August saw Los Angeles host a pair of important events for the Spanish-language publishing and literary communities in the U.S. The first was the annual celebration of the International Latino Book Awards, which took place August 19 and 20 at Los Angeles City College.

The second was LéaLA—a Spanish-language book fair in Los Angeles organized by the team behind the Guadalajara International Book Fair—which took place August 25–28 at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes in Downtown Los Angeles.

The International Latino Book Awards were established in 1997 by actor Edward James Olmos and publishing executive Kirk Whisler with the goal, according to the organizers, of “providing Latinos more access to resources to help improve their futures and to help mainstream America view the Latino community in a more accurate, less stereotypical way.” The ILBA is administered by Empowering Latino Futures, a nonprofit organization that also organizes Latino Book & Family Festivals (it has held 69 around the U.S.) and has distributed some 165,000 free books to underserved youth in San Diego.

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