Happy Friday, Wildcats! Falvey Library is delivering you another semester of Weekend Recs, a blog dedicated to filling you in on what to read, listen to, and watch over the weekend. Annie, a graduate assistant from the Communication department, scours the internet, peruses the news, and digs through book stacks to find new, relevant, and thought-provoking content that will challenge you and prepare you for the upcoming week.

Today marks the first day of Hispanic/Latine Heritage Month. Running from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, Hispanic Heritage Month celebrates the diversity of Hispanic and Latine cultures globally and honors the honoring the contributions of Hispanic Americans throughout history. In celebration, this weekend’s recs will highlight some content to help get you into the spirit of the month.

Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash

If you have 4 minutes and 35 seconds…and love Pedro Pascal, watch this SNL sketch from when he hosted this year.

If you have 10 minutes…and want to better understand the differences between the labels “Hispanic” and “Latine,” read this article.

If you have 14 minutes and 2 seconds…and love America Ferrera, watch her TED Talk on her identity and representation in Hollywood.

If you have 1 hour and 46 minutes…and want to watch a Mexican film that made a big splash in the 2000s, watch Y tu mamá también, available in Falvey’s DVD Collection. This film manages to perfect the formula for somewhat raunchy hijinks and emotional pull, everything you want in a road trip movie.

Bonus: if you’re interested in learning more about this film from the filmmakers and actors, read this article from the New York Times.

Photo by Adrian Dascal on Unsplash

If you have 2 hours and 3 minutes…and love historical biopics, watch Frida, available in Falvey’s DVD Collection. This 2001 film follows Mexican artist and icon Frida Kahlo, famously known for her self-portraits.

Bonus: if you’re a fan of based-on-a-true-story films, you can also watch Roma, which follows an indigenous women navigating the political climate of 1970s Mexico while working as a live-in housekeeper and nanny for a wealthy Mexican family.

If you have 3 hours…and are a superhero fan, go see Blue Beetle in theaters. If you were a fan of DC’s Shazam, I think you’ll like this one. Featuring actors like George Lopez, Xolo Maridueña, Susan Sarandon, Bruna Marquezine, Raoul Trujillo, and Becky G (among many others), this movie follows recent college graduate Jaime Reyes as he becomes Blue Beetle, a superhero located in the fictional Palmera City (that definitely seems to take inspiration from Miami).

If you have 8 hours…and are looking for a new book, read Neruda on the Park, available through inter-library loan. This book uses storytelling to highlight the impacts of gentrification on a Dominican family living in New York City.

Bonus: for more book recs, check out past GA Jenna’s Hispanic Heritage Month book list.

For more ways to celebrate, you can find a list of Villanova’s campus-wide Hispanic/Latine Heritage Month events here, including Falvey’s co-sponsored History of Puerto Ricans in Philadelphia event and sponsored Speaker: Dr. Irma Leticia Robles Moreno: “Peruvian Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani: Weaving Shared Memory Landscapes Through Theatre and Performance.”

Annie Stockmal is a second-year graduate student in the Communication Department and Graduate Assistant in Falvey Library.