Ron Arias

Ron Arias (born November 30, 1941) is a former senior writer and correspondent for People magazine and People en Español. He is also a highly regarded Chicano writer whose novel The Road to Tamazunchale has been called "one of the founding texts in Contemporary Chicano/a Literature."

Biography

Early life

Arias is a native of Los Angeles, California. He attended Stuttgart American High School in Ludwigsburg, Germany. His university education includes Oceanside-Carlsbad Community College, Universidad de Barcelona, UC Berkeley, Universidad de Buenos Aires (where he studied Middle English under Jorge Luis Borges), and UCLA where he received a bachelor's degree in Spanish and a master's degree in journalism.

Arias served in Andean Peru as a Peace Corps volunteer, and some of his experiences in the Andes inspired his novel, Road. Another influence on his decision to become a journalist was his search to learn why his father withdrew from the family after the Korean War. He spent 30 years as a journalist, 22 of them at People. He has also worked for Caracas Daily Journal, the Buenos Aires Herald, and contributed stories and columns to The New York Times, Revista Chicano/Riqueña, The Christian Science Monitor, The Nation, and the Los Angeles Times. After retiring from magazine journalism in 2007, Arias taught biography-writing at California State University, Dominguez Hills.