Since 2011, Huizache has been at the forefront of Latinx literature and art. It has featured works by poet laureates, MacArthur and Guggenheim fellows, and winners of many prestigious awards. Founding editor Dagoberto Gilb wanted Huizache to be the preeminent magazine of Latinx literature, focusing on innovative prose and poetry that exploded preconceived notions of what Latinx literature should be. Dagoberto put it best in a 2013 Los Angeles Times interview when he declared: “I want punk, I want classical, so long as it’s obsessed with what it’s doing and good. I hate do-gooder pedo. I like skilled art that knows the smartest, that doesn’t try to dupe the stupid or naïve. Willful craft. I want quality from artists who don’t think they ever get it right but move on anyway.”

In its first decade, Huizache published some of the most important and influential Latinx writers spanning generations, from early trailblazers such as José Montoya, Luis Valdez, Juan Felipe Herrera, Gary Soto, Sandra Cisneros, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Denise Chávez, Benjamín Alire Sáenz, Helena María Viramontes, and Luis J. Rodriguez to the most prominent contemporary authors such as Rigoberto González, Willie Perdomo, Reyna Grande, Carmen Giménez, Michele Serros, Manuel Muñoz, Alex Espinoza, Achy Obejas, and Héctor Tobar. Huizache also prides itself in featuring the newest voices in Latinx literature who have gone on to publish celebrated books, including Laurie Ann Guerrero, Aracelis Girmay, Joseph Rios, Fernando A. Flores, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, ire’ne lara silva, and Javier Zamora. While Huizache’s focus may be on Latinx literature, the magazine also publishes writers of diverse backgrounds such as Sherman Alexie, Naomi Shihab Nye, Cornelius Eady, Joshunda Sanders, Tim Seibles, Terrance Hayes, Bryan Washington, Barbara Jane Reyes, and Dana Johnson, embracing an editorial vision that understands the Latinx community doesn’t exist in isolation and nor should its writers.

Now housed at the University of California, Davis, Huizache continues to provide a home for voices that are often overlooked or, when seen, deliberately ignored. To hold the entire collection of Huizache is to hold the history of a people that is as persistent and gold as the magazine’s namesake, the huizache tree.