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Great Lives from History: Latinos

Ron Arias

by Cordelia Chávez Candelaria

American journalist and fiction writer

A journalist who received the Los Angeles Press Club Award for his 2004 People magazine coverage of the Laci Peterson murder, Arias is celebrated in literary circles for his 1975 novel, The Road to Tamazunchale, which won top prize in the University of California at Irvine’s annual Chicano/Latino literary competition.

Areas of achievement: Literature; journalism

Early Life

Born in Los Angeles on November 30, 1941, Ronald Francis Arias (AH-ree-ahs) had an itinerant childhood because of his stepfather’s U.S.Army career. His mother was born in El Paso, Texas, his biological father in Juárez, Mexico, and his stepfather in Nogales, Arizona. Arias has said that he identified with both fathers and with his maternal grandmother, with whom he practiced speaking Spanish. Arias graduated in 1959 from the American High School in Stuttgart, Germany. Soon after, he began traveling on his own, hitchhiking around Argentina, Peru, Spain, and the United States.

Arias’s mother inspired him to pursue writing when he was nine years old and recovering from a tonsillectomy. To keep him occupied, she gave him writing materials and encouraged him to write down his observations and feelings in his journal every day. Arias continued to write daily and began his journalistic career by writing for high school and college newspapers. He studied at Oceanside-Carlsbad Community College in California, Universidad de Barcelona in Spain, Universidad de Buenos Aires in Argentina, and the University of California at Berkeley before completing his bachelor’s degree in Spanish and master’s degree in journalism from the University of California at Los Angeles.

Life’s Work

After beginning his career as a reporter for several newspapers, Arias joined the staff of the Associated Press (AP) wire service. He covered earthquakes, bombings, and other disasters as an AP correspondent. In his 2002 memoir, Moving Target: A Memoir of Pursuit, Arias describes being caught in combat crossfire while on assignment in Latin America and characterizes his early AP years as focused on “death and destruction.” His travels also brought him into contact with international celebrities, including writers Ernest Hemingway and Jorge Luis Borges, and political leaders such as Indira Gandhi. He went on to write for People magazine for more than twenty years.

Arias’s life experiences echo in the themes and techniques of his fiction. In one of his first published stories, “El mago” (“The Shaman”), which appeared in the journal El Grito in 1970, he captures the struggle between imagination and rationality in a constantly shifting world. Arias’s literary prominence rests on his debut novel, The Road to Tamazunchale (1975), which received widespread acclaim and was nominated for a National Book Award. The novel chronicles the last week in the life of an old man, Fausto Tejada, living in a Los Angeles barrio. In the story, which draws on Magical Realist themes, the retired encyclopedia salesman and widower embarks on a fairytale-esque journey as he fights to stay alive. He guides the reader through his memories and drops in and out of consciousness rather than succumb to death. Fausto’s wanderings are no less real because the action occurs within his mind; he visits his ancestors and dead wife, rescues immigrants crossing the desert, and tours a Hollywood film set where he is mistaken for an extra. Employing a reporter’s vivid description and minute-by-minute action, Arias fills the story with poignant feeling and raucous humor.

After The Road to Tamazunchale, Arias published short fiction while continuing his work as a reporter. His story “The Castle” (1976) chronicles the relationship between Sam, a homeless derelict residing in an abandoned structure, with a quiet, introverted boy named Carlos, who is preoccupied with thoughts of his father, a prisoner of war who has been gone for more than three years. A story of loneliness, friendship, and love, “The Castle” expresses the same longing for family connections amid upheaval sketched in The Road to Tamazunchale.

Another successful story from the same period, “El señor del chivo” (1976), presents the life of a sidewalk taco vendor in Michoacán, Mexico. By showing how the vender juggles the making of his goat-meat tacos with his lively, nonstop banter with his customers, Arias reveals the urban vendor’s life as a metaphor for his own views on the intersections of art, life, and society. Revisiting many of these themes, the story “Chinches” (1977) depicts a female protagonist, Gabriela, a young teacher who already is fatigued with life. The action depicts her imagination’s attempts to escape from the known to the excitement of the unknown.

Significance

From his prize-winning 1975 novel to his acclaimed 2002 memoir, Arias’s career has fulfilled the destiny he began as a nine-year-old keeping a notebook of his thoughts. The complex characters and major themes of his fiction resonate with the same vibrant urgency of his People magazine reporting on breaking news and famous lives.

Citation Types

Type

Format

MLA 9th

Candelaria, Cordelia Chávez. "Ron Arias." Great Lives from History: Latinos, edited by Carmen Tafolla & Martha P. Cotera, Salem Press, 2012. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=GLL_10013240004301001.

APA 7th

Candelaria, C. C. (2012). Ron Arias. In C. Tafolla & M. P. Cotera (Eds.), Great Lives from History: Latinos. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.

CMOS 17th

Candelaria, Cordelia Chávez. "Ron Arias." Edited by Carmen Tafolla & Martha P. Cotera. Great Lives from History: Latinos. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2012. Accessed October 22, 2025. online.salempress.com.

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