Rolando Hinojosa
Encyclopedia
Rolando Hinojosa is a novelist, essayist, poet and the Ellen Clayton Garwood professor in the English Department at the University of Texas at Austin
.
in 1929, to a family with strong Mexican
and American
roots; his father fought in the Mexican Revolution
while his mother maintained the family north of the border. An avid reader during childhood, Hinojosa was raised speaking Spanish until junior high, where English was the primary spoken language. Like his grandmother, mother and three of his four siblings, Hinojosa became a teacher; he has held several academic posts and has also been active in administration and consulting work.
Hinojosa has devoted most of his career as a writer to his Klail City Death Trip Series, which comprises 15 volumes to-date, from Estampas del Valle y otras obras (1973) to We Happy Few (2006). He has completely populated a fictional county in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas through this generational narrative. Although he prefers to write in Spanish, Hinojosa has also translated his own books and written others in English.
Hinojosa was the first Chicano
author to receive the prestigious Premio Casa de las Américas award for Klail City y sus alrededores (Klail City), part of the series. He also received the third and final Premio Quinto Sol Annual Prize (1972), for his work Estampas del Valle y otras obras.
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
.
Life and career
He was born in Texas's Lower Rio Grande ValleyRio Grande Valley
The Rio Grande Valley or the Lower Rio Grande Valley, informally called The Valley, is an area located in the southernmost tip of South Texas...
in 1929, to a family with strong Mexican
Mexican people
Mexican people refers to all persons from Mexico, a multiethnic country in North America, and/or who identify with the Mexican cultural and/or national identity....
and American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
roots; his father fought in the Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
while his mother maintained the family north of the border. An avid reader during childhood, Hinojosa was raised speaking Spanish until junior high, where English was the primary spoken language. Like his grandmother, mother and three of his four siblings, Hinojosa became a teacher; he has held several academic posts and has also been active in administration and consulting work.
Hinojosa has devoted most of his career as a writer to his Klail City Death Trip Series, which comprises 15 volumes to-date, from Estampas del Valle y otras obras (1973) to We Happy Few (2006). He has completely populated a fictional county in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas through this generational narrative. Although he prefers to write in Spanish, Hinojosa has also translated his own books and written others in English.
Hinojosa was the first Chicano
Chicano
The terms "Chicano" and "Chicana" are used in reference to U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. However, those terms have a wide range of meanings in various parts of the world. The term began to be widely used during the Chicano Movement, mainly among Mexican Americans, especially in the movement's...
author to receive the prestigious Premio Casa de las Américas award for Klail City y sus alrededores (Klail City), part of the series. He also received the third and final Premio Quinto Sol Annual Prize (1972), for his work Estampas del Valle y otras obras.
Works
- Ask a Policeman. Houston: Arte Público. 1998.
- Los amigos de Becky. Houston, TX: Arte Público, 1991.
- Becky and her Friends. Houston, TX: Arte Público, 1990.
- Claros varones de Belken. Tempe, AZ: BilingualBilingual Review PressBilingual Review Press is an American publishing house specialising in the publication of scholarly and literary works by Hispanic and Latino American authors and researchers...
, 1986. - El condado de Belken: Klail City. Tempe: Bilingual, 1994.
- "Crossing the Line: The Construction of a Poem." Milwaukee, WI: Spanish Speaking Outreach Institute-U. of Wisconsin, 1981.
- Dear Rafe. Houston, TX: Arte Público, 1985.
- Dear Rafe/Mi querido Rafa. Houston: Arte Público Press, 2005.
- Estampas del Valle. Tempe: Bilingual, 1994.
- Estampas del Valle y otras obras. Berkeley: Quinto Sol, 1973.
- Estampas del Valle y otras obras. Berkeley: Justa, 1977.
- Generaciones, notas y brechas. San Francisco: Casa Editorial, 1978.
- Generaciones y semblanzas. 1977. Berkeley: Justa, 1979.
- Klail City. Houston, TX: Arte Público, 1987.
- Klail City und Umgebung. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1981.
- Klail City y sus alrededores. La Habana: Casa de las Américas, 1976.
- Korean Love Songs. Berkeley, CA: Justa, 1978.
- Korea Liebes Lieder/Korean Love Songs. O.B.E.M.A., Nr. 6, Osnabrück, Germany, 1991
- Mi querido Rafa. Houston, TX: Arte Público, 1981.
- Partners in CrimePartners in Crime (novel)Partners in Crime is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published by Dodd, Mead and Company in the US in 1929 and in the UK by William Collins & Sons on September 16 of the same year...
. Houston, TX: Arte Público, 1985. - Rites and Witnesses. Houston, TX: Arte Público, 1982.
- This Migrant Earth. Houston, TX: Arte Público, 1987.
- The Useless Servants. Houston: Arte Público, 1993.
- The Valley. Ypsilanti, MI: Bilingual, 1983. (Hinojosa's own translation of Estampas del Valle)
- We Happy Few. Houston: Arte Público Press, 2006.
Further reading
- Art at Our Doorstep: San Antonio Writers and Artists featuring Rolando Hinojosa-Smith. Edited by Nan Cuba and Riley Robinson (Trinity University Press, 2008).
External links
- http://www.bookrags.com/biography/rolando-hinojosa/
- http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/english/faculty/rh326
- A list of all the characters in his novels http://wkarrer.webs.com/rolandohinojosa.htm