On January 26, The New York Times published a column by Pamela Paul that commemorated the three-year anniversary of the publication and controversy surrounding "American Dirt," a novel penned by Jeanine Cummins. Although Paul suggests that, three years after the scandal, the controversy surrounding "American Dirt" casts a long shadow on the publishing business, as scholars of Latinx literature and culture, we question how there can be a chilling effect when the landscape for Latinx authors historically, and now, is practically ice cold. Who gets to wield the power of representation might be an important topic for Paul and others, but it distracts us from a problem that truly deserves a spotlight, especially now in the era of book bans and other censorship: the harmful and persistent under-representation of Latinx and other people of color in the publishing business.
