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Hector Tobar, Los Angeles writer

Héctor is a writer, the son of Guatemalan immigrants and native of the city of Los Angeles.

He's published two books, numerous essays, and hundreds of newspaper stories.

These days, he writes a weekly column for the LA Times.

Set in the tenements, tunnels, alleys and parks of immigrant Los Angeles, and in Guatemala during the military dictatorship there, The Tattooed Soldier is a political novel about love, justice and revenge.

Héctor delivered the 2010 Commencement address at UC Irvine's Humanities Graduation, and the address at the 2008 address at Cal State Northridge Humanities Graduation. Read his CSUN speech here.

Click here to read a recent speech by Héctor on the immigration debate and what it means for the Latino community. And click here to read his June 2009 column on black-Latino unity in Los Angeles

He's spoken in Minnesota, Ohio, North Carolina, Texas and many other places, and is available to speak to your school, college or community group.

<<<Hector's novel The Tattooed Soldier is published in paperback by Penguin Books and was a finalist for the PEN USA West Award for Fiction.

His most recent book is the non-fiction Translation Nation: Defining a New American Identity in the Spanish-Speaking United States, published by Riverhead Books. >>>

These days, Héctor is writing another book and working for his hometown paper, the Los Angeles Times.

For a decade, Héctor was a National and Foreign correspondent for the L.A. times. Click here to read Hector's reporting from Mexico, Nicaragua, Argentina, Iraq, Los Angeles and many other places around the world

You can write to Hector here.

If you've read one of his books, or his journalism, he'd love to hear from you.

Learn more about Translation Nation: Defining a New American Identity in the Spanish-Speaking United States

Journey through the "Latin American Republic of the United States," from Los Angeles to Kansas, Alabama and beyond in Translation Nation.