For anyone interested in learning more about the history (primarily Mexican, Mexican-American) or some of the themes in Decent People, here’s a short list of recs written by historians and other experts.

There’s a broad arc to this list, starting with colonialism across Latin America and ending with contemporary Mexico. 

• Open Veins of Latin America: How Latin American countries were originally looted, the way that morphed over generations, and the long hand of those effects.   

• Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America: A deep dive into the Latino presence in America and how America’s role in Latin American countries shaped migration to the US. 

• Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands: If you don’t know the magonistas and other rebels who started the Mexican revolution, buckle up. Plus, why Mexico was the “laboratory” of US imperialism.

• Las Soldaderas: Women of the Mexican Revolution: A short primer with great stories about some of the women who shaped the revolution. 

• The Femicide Machine: Covers the conditions that led to femicides and the reasons for impunity. 

• Grieving: Dispatches from a Wounded Country: A view of modern systemic violence in Mexico by one of Mexico’s finest intellectuals.

This is a small snippet of what exists on these topics. These are all worth reading, but if you can only pick one up, start with the last one on the list.   

• Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny: This offers a clear understanding of misogyny and its relation to patriarchy.

• Girls and Sex: What young women contend with + a bit about where that comes from. It’s not surprising (to women), but it connects the dots.  

• Boys and Sex: What shapes a young guy’s ideas of sex, intimacy, and what that encourages/produces.    

• The Will to Change: This was the closest thing I found to a book that addresses the issues of patriarchy and what that does to men, along with some thoughts on how to change this. This is the work of men, women and society.