User:Tacovilla17/Rolando Hinojosa-Smith/Bibliography

Primary Sources


 * 1) Hinojosa-Smith, Rolando. “Always Writing .” World Literature Today, vol. 75, no. 3/4, Summer/Autumn2001 2001, p. 64. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.proxy.library.emory.edu/10.2307/40156750.

Obtained from Academic Research Complete, this is Ronaldo Hinojosa's own thoughts on his literary works and how he keeps on revising his work. I feel like this is a quality source to add, and a good primary source. This is because in this article, Rolando Hinojosa discusses his influences on his work, such as the Mexican Revolution because his own father fought in the war. This is exemplified in two chapters of his first book ("Estampas del Valle", 1973), namely "But Since He Died" and "The Old Revolutionaries", as well as the second book in the series, "Klail City y sus alrededores" (1976). He also names his influences, such as Sumerset Maugham, whre perspective of a writer, as well as Luis Leal who helped him focus on what kind of stories he wanted to produce. Hinojosa's stories are diverse, ranging from the obvious racial tensgions between Anglo-Texans and Mexican Texans, to land disputes, intermarriages, and corruption. He makes it a point to have his characters talk about these issues as it gives a different point from everyone about these issues that they all face. One such example is when he discusses religion, and specifically in Becky and Her Friends (Catholicism, commonly, due to its influence on the Hispanic population), and uses his multiple characters to talk about a middle-aged, college educated mother of 2 who intends to divorce her husband. The small community around her is divisive about her action, but ultimately she divorces him. These kinds of stories are the heart of Hinojosa's writing, where people form different opinions about a similar issue in similar experiences. The way it is formatted however, can always change, as he can write fragmentary novels (such as Estampas Del Valle, 1972), novels in narrative verse (Korean Love Songs (1978)), and epistolary novels (such as Dear Rafe (1981)). Of course, it seems that the years always brings changes to society, and Hinojosa's community faces the new challenges of a rising economy that is brought upon primarily by the distribution of drugs. The resulting bloodshed and double-crossings are reflected in his linear novels Partners in Crime (1985) and Ask a Policeman (1998) reflect such changes. Going back to further inlfuences, Hinojosa states that Korean Love Songs (1972) was directly influenced by Paul Fussell's The Great War and Memory (1975), which pushed Hinojoasa to read WWI British poetry.

2.The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature

RHS is one of the editors for this book, and he has his own section including a valuable biography that can be used to extend his biography. In addition, the short story Becky and her Friends is included in its entirety. Upon reading Becky and her Friends, it seems true that he writes in a unique matter, giving his actors similar to a dialouge in a play but only simply letting them express their thougts on a singular social issue, in this case the divorce of Becky to marry someone of lower status. It is interesting because it once more confirms his style of realism and satire, making fun of the archeological thinking of social rankings. I will use this primary source to add to his biography in addition to going further into the depth on the Klail City Death Trap Series. RHS also claims that William Faulker's series was a major influence on his Klail City Death Trap Series.

3. THE VALLEY / ESTAMPAS DEL VALLE by Rolando Hinojosa

So this 2014 edition of "The Valley" essentially has the "The Valley" and "Estampas del Valle" in the same book so that it can compared and contrasted with one another. This 2014 edition of the book includes a preface by Dr. Nicolas Kanellos, the founder of Arte Publico Press, who acquired Quinto Sol (the original publisher of the Klail City Death Trap Series). In his preface, he calls Ronaldo Hinojosa's series, together with Rudolfo Ananya's Bless Me, Ultima (1972) and Rudolfo Ananya's "...Y no se lo tragó la Tierra” (1971), as major figures in Chicano (Mexican-American literature). Observations from this book is that it includes diary entries from Don Victor, which references his time serving in the Mexican Revolution around the year 1920 when the revolution was weaning. Another observation is that after the chapter "Bruno Cano: Lock, Stock, and BBL", the section switches from that of Jehu Malacra to Rafe Buenrostro. In the Spanish original version, there are a couple of more stories such as "Don Javier" and "Emilio Taves", with the section on Rafe Buenrostro not coming until the very last section of the book.

