New book explores cultural nuances among Latinos

• The essays deal with “feeling homesick for a home [you’ve] never had,” bullying, queerness, mental health and being in love.

Details: Author and advice columnist John Paul Brammer told Axios Latino how turning “painful things” like discrimination “into lyrical or funny things” gave him a sense of agency and power by changing how he looked at them.

• He says he feared the book would fail and be taken by some to represent the viability of all similar artistic works, since “people don’t give a whole lot of shots to Latino projects.”
• But the book has now gone on to a second printing, just two weeks after launch.

What they’re saying: “What I hope people, specifically Latinos, get out of this book is to feel a little bit more empowered in who they are without trying to stretch or shift or edit themselves to try and fit into others' idea of what their lives should look like,” says Brammer.

• Another project that humorously takes on the weighty expectations of Latinidad is the podcast “Hyphenated,” hosted by comediennes of Venezuelan and Cuban ancestries who discuss curse words, abuelas and the freedom of not fitting in.