Roberto Cintli Rodríguez

Roberto Cintli Rodríguez is a columnist, author, and academic of Mexican American Studies at the University of Arizona.[1]

On March 23, 1979, Rodriguez was taking photos on the corner of Whittier Boulevard and McDonnell Avenue in East Los Angeles for Lowrider Magazine and captured the assault of an innocent man by members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The last photo Rodriguez took was of a police officer pointing directly at him. Soon after, the officers attacked him, confiscated his camera and film, and beat him so badly that he spent three days in the Los Angeles County Hospital. While preparing to leave the hospital, Rodriguez was placed under arrest for allegedly assaulting the officers with a "deadly weapon."[2][3]

Rodriguez suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and lost the ability to dream in the aftermath of the incident. From 1979 to 1986, Rodriguez sought justice in court for this incident, which involved two trials and eventually won his case.[1] Rodriguez reported that he began to dream again 20 years following the event after drinking from a medicinal plant in Mexico. The fatal shooting of Michael Brown in 2014 inspired Rodriguez to retell his story and provide a platform for the stories of others who have suffered police brutality in Yolqui, a Warrior Summoned from the Spirit World: Testimonios on Violence (2019).[3]

Rodriguez supported students and spoke out at protests, governing board meetings, and other public hearings against the passing of Arizona House Bill 2281 led by Tom Horne, which banned the Mexican American Studies Department Programs and banned and confiscated books on Chicano history, critical race theory, and decoloniality in the Tucson Unified School District.[4] He was arrested with local high school and college students the day the anti-Mexican-American studies legislation was signed into law.[5] In response, Rodriguez stated that the ban was evidence that only "Greco-Roman Knowledge" was allowed in Arizona Schools and "that Indigenous peoples and Indigenous knowledge" have been "outlawed once again."[6] Rodriguez was attacked by the far-right for his vocal support of the Mexican American Studies Department Programs, which included a threat on his life.[5]

Rodríguez worked for over ten years with colleague Patrisia Gonzales on a syndicated column entitled "Column of the Americas" and have many joint publications together.[7] Their work was jointly celebrated in 2014.[5] Gonzales also authored the foreword of Rodríguez's 2019 book.[8]