latin American History “museum” — which was an occasionally fun, but also occasionally tiresome, premise. history (and does so in a highly accessible way). The museum guide takes the group to different exhibits and highlights people in Latine past and present.

Due to this structure, and also perhaps due to the graphic novel format, the profiles were brief and somewhat shallow. I still, however, learned a lot, and think that people of all ages with little to no knowledge of important Latine historical figures would benefit from reading this. Oh, and I also didn’t love the approach to gender — early on in the graphic novel, the characters discuss non-gendered terms (i.e., Latine and Latinx) and the author still opts to use Latino, basically because more inclusive terms aren’t mainstream enough yet. Not great.

Basically, the structure and depth didn’t totally work for me, and the terminology could’ve been more inclusive, but the content is important, it was generally enjoyable to read, and I’m glad it exists.

And thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

I really like the premise of this book. There is a tour guide leading a group of people through a museum that displays a variety of different Latinos in the US, and describes all of their achievements. Some were popular & I had heard a lot about them beforehand, and some were brand new that I had never heard of. Even in the section about Modern Trailblazers, there were a few people I hadn't heard of, which was super cool to learn about. My only complaint is that a lot of the pages have giant blocks of text in the speech bubbles. For a graphic novel, some of those were just instinctively disheartening to see, even before I read the words. But otherwise, I loved the book!

i absolutely liked this and how it creatively portrayed latine history. definitely one that i think everyone should read.

This work of graphic nonfiction had great information about Latino/a figures from history that all readers should know more about. The art style matched the written words perfectly, and the device of the immersive museum helped to guide the reader through each chapter and was especially helpful for the sections about less familiar figures.

This book covered an amazing amount of history in less than 200 pages. Told in the format of a tour guide taking a small group of people through exhibits, this graphic novel talks about events from ancient Mayan civilization up to modern day figures like Jennifer Lopez and Sonia Sotomayor. While the content is incredibly valuable for all readers to learn, I felt like many parts of the test was info heavy and overwhelming. I wish the author would’ve made the book a bit longer so there was space to spread out the info more.

Earlier this year, I read "Good Girls Don't Make History," a graphic history of the women's suffrage movement, so a look at another underrepresented part of American history seemed like a natural next step. "Sí, Se Puede" highlights the contributions of Latinos (the book briefly discusses the use of words like "Latine" and "Latinx" but defaults to "Latino") in the US, ranging from soldiers in the Civil War to scientists to actors and singers. Some of the names you're sure to recognize, but others—unless you are particularly well versed in Latino-US history—will likely be new to you.

I'm particularly interested in the discussion of Sylvia Mendez, who was at the centre of a court case about segregation that predated Brown v. Board of Education by a decade but did not (to the best of my admittedly patchy memory) make it into my history textbooks. It feels particularly illustrative of how limited the view of history is in textbooks—the story in US textbooks is so often told from a white perspective, and with only a limited nod to minority experiences. I can imagine this book being a valuable classroom resource.

The book is structured as a walk through an immersive museum exhibit. From a storytelling perspective, I would have liked to get to know the museum visitors (and guide) we follow—they're introduced at the beginning, but beyond that introduction we only get the barest of glimpses of the life of the oldest woman, Yolanda, and a suggestion that man in his 40s hasn't heard of feminism (...slightly concerning). The illustrations get their point across but are rather flat, and this is probably best read for history rather than a particular interest in graphic novels. (It is worth noting that I read an ARC six months before the publication date, so it is possible that the illustrations are not final.) There's some good food for thought, though, in discussions of how language, and the language used to convey identity) has changed, of the "myth of the monolith," and more.

Thanks to the authors and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

This graphic novel follows a group of Hispanic-Americans as they embark on an interactive museum tour to meet Latino heroes they may not have learned about in school.

I really liked the way it talked about all these people, we learned about scientists, activists, politicians, entertainers, athletes and many other Latine people who changed the world for the better. The information is really accessible and easy to understand, it's short and goes straight to the point, and I think it encourages the reader to research and learn even more from the people and topics they follow. We see personalities like Sylvia Rivera and Mario Molina, as well as many others with different backgrounds and professions. Overall, it's a very informative read and one that I would thoroughly recommend.

cw: mentions of gun violence, war, racism, colonization, xenophobia, and misogyny.

Beautiful graphic novel that focuses on spotlight on Latino heroes throughout US history,

I loved the focus on different eras and professions. First, we start with a "tour" of a museum focusing on the overall history of Latinos in the US. This overview was a great introduction. I thought the most interesting section was on the Latino Union Soldiers of the Civil War. I haven't read anything on this topic before and learned a lot!

Also touches on:
Farm Workers United
Athletes
Scientists
Space exploration
Pop culture and mainstream media