Roberto Ignacio Díaz
@robertissimus.bsky.social
Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature at USC | Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. | Author of “Latin America and the Transports of Opera” | Platonic Cyclist, Public Transit Rider | 🇨🇺🇺🇸🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🇬🇱🇩🇰🇵🇦🇨🇦🇲🇽🇵🇸🇺🇦🇪🇺
The Mahatma on a cold November afternoon standing tall across from the Indian embassy. At least you know that you-know-who, even as he upends more than just a few things in D.C., cannot touch this noble monument.
November 14, 2025 at 12:25 AM
The Mahatma on a cold November afternoon standing tall across from the Indian embassy. At least you know that you-know-who, even as he upends more than just a few things in D.C., cannot touch this noble monument.
Mysteries of the District of Columbia. Under Connecticut Avenue; or, How Do You Get Up There From Down Here?
November 3, 2025 at 6:58 AM
Mysteries of the District of Columbia. Under Connecticut Avenue; or, How Do You Get Up There From Down Here?
Such a sumptuous fall season in this District of Columbia that maybe I’ll just have to call it Autumn.
October 29, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Such a sumptuous fall season in this District of Columbia that maybe I’ll just have to call it Autumn.
These folks are surely ante- and anti-diluvian.
October 27, 2025 at 10:04 PM
These folks are surely ante- and anti-diluvian.
Yesterday I toured “Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600-1750,” a great show at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. My favorite piece was this hand-colored engraving of a rather abstract pineapple by Maria Sibylla Merian, who visited Surinam in 1699.
October 26, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Yesterday I toured “Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600-1750,” a great show at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. My favorite piece was this hand-colored engraving of a rather abstract pineapple by Maria Sibylla Merian, who visited Surinam in 1699.
At least the monuments are still there — but are they? The only solid thing remaining is the sky.
October 26, 2025 at 12:34 AM
At least the monuments are still there — but are they? The only solid thing remaining is the sky.
Afternoon walk in the forest of symbols.
October 22, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Afternoon walk in the forest of symbols.
American architecture right here in D.C.: far truer, far lovelier, than the White House folks could ever even fathom.
October 21, 2025 at 10:57 PM
American architecture right here in D.C.: far truer, far lovelier, than the White House folks could ever even fathom.
No Kings in America
October 18, 2025 at 8:15 PM
No Kings in America
Not sure what to make of this imperfect colorization, but it makes me happy to know that once upon a time — circa 1940, actually, in Santiago de Cuba — my mother wore a very red hat.
October 18, 2025 at 5:34 AM
Not sure what to make of this imperfect colorization, but it makes me happy to know that once upon a time — circa 1940, actually, in Santiago de Cuba — my mother wore a very red hat.
Sorry, America, but you just can’t go from simplicity to megalomania and still expect to be considered a serious country.
October 17, 2025 at 10:51 PM
Sorry, America, but you just can’t go from simplicity to megalomania and still expect to be considered a serious country.
Para las y los que todavía no se enteran, Cristóbal Colón no descubrió ninguna América y el llamado Día de la Hispanidad no es sino un trasnochado delirio transatlántico.
October 14, 2025 at 1:47 AM
Para las y los que todavía no se enteran, Cristóbal Colón no descubrió ninguna América y el llamado Día de la Hispanidad no es sino un trasnochado delirio transatlántico.
Glad to see we’re united against the “compact.” For one, I love USC’s cosmopolitanism. I’m proud to have directed dissertations by students from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the U.S., and every term I love having awesome students from China, India, and many other places. Fight on!
Faculty called for USC to ‘promptly reject’ Trump compact - Daily Trojan
The Academic Senate called a special meeting Monday for faculty to provide input on the demands.
dailytrojan.com
October 8, 2025 at 2:44 AM
Glad to see we’re united against the “compact.” For one, I love USC’s cosmopolitanism. I’m proud to have directed dissertations by students from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the U.S., and every term I love having awesome students from China, India, and many other places. Fight on!
The National Gallery of Art was open only until yesterday at 5:00 p.m. Stopped by to say goodbye to these lofty spaces that will remain out of bounds for the duration of the shutdown.
October 6, 2025 at 12:18 AM
The National Gallery of Art was open only until yesterday at 5:00 p.m. Stopped by to say goodbye to these lofty spaces that will remain out of bounds for the duration of the shutdown.
