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 | 🇨🇺🇺🇸🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🇬🇱🇩🇰🇵🇦🇨🇦🇲🇽🇵🇸🇺🇦🇪🇺🇻🇪
Note to self: since you’re writing a little something on Mies van der Rohe, go write at least a little page every single day in the only library he ever designed: the Martin Luther King Memorial Library, right here in D.C.
February 14, 2026 at 11:48 PM
Note to self: since you’re writing a little something on Mies van der Rohe, go write at least a little page every single day in the only library he ever designed: the Martin Luther King Memorial Library, right here in D.C.
The Walk for Peace reached Washington National Cathedral today. Lots of snow and ice everywhere but it was warmer than it’s been for days; the iceberg on which a bunch of us stood began to melt as we waited for the monks to arrive. There was also much warmth from the Venerable Bhikkhu Paññākāra.
February 10, 2026 at 9:48 PM
The Walk for Peace reached Washington National Cathedral today. Lots of snow and ice everywhere but it was warmer than it’s been for days; the iceberg on which a bunch of us stood began to melt as we waited for the monks to arrive. There was also much warmth from the Venerable Bhikkhu Paññākāra.
Washington, D.C., 6:19 p.m., 21°F | -6°C, and let’s not even mention the windchill. Must say it’s super tempting just to go down and hike a bit in the local woods, and get to see how the babbling brook is doing (it’s probably very quiet) — but I won’t.
February 2, 2026 at 12:31 AM
Washington, D.C., 6:19 p.m., 21°F | -6°C, and let’s not even mention the windchill. Must say it’s super tempting just to go down and hike a bit in the local woods, and get to see how the babbling brook is doing (it’s probably very quiet) — but I won’t.
Korean Treasures at the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Arts. What an awesome show, and wouldn’t it be nice to be gifted a moon jar?
February 1, 2026 at 1:18 AM
Korean Treasures at the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Arts. What an awesome show, and wouldn’t it be nice to be gifted a moon jar?
Once upon a time this obelisk and its kindred monuments — Jefferson, Lincoln, even the Capitol — were somehow the promise of a less imperfect republic. These days it’s hard not to see them as anything but elegiac projections over a city and a nation under siege. It’s winter in America.
January 29, 2026 at 3:57 PM
Once upon a time this obelisk and its kindred monuments — Jefferson, Lincoln, even the Capitol — were somehow the promise of a less imperfect republic. These days it’s hard not to see them as anything but elegiac projections over a city and a nation under siege. It’s winter in America.
A walk in the neighborhood to cleanse my mind, such as it is: the Howard law & divinity campus; the Levine music conservatory; the Dutch embassy; plus me by the local woods wearing a funny hat. That was about 7K steps through thick snow (“caminante, no hay camino”), sleet pelting my frozen face.
January 25, 2026 at 9:10 PM
A walk in the neighborhood to cleanse my mind, such as it is: the Howard law & divinity campus; the Levine music conservatory; the Dutch embassy; plus me by the local woods wearing a funny hat. That was about 7K steps through thick snow (“caminante, no hay camino”), sleet pelting my frozen face.
If you’re in D.C. and the forecast calls for lots of snow and ice, you can go to the U.S. Botanic Garden and be transported the the tropics by looking at this beauty: Theobroma cacao, which means “food of the gods.” God save the cocoa tree or, as my Cuban grandmother called it, “árbol de cacao.”
January 25, 2026 at 12:32 AM
If you’re in D.C. and the forecast calls for lots of snow and ice, you can go to the U.S. Botanic Garden and be transported the the tropics by looking at this beauty: Theobroma cacao, which means “food of the gods.” God save the cocoa tree or, as my Cuban grandmother called it, “árbol de cacao.”
Jim loved these gentle Madonnas by Giovanni Bellini. We saw them in Venice, and again at an exhibition in Paris on what turned out to be our last trip to old Europe. Today I saw this one at the National Gallery — such beauty, but what a permutation to see the Madonna just by myself without Jim.
January 22, 2026 at 6:34 AM
Jim loved these gentle Madonnas by Giovanni Bellini. We saw them in Venice, and again at an exhibition in Paris on what turned out to be our last trip to old Europe. Today I saw this one at the National Gallery — such beauty, but what a permutation to see the Madonna just by myself without Jim.
A cold day in D.C., but spent a little time playing with my phone outside of the National Gallery, loving Pei’s architecture with all my heart. Yes, I.M. Pei, who came from China to these United States back in the day and built so many gorgeous things in our country and around the world.
January 21, 2026 at 11:10 PM
A cold day in D.C., but spent a little time playing with my phone outside of the National Gallery, loving Pei’s architecