It's the Brian Larry Show on WNYC.

Good morning again, everyone.

Now a substantive and thoroughly entertaining journey through over 500 years of Latino history in America.

This is Latino History Month.

And we're joined by cultural critic and Latino scholar Alon Stavans to discuss the 25th anniversary

edition of his incredibly fun book, Latino USA, A Cartoon History, first published in 2000, Latino USA represents Stavon's

innovative attempt to capture the nuances of Latino culture and history in the United States

through the medium of comics. The book covers a vast range of topics from Columbus's arrival

to the Alamo, Desi Arnaz, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Selena.

This revised edition, illustrated by Lalo Alcaraz, offers a few surprising updates.

We will let him reveal.

Alon Stavins, welcome back to WNYC.

It's a pleasure.

Thank you for having me.

First established for our listeners, why a cartoon history?

Well, I think a cartoon history offers the opportunity to be irreverent and to approach the past in a way that is like outside the classroom and outside the conventions to surprise people,

to entertain them, and to show them aspects of history that they might not know in ways

that are insightful and provocative.

So let me jump right to one of the images of the book that I have open in front of me.

There seems to be a real debate about where to begin this broad and complex history.

One of your characters, Maestra, the teacher, says it all starts with Christopher Columbus, and the Calaver, I may have

asked you to explain, Calavera, says, is it really necessary to start with him? Every history

...