“I intentionally layered different kinds of architectural references […] — materials that mirror the Washington Monument, a facade motif that draws from Black ironworkers of the American South, a form derived from Yoruban art — to show how African influences are fundamental to America.”
September 22, 2025 at 10:51 PM
“I intentionally layered different kinds of architectural references […] — materials that mirror the Washington Monument, a facade motif that draws from Black ironworkers of the American South, a form derived from Yoruban art — to show how African influences are fundamental to America.”
What can I say?
September 19, 2025 at 4:40 AM
What can I say?
Ok, I only learned this word recently, but it does exist.
September 17, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Ok, I only learned this word recently, but it does exist.
A novel about an umbrella born at the Rose Cafe, Venice, c. 1995. She was so big that she never traveled, but at times she sheltered her owner around L.A. She now lives in Washington, D.C., but things are so awful she’s decided not to leave the Alvar Aalto stand where she has been placed. It’s home.
September 14, 2025 at 3:00 AM
A novel about an umbrella born at the Rose Cafe, Venice, c. 1995. She was so big that she never traveled, but at times she sheltered her owner around L.A. She now lives in Washington, D.C., but things are so awful she’s decided not to leave the Alvar Aalto stand where she has been placed. It’s home.
It rained a lot the other day, so now the babbling brook in my local woods is growing. Nature, the gentlest mother.
September 12, 2025 at 11:36 PM
It rained a lot the other day, so now the babbling brook in my local woods is growing. Nature, the gentlest mother.
Got a little lost in Soapstone Valley Park — the woods right across from my building — but found a trail that ended right by the Ann and Donald Brown House, Neutra’s sole design in D.C. If California were its own republic (sigh!), this would be its ambassador’s residence.
September 7, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Got a little lost in Soapstone Valley Park — the woods right across from my building — but found a trail that ended right by the Ann and Donald Brown House, Neutra’s sole design in D.C. If California were its own republic (sigh!), this would be its ambassador’s residence.
Pleased to say that I have now posted 5000 images on Instagram. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done: an autobiography of sorts but also a record, I hope, of what Julio Cortázar called “la maravillosa riqueza planetaria” — the wonderful things our world contains.
September 7, 2025 at 2:52 AM
Pleased to say that I have now posted 5000 images on Instagram. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done: an autobiography of sorts but also a record, I hope, of what Julio Cortázar called “la maravillosa riqueza planetaria” — the wonderful things our world contains.
What?! The New York Times has definitely lost its good word list.
August 29, 2025 at 2:46 AM
What?! The New York Times has definitely lost its good word list.
Saw five or six National Guardsmen sitting on a step by the sidewalk on Constitution Avenue by the National Gallery’s West Building. They looked bored. Inside, as cool as always, Desiderio da Settignano’s Christ Child does not approve of the President’s dismissive approach to, er, our Constitution.
August 25, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Saw five or six National Guardsmen sitting on a step by the sidewalk on Constitution Avenue by the National Gallery’s West Building. They looked bored. Inside, as cool as always, Desiderio da Settignano’s Christ Child does not approve of the President’s dismissive approach to, er, our Constitution.
At the Peet’s on Montana and 14th in Santa Monica, enjoying (truly) a concoction termed Havana Cappuccino, defined as containing “sweet condensed milk and a cinnamon kick.” How does Havana, an impoverished city if there ever was one, remain alluring to capitalist imaginings after all these years?
August 19, 2025 at 5:19 PM
At the Peet’s on Montana and 14th in Santa Monica, enjoying (truly) a concoction termed Havana Cappuccino, defined as containing “sweet condensed milk and a cinnamon kick.” How does Havana, an impoverished city if there ever was one, remain alluring to capitalist imaginings after all these years?
My husband and I would visit art museums all the time. He found it funny that I’d always ask him what his favorite work in a room was. I loved the fact that he’d always buy postcards of the works he loved. This Woman with Green Hat — so lovely, so lonely — is for you, my Jim, wherever you may be.
August 16, 2025 at 10:43 PM
My husband and I would visit art museums all the time. He found it funny that I’d always ask him what his favorite work in a room was. I loved the fact that he’d always buy postcards of the works he loved. This Woman with Green Hat — so lovely, so lonely — is for you, my Jim, wherever you may be.