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Start giftingDays of Obligation
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Learn moreA series of ten essays span the five centuries of history, from Hernan Cortes’s conquest of Mexico to San Francisco's AIDS epidemic.
Richard Rodriguez explores the conflicts of race, religion, and cultural identity for Mexican-Americans across the landscape of his beloved California—as well as the impact this history had on him.
Rodriguez positions Mexico and the United States as moral rivals—Mexico wearing the mask of tragedy and the United States, the mask of comedy. By the end, however, we come to recognize a historical irony: the United States is becoming a culture of tragedy, while Mexico is reveling in youthful optimism as the two nations are trading roles.
Richard Rodriguez was born in 1944 in San Francisco. He received a BA from Stanford University and an MA from Columbia University, was a PhD candidate in English Renaissance at the University of California at Berkeley, and attended the Warburg Institute in London on a Fulbright fellowship. Rodriguez has worked as a teacher, international journalist, and educational consultant.
Michael Anthony is an actor and director with a lengthy resume in the Washington, DC, area.
Reviews
“Days of Obligation looks into America—north and south of the Rio Grande—as penetratingly and eloquently as Camus did when he compared the mental landscapes of France and Algiers.”
“Luminous…[Rodriguez’s] insights, irony and descriptions make the writing richly evocative.”
“The best American essayist as far as I’m concerned…He writes a lonely line of individualism, the grandeur and grief of the American soul.”
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