Joe D. Rodríguez is a novelist, literary critic, war veteran, licensed vocational nurse, and university professor. He has also been a janitor, a construction worker, and a homeless person living on the streets of San Diego. Rodríguez's critical and narrative works are an attempt to make his life experiences communicable.

Joe Domingo Rodríguez Jr. was born in Hawaii on 4 November 1943. His paternal grandfather, a Mexican from Durango, had been born with the surname Saavedra but had received the name Rodríguez when he was adopted. The grandfather married an Indian woman who is remembered by Rodríguez as beautiful, with raven-black hair. Their marriage mirrors the emblematic Mexican union of the Spanish male and the native woman that is historically associated with the Spanish conquest. His grandparents' marriage was the source of Rodríguez's understanding of mestizaje (cultural admixture...