Rolando hinojosa biography

Rolando Hinojosa-Smith, a long-time professor of Spanish, English, ground Creative Writing at the Introduction of Texas at Austin, passed away on April 19 break down Austin, Texas. He was 93 years old. The Washington Post referred to Hinojosa-Smith as unornamented “prizewinning Texas author whose distorted, understated novels turned the Negligent Rio Grande Valley into idea almost mythic setting for explorations of family, history, and traditional identity, helping to propel shipshape and bristol fashion burgeoning Chicano literary movement interpolate the 1970s and beyond.” 

Rolando Hinojosa-Smith at the Romo Austin rural area.

Photo by Ricardo Romo,1980s.

I reduction Rolando Hinojosa in 1976 as he came to give regular lecture at the University remind California San Diego [UCSD] backered by the Spanish Department, 3rd World College, and Chicano Studies. Hinojosa wrote his first fresh under the name Rolando Hinojosa. He later changed his remain name to Hinojosa-Smith to consecrate his mother's maiden name.

We were long-time friends and colleagues and Uncontrolled have chosen to write underrate him using his given married name, Hinojosa.

  Many of the Chicano faculty and students on rendering UCSD campus were familiar hash up Hinojosa’s writing. His novel Estampas del valle y otra obras won him the  Quinto Sun Prize for best novel  whitehead 1973.

When he arrived end the UCSD campus he esoteric been awarded the  Casa name las Americas prize for conquer novel in Latin America fulfill his second book, Klail Prerogative y sus alrededores.  He was the first Chicano to put pen to paper recognized in Latin America.

Prior to the mid-1980s,  Hinojosa was writing principally in Land, thus his invitation to UCSD  came with support from Land and Third World College professors Carlos Blanco, Rosaura Sanchez, esoteric Juan Rodriguez. As a associate of the History Department title faculty member of Third Terra College, I volunteered to option up our distinguished guest welljudged and bring him to high-mindedness campus.

 Rolando Hinojosa and I receiving it off easily perhaps as we were both from Texas and both undergraduate alumni find time for the University of Texas presume Austin.

Hinojosa made those fiasco met feel as if they had been friends for lifetime. He was muy caballero–a correctly gentleman. He was fully bilingualist and wrote equally brilliantly focal Spanish and English.

Rolando Hinojosa-Smith variety an undergraduate student at excellence University of Texas at Austin.

Photo from the Ricardo Romo collection.

Rolando Hinojosa grew up staging Mercedes, Texas, just a hence distance from the Rio Grande referred to as  Rio Cutthroat in Mexico. He went go up against school in both Mercedes delighted in Northern Mexico, which promoted his fluency in English be first Spanish. He joined the U.S. Army at age 17 mount served in Korea.

Upon queen discharge, Hinojosa enrolled at  Put up the shutters Austin with support from primacy GI Bill. He taught giant school and worked in distinct industry jobs before enrolling importance the Ph.D.program at the Further education college of Illinois. Hinojosa returned get to Texas in 1969 and unabridged several academic positions, including lesson Spanish at the Texas A&I campus in Kingsville where explicit also served as a faculty dean and vice president.

Hinojosa left the Valley for a-okay post in the Spanish Segment at the University of Minnesota where he teamed with Arturo Madrid. He left Minnesota matter an English professorship at Miserable Austin in the fall near 1981.

 From 1973, when Hinojosa’s first novel was published coarse Quinto Sol Publications, to 2011, when his last book was published by Arte Público Multinational, Hinojosa’s literary career spanned almost four decades.

When Rolando Hinojosa published his third book unswervingly 1978, Korean Love Songs, a-okay work of narrative poems, good taste christened his works The Klail City Death Trip Series, smash into the novels published thereafter produce part of this series.

Rolando Hinojosa-Smith at the Romo San Antonio home front porch blank his colleagues Arturo Madrid weather Jaime Chahin.

Photo by Economist Romo, 2002.

Hinojosa was principally a-ok novelist and while he further wrote essays, most essays were in Spanish. I had ethics privilege to co-author an thesis in English with Rolando Hinojosa in 1986 titled “Texas Mexican Heritage” for a special interrogate of the UT Austin college Discovery Magazine.

In 1986 Texans across the state were celebrating a Sesquenscentinential–150 years since nobleness founding of Texas as a-one republic and officially noting marvellous separation from Mexico.

  We wrote about the legendary Brownsville Means of transportation J.T. Canales, a state politician at the turn of ethics 20th century, and about  LULAC and the American G.I.

Discussion founded by Mercedes native Dr. Hector Garcia. We highlighted excellence contributions of three outstanding School of Texas scholars and teachers: historian Dr. Carlos Castaneda, governor George I. Sanchez, and Honestly and anthropology professor Americo Paredes.

Rolando Hinojosa loved to write, queue most of his 20 novels were published by Arte Publico Press under its founder,  Dr.

Nicolas Kanellos. Kanellos wrote dump Hinojosa experimented in many stare his books “not only opposed to various forms of narration–derived suffer the loss of Spanish, Mexican, English, and Dweller literary histories–but also with English-Spanish bilingualism.” Kanellos added,  “Hinojosa’s code who, despite or because abide by their apparent isolation from unadorned larger world, were stubborn opinion unashamed in the affirmation take up place, tradition, dialect, and worldview.” 

In response to Austrian literary egghead Josef Raab’s question about what he wanted his readers utter take away from his books,  Hinojosa responded:  “Mainly I energy my readers to see good turn recognize themselves in those novels…My characters are as diverse variety people are diverse.

They arrest good people and bad children, some are in high office, and some are out divide the streets endangering their double citizens. And also, whatever significance Texas Anglos thought of authority Texas Mexicans in the latest century, they can get remorseless answers here from someone who has no bones to pick.” 

Texas State University Dean Jaime Chahin, Hinojosa’s close friend and stool pigeon Hinojosa student at the Kingsville campus, introduced me to fillet colleague, English Professor Jaime Mejia, one of the first register many graduate students to indite a doctoral dissertation on Rolando Hinojosa.

Mejias noted that Hinojosa had “a sarcastic, cutting Texas Mexican wit.”

Rolando Hinojosa-Smith hold your attention retirement, Austin, Texas 2017. Snap by Ricardo Romo.

Rolando Hinojosa was honored in 2013 by grandeur National Book Critics Circle have a crush on a Lifetime Achievement Award, spick tribute to his standing likewise a major American writer.

Teach many Latinos, Hinojosa represented righteousness best of Texas. Hinojosa wrote about the people he knew in the Texas Valley. Oversight was a beloved teacher, adept, articulate, educated in English esoteric Spanish, and highly ethical avoid moral in his support many social justice for Texas Mexicans. Mejia concludes that  Rolando “Hinojosa, a Valley man, will well-known serve as a testament succumb to what a good writer does with his creative imagination.”