From Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, the Delaware County District Library joins our local and national partners in celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month. This month was established to pay tribute to the generations of Hispanic Americans who have positively influenced and enriched our nation and society.

In celebration of National Hispanic Heritage Month, on Thursday, Oct. 10, music lovers of all ages are invited to the Liberty Branch Library to experience the inspiring and fun sounds of the Dalí Quartet. Inspired by its namesake, the great Spanish artist Salvador Dalí, the string quartet holds imagination and excellence at the heart of their music-making and will have audiences dancing in the library with Latin American rhythms.

The quartet’s performance begins at 6 p.m. in the Liberty Branch Library community rooms, located on the branch’s lower level. Trained by world-renowned artists, members of the Dalí Quartet are from Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the U.S., and they have degrees from esteemed institutions, including the New England Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, Juilliard, Indiana University Bloomington, and the Simón Bolivar Conservatory in Caracas, Venezuela.

After their performance at the Liberty Branch Library, the quartet will work with the Delaware City Schools’ orchestra program, then come together onstage during the Central Ohio Symphony’s season debut concert on Saturday, Oct. 12, at 7:30 p.m. in Ohio Wesleyan University’s Gray Chapel. The concert will begin with the symphony playing Bernstein’s “Candide Overture,” then move into the feature performances with the quartet and Hayes Players, and close with Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 5.”

A partnership between the Central Ohio Symphony and the Delaware County District Library allows students to attend symphony concerts for free, thanks to the DCDL Culture Pass program. New this season, to get their free ticket, students ages 18 and under must visit any DCDL location to pick up a Culture Pass form, then bring the completed form to the concert as the student ticket. One accompanying adult may fill out the Culture Pass form to purchase a ticket at half-price and attend with the student.

The concert and library visit are made possible by the Central Ohio Symphony and the Grants for Arts Projects grant by the National Endowment for the Arts. The grant supports the symphony’s Expanding Horizons project.

Following today’s theme, book recommendations for today cover the Hispanic American experience or are written by Hispanic authors. Pick one up or reserve your copy today using the Delaware County District Library app!

• “Chita” by Chita Rivera with Patrick Pacheco. Broadway icon and three-time Tony Award winner Chita Rivera’s lively and intimate memoir chronicles her seven-decade career on the stage, featuring her reflections on originating roles in West Side Story, Bye Bye Birdie, and Chicago.

• “Illegally Yours” by Rafael Agustin. Born in Ecuador, TV writer Rafael Agustin (Jane the Virgin) immigrated to the United States at age seven; he did not learn he was undocumented until he was a teenager. Augustin’s witty and heartfelt debut offers “an enthusiastic and motivational self-portrait” (Kirkus Reviews).

• “The Sons of El Rey: A Novel” by Alex Espinoza. A timeless, epic novel about a family of luchadores, or Mexican wrestlers, that spans from 1960s Mexico City to present-day Los Angeles. Explore family secrets, forbidden love, and the American dream from alternating perspectives.

• “Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice” by Cristina Rivera Garza. In her lyrical Pulitzer Prize-winning blend of memoir and true crime, author Cristina Rivera Garza grapples with the 1990 murder of her younger sister by an ex-boyfriend in Azcapotzalco, Mexico.

• “Family Lore: A Novel” by Elizabeth Acevedo. Flor has a gift: she can predict, to the day, when someone will die. So when she decides she wants a living wake—a party to bring her family and community together to celebrate the long life she’s led—her sisters are surprised. Has Flor foreseen her own death, or someone else’s? Does she have other motives? She refuses to tell her sisters, Matilde, Pastora, and Camila. But Flor isn’t the only person with secrets: her sisters are hiding things, too.

• “Vampires of El Norte” by Isabel Cañas. As the daughter of a rancher in 1840s Mexico, Nena knows a thing or two about monsters – her home has long been threatened by tensions with Anglo settlers from the north. But something more sinister lurks near the ranch at night, something that drains men of their blood and leaves them for dead. Something that once attacked Nena nine years ago.

If you have a question that you would like to see answered in this column, mail it to Nicole Fowles, Delaware County District Library, 84 E. Winter St., Delaware, OH 43015, or call us at 740-362-3861. You can also email your questions by visiting the library’s web site at www.delawarelibrary.org or directly to Nicole at [email protected]. No matter how you contact us, we’re always glad you asked!