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A good LOR describes specific, concrete things about you that (A) make you sound smart, dedicated, responsible, and prepared for graduate work and (B) the admissions committee would not otherwise have known. If the letter just rehashes information that appears elsewhere in your application (e.g. "received good grades") or offers generic praises ("very intelligent," with no evidence cited), then it's not very helpful to the committee. It is better to have a LOR from a lesser-known writer who knows you very well and can write a detailed recommendation than one from a high-profile writer who doesn't know you well and can't say much beyond "got an A in my class." Of course if you have your pick between an unknown writer who knows you well and a famous writer who knows you equally well and is willing and able to speak highly and in detail of your qualifications/accomplishments, you should choose the famous one.

Adcoms are tired of hearing about applicants' childhood interest in their field. It's so long ago that it usually doesn't tell them anything useful.

I'm not applying, nor do I have particular insight into the personal statement, but I went there for undergrad and know the department pretty well, so you're welcome to PM me if there are any questions I might be able to answer.

I would choose A.

If you have to ask strangers on the Internet whether you qualify as Latino or not, the answer is probably not. If that were an identity you truly identified with, sincerely and independently of anything you think people will give you for it, then you would have already checked the Latino box on the form and moved on.

Who knows you better? Who is more capable of, and enthusiastic about, writing a detailed and wholehearted recommendation?

Phone them.

Maybe "grad school advice" or "grad school question" as a subject line?

Whatever you say, I would not recommend framing "working" and "academia" as mutually exclusive.

Not an expert in this field, but I strongly suspect tutoring. It's more similar to what speech-language pathologists do, and is more difficult. Anyone with at least a grade-school reading level can read to kids, and you can read on autopilot, but tutoring isn't something you can phone in, or at least not as easily. I used to tutor elementary school kids, for what it's worth, and it was hard and I sucked at it.

Evidence of your maturity, professionalism, work ethic and self-motivation, using specific examples.

Professors get requests for LoRs regularly, it's part of their job, they're used to it. It's not like you're asking them to donate a kidney. Of course it does take them significant time and effort, if they're writing a good letter, and of course you should be polite and give them plenty of time and all the information they need, and leave them room to decline, and express your gratitude if they accept, and so on. Maybe send a sample of work you did in their class to jog their memory. But, while there are plenty of things you can do wrong, there's no secret key to making someone write a good letter for you. It depends if they were genuinely impressed with you, how much time you give them, how many other letters they've already agreed to write, what's going on in their personal lives right now -- some stuff you can control and some stuff you can't.

Talk to your recommenders about it. If they really believe in you, and it sounds like they do, they can go to bat for you (for example, call up a colleague and explain that their student will be applying and is awesome but had medical problems that are now fixed).

I know at least two grad students off the top of my head in a small top-ten department who served in the Peace Corps before applying to grad school, and neither of them even had undergrad degrees in the field they were in grad school for (and it was academic grad school, not professional school). It's not unusual for students to take a couple years between undergrad and grad school, and pretty much every grad student I've ever talked to about grad school advised me to do so. You can tell your recommenders the plan, have them write the letters when you're fresh in their minds, store them with a dossier service, then update your recommenders when you get back from the Peace Corps so they can edit the letters if need be.

Transcripts (i.e. list of relevant coursework and grades)

If he already told you he doesn't think you're a strong candidate, then why would you expect him to tell an admissions committee that you are a strong candidate?

Have your recommenders address it in their letters.

I know people who got into top 10 linguistics PhD programs without a prior degree in linguistics, for what it's worth.

My undergrad work, which I loved to death and am still involved in, focused on dead languages, so I am definitely not anti-humanities. My concern stems from the fact that all of the grad school advice I have read and heard says that adcoms want to see, perhaps more than anything else, evidence of strong intrinsic motivation. They want people who study a subject for the sake of the subject. Of course you have completely reasonable and admirable practical goals as well. But if they read an SoP that says you want to go to grad school in order to achieve financial security, they are probably going to wonder why you don't do something cheaper and more employable than a terminal master's in English lit, and where you got the idea that that degree would best enable you to support a dependent. In short: it's fine to say you aspire toward financial security, but when you present that as your primary motivation for getting a graduate degree in English lit, the reader may find it puzzling.

When I applied for a non-academic job (albeit a university staff job) earlier this year, both my references were professors: one was my advisor (I graduated last year but we were and are still in touch), and one was not my teacher or advisor but my employer. Was it a good idea? Well, I got the job, I love the job, and I still have good relationships with both of my references. Did I feel self-conscious about discussing non-academic jobs with my advisor? Yeah, but I sucked it up because I knew he'd go to bat for me and I really wanted the job and jeez, it's a perfectly good job, it's not like I was applying to work for the KKK or something. (I even told him I felt weird about it and he was totally nice about my being weird about it.) I'm sure it's harder when it's your graduate advisor (I only have an undergrad degree, so this was my undergrad advisor), but at least you're applying for a research job -- your academic work and relationships are totally relevant.

A good letter says a lot more than "got an A in my class." A good letter shows that the writer actually knows you and your work and your capacity for graduate study, which in many ways is very different from undergraduate study. Preferably, the letter is written by someone who has worked with you outside of class and/or has supervised your research. The letter should say things that the admissions committee would not already know just from reading the rest of your application. It should attest not only to your intelligence but, importantly, to your maturity, responsibility, work ethic, and strong intrinsic motivation.

I totally think it's legitimate to discuss how your parenthood and background have made you more mature, responsible, etc. I just think that saying "I want a graduate degree in English literature because I have a family to support" may make you sound naive about the realities of the contemporary academic job market, in which the majority of jobs are not "stable" at all and often do not pay enough to support one person, let alone two. Again, I completely support your goal of wanting to make more money so as to better support your son, but if that is your primary motivation, why choose a degree with such unstable career prospects?

I've heard grad students with children say they actually were more productive than grad students without children, because when you have kids you have to have some degree of time management and organizational skills and you simply can't afford to procrastinate. But there is still often a stigma against parenting in academia. It's your call, but the thing that actually concerns me here is that you say you're motivated by the desire to provide financially for your son. This is a perfectly good desire in life in general, but a very dubious motivation for a graduate degree in English Literature. Academia kind of fetishes scholarly poverty voluntarily taken on for the sake of "the life of the mind." What lucrative jobs do you imagine you would get with an M.A. in English Lit that you would not get with a B.A.?

Oh I see! Well that's good, I don't know as much about masters programs since they vary so much, but it sounds like you're on the right track applying to programs that are a better fit for your background and experiences.

Have your recommenders explain it in their letters. This would show that they are aware of it and believe in you anyway.