Dr. Rolando Díaz continues to publish varied works in English and Spanish

Southeastern Oklahoma State University Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of English, Humanities, and Languages, Dr. Rolando J. Díaz, continues to publish and contribute to the area of Hispanic Studies.

His most recent publication, Hispanic Legacies: Essays and Interviews, has been published by Kendall Hunt Publishing Company. This textbook can be used in Latino/Chicano/Hispanic Studies classes as the main textbook or as a background reader for literature, history, and humanities classes. It includes a collection of essays on Hispanic history, culture, and identity. It also includes essays on the literary analysis of works by such authors as Gloria Anzaldúa, Victor Villaseñor, Lucha Corpi, and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. Also included in this book are interviews with Chicano activist and lawyer Dr. José Ángel Gutiérrez, Hollywood icon Pepe Serna, Chicano Noir author Manuel Ramos, and Chicano author and poet Rolando Hinojosa-Smith.

The second edition of Tales from the Tortilla Curtain and Other Stories has been published by Proisle Publishing. This speculative/science fiction book with social commentary imagines what would happen if the Great Wall of the Americas - otherwise known as the Tortilla Curtain - were ever completed along the border between the United States and Mexico. It speaks of the human tragedy on both sides of the border. Included in this book is the section "A Través del Tiempo", a collection of short stories about two young Latinos who get their hands on a time machine and travel to significant points in their lives along the border. The third section of this book, "¡Hazte el behave o te espanquéo!" takes a more humorous look at the cultural and linguistic hybridity of the Hispanic experience. It also includes a list of vocabulary words that could be incorporated in either language.

Dr. Díaz also translated the short stories in The Messiah of Villa 31 by renowned Argentinian author Alberto Julian Pérez from Spanish to English. It was published by Letra Minuscula Publishing in 2023. The short stories in this book relate the struggles and religious experiences faced by the poor and marginalized people in the urban areas of Argentina.

Dr. Díaz has also completed two manuscripts slated for publication in the near future. The first is "Revolucionaria: Real Women Have Courage", a memoir of Josefina López. López is the author of the internationally acclaimed play, Real Women Have Curves, co-author of the movie by the same name, and co-author of the musical adaptation, Real Women Have Curves: The Musical, which is scheduled to open at the James Earl Jones Theater on Broadway in New York City in April of 2025.

The second manuscript is the English to Spanish translation of the award-winning book, All Bones Are White - "Todos los huesos son blancos" - by Carlo Pérez Allen. This book recounts the search for identity of the main character, Charlie, a boy born in Mexico and raised in the United States.

Dr. Díaz completed a review of the book, Prefemenismo Azul: La poética modernista de María Enriqueta Camarillo y Roa: Primera modernista del siglo XIX, by Dr. Susana Villanueva Eguía Lis. It is scheduled to be published by Letras Hispanas at Texas State University in Spring 2025. This book brings to light the important contributions of María Enriqueta Camarillo y Roa to the Modernista Literary Movement in Latin America at the end of the nineteenth century and the start of the twentieth century.

Dr. Díaz plans to incorporate these works in his English, Spanish, and Humanities courses in the future. He hopes to continue writing and translating books that accurately reflect the Latino/Chicano/Hispanic experience, including the history, language, culture, and identity of this diverse community.