Héctor Tobar is an author, teacher, and journalist. His long career in journalism includes work for The New Yorker and LA Weekly. And, for over 20 years, he had number of positions at the Los Angeles Times. He was their Metro columnist, a book critic, and the paper's bureau chief in Mexico City and in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He also worked for several years as the National Latino Affairs Correspondent for the L.A. Times. Héctor Tobar formed part of the team that won a Pulitzer for the paper’s reporting on the 1992 L.A. riots.
He’s the author of four books, including nonfiction works Translation Nation: Defining a New American Identity in the Spanish-Speaking United States, and Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine and the Miracle That Set Them Free. Tobar’s two novels are The Tattooed Soldier and The Barbarian Nurseries.
Héctor Tobar has been an adjunct professor at Loyola Marymount University and Pomona College, was an assistant professor at the University of Oregon's school of journalism and communication, and is currently an associate professor at the University of California, Irvine.