Secondary Sources


 * 1) The Borderlands of the Korean War and the Fiction of Rolando Hinojosa

This research article, written by Daniel Y. Kim (an English associate professor at Brown University) focuses on Rolando Hinojosa's Korean Love Songs (1978), Rites and Witnesses (1989), and The Useless Servants (1993), and his interpretation of how Hinojosa-Smith views the war. Kim for example, points out the mention of General Walton H (Johnny) Walker's "pep" talk in Korean Love Songs's Chapter 8: "The Eighth Army at Chongchon", where General Walton, addressing the underestimation of Chinese fighters in the Korean War, proclaims that there is simply many Chinese groups that live in Korea are akin to Mexicans living in Texas, implying that he views Mexican-Americans as Mexican and thus not a US citizen. RHS then proceeds to state that Mexican-Americans are reminded of who they are percieved to be from the point of view of Anglo-Americans despite being on the same groups in battle. Thus, Rafe, and therefore RHS seem to be irritated that they risk death for a country that sees them as internationals regardless. RHS also seems to point out the difference in treatment Chicanos recieve after the Korean War, in that discrimination against them by Anglo-Americans is now less prevalent, and in fact post war, the Klail City Valley is now more integrated during Rites and Witnesses. Despite Anglo-Americans still controlling the community, there is at the very least integration of Chicanos in public school and more of them joining politics and college (Rafe and Jehu due to the GI Bill for example). At the end, Kim also explains the parallels between Japan and the United States, and how both imperialist movements result in racial tensions between the Japanese and Koreans, and the Anglo-Americans and the Mexican-Americans. Daniel Y. Kim's article is part of a bigger journal called positions: asia critique (2015) that focuses on East Asia and Asian-American studies.

2. Exploring the phenomenon of self-translation in the fiction of Rolando Hinojosa

Written by María Laura Spoturno (an associate professor of Literary Translation and US American Literature at La Plata National University in Argentina) and Gabriel Osvaldo (Not much information on him is available other than he also goes to the same university) write about self-translation between English and Spanish for RHS in a bigger journal called ''HERMĒNEUS. REVISTA DE TRADUCCIÓN E INTERPRETACIÓN,'' which focuses on translation and interpretation. Here, the authors write about how RHS's works in English and Spanish differentiate and how it cannot fit into Anton Popovic's definition of self-translation as Popovic states that the translated version cannot be considered a different version or variant of the original publication as it is essentially the same book but in a different language. RHS has a preference to write in Spanish, writing Estampas del valle y otras obras (1973) and the English version The Valley (1983), Spoturno and Osvaldo note the changes in the chapter layout and the addition of pictures, along with the title change, conclude that the style of the literature changes, unifying the stories (as seen by dropping "and other stories") into one big community that eventually established connections in sequential books. They conclude that the original Spanish version demands more interpretation by the reader of the meaning behind the stories, while the English version is a more cohesive set of stories that is more explicit. Thus RHS did not add in new texts or delete it, instead when comparing the two texts he seems to only rearrange the ordering of the chapters to make it more sense. The authors conclude that RHS's work should not be seen as an autotranslation but a rewrite of his first novel.

3. "Writing Is Hard, and It Calls For Honesty" An interview with RHS with Gabor Tillman

In this interview, RHS is asked about writing in Spanish and English, and here, he states that nowadays he rarely translates his English works into Spanish as most Mexican-Americans are more proficeient in English rather than Spanish, something he understands since higher education values more the English language than Spanish. When asked whether he takes "additional creativity" when translating into English, RHS states that he focuses on translating proverbs, maxims, into similar meanings in the other language. Thus, in his works he focuses on remaining consistent with the meaning behind it, stating that his Spanish to English adaptations are moreso "renditions" than "translation", specifcally, that of the English-Spanish from that of the Spanish-English communities that lively closely together.

4. Zilles, K. (2001). Rolando Hinojosa : a reader's guide. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

This secondary source provides a summary of all of Rolando Hinojoda’s works, and even charts them out since he has plenty of versions of his novels, such as the different editions of his first book alone since he originally printed it in Spanish and then English, but later released it again with a couple of additions. Ziles provides an analysis of RHS’s work, and in this book RHS states he sees the translations between the novels as moreso renditions, as he does not directly translate but instead restructures his work. One such example provided by Ziles is of Klail, pg 85 and Condado, pg 48, in which a dialouge occurs between two characters, and one is supposed to be more literate in Spanish than in English. The Spanish edition makes the lesser literate character seem so by displayong his lack of ability to conjugate verbs in Spanish. In English, the lesser literate character instead speaks in rather unusual alliterations, and adds to the preacher’s dialouge to make it more obvious that he speaks in an odd voice. Ziles adds to the first book of RHS, stating that his stories seem to set up character portraits and use folklore and humor in his books to get his messages across.