Hinojosa-Smith, Rolando (1929–)

Rolando Hinojosa-Smith is a novelist and short-story writer whose works deal primarily with the everyday life of Chicanos along the U.S.-Mexico border in south Texas. Born January 21, 1929, he is the Ellen Clayton Garwood Professor of Creative Writing in the Department of English at the University of Texas at Austin. He has played a pivotal role in establishing Chicano literature as an academic discipline and shown the connections between Chicana-Chicano literature and Latin American literature. The son of a Hispanic father and a mother of English background, he is fully bilingual and bicultural and writes novels in English and Spanish, including English versions of his own Spanish-language novels. He has been instrumental in facilitating a dialogue among Chicano and Chicana authors and writers from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Spain. His best-known work is the Klail City series, novels based in or around a mythical city in south Texas.

See alsoHispanics in the United States; Literature: Spanish America; United States-Mexico Border.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Works

Estampas del valle y otras obras: Sketches of the Valley and Other Works. Berkeley, CA: Quinto Sol, 1973.

The Valley. Ypsilanti, MI: Bilingual Press, 1973.

Klail City y sus alrededores. Havana: Casa de las Américas, 1976.

Korean Love Songs from Klail City Death Trip. Berkeley, CA: Editorial Justa, 1980.

Mi querido Rafa. Houston, TX: Arte Público Press, 1981.

Rites and Witnesses: A Comedy. Houston, TX: Arte Público Press, 1982.

Dear Rafe. Houston, TX: Arte Público Press, 1985.

Partners in Crime: A Rafe Buenrostro Mystery. Houston, TX: Arte Público Press, 1985.

Claros varones de Belken/Fair Gentlemen of Belken County. Tempe, AZ: Editorial Bilingüe, 1986.

Klail City: A Novel. Houston, TX: Arte Público Press, 1987.

Becky and Her Friends. Houston, TX: Arte Público Press, 1990.

Los amigos de Becky. Houston, TX: Arte Público Press, 1991.

The Useless Servants. Houston, TX: Arte Público Press, 1993.

Ask a Policeman. Houston, TX: Arte Público Press, 1998.

Secondary Works

Calderón, Héctor. "'Mexicanos al grito de guerra': Rolando Hinojosa's Cronicón del condado de Belken." In Narratives of Greater Mexico: Essays on Chicano Literary History, Genre, and Borders. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004.

Saldívar, José David, ed. The Rolando Hinojosa Reader: Essays Historical and Critical. Houston, TX: Arte Público Press, 1985.

                                    Mark A. HernÁndez