Roberto Rodriguez (1954-2023)
Roberto (Dr. Cintli) was an associate professor at the Mexican American & Raza Studies Department at the University of Arizona. He is a longtime-award-winning journalist/columnist who received his Ph.D. in Mass Communications in 2008 at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. His current field of study is the examination of maiz culture, migration, and the role of stories and oral traditions among Indigenous peoples, including Mexican and Central American peoples. He teaches classes on the history of maiz, Mexican/Chicano Culture and politics and the history of red-brown journalism. In 2013, a major digitized collection was inaugurated by the University Arizona Libraries, based on a class he created: The History of Red-Brown Journalism. He currently writes for Truthout’s Public Intellectual Project and is currently working on a project, titled: Smiling Brown: Gente de Bronce – People the Color of the Earth. It is a collaborative project on the topic of color consciousness. He is also wrote a memoir on the topic of torture and political violence: Yolqui: A warrior summonsed from the spirit world (University of Arizona Press, 2019). His publications include Our Sacred Maiz is our Mother: Nin Tonantzin Non Centeotl (University of Arizona Press, 2014) and Writing 50 Years más o menos Amongst the Gringos (Aztlan Libre Press, 2021).
