Like its predecessors, A Hispanic Heritage, Series IV is designed as an aid for librarians and teachers who are interested in exposing students to the cultures of Hispanic people. The books listed are intended to provide students in kindergarten through high school with an understanding and appreciation of the people, history, and art and political, social, and economic problems of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Venezuela, and the Hispanic-heritage people of the United States.

The volume is arranged in chapters that explore specific countries and cultures, and chapters on Central and Latin America as a whole. Books are listed in alphabetical order by author surname. An attempt has been made to include most in-print books in English published since 1988 in the U.S. concerning the countries and people listed above, as well as general books on Latin America. Especially noteworthy titles that contain recent information and are also entertaining are marked with an asterisk. The author has assigned tentative grade levels and expresses her personal opinions of the books in the annotations. With author, subject, and title indexes.