Rolando Hinojosa-Smith

Rolando Hinojosa (born 1929) is an American novelist, essayist, poet and the Ellen Clayton Garwood professor in the English Department at the University of Texas at Austin.
Early life and education.
He was born in Texas's Lower Rio Grande Valley in 1929, to a family with strong Mexican and American roots and grew up in Mercedes, Texas. 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. He attended the University of Texas at Austin and New Mexico Highlands University. Hinojosa received a PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1969.
Career.
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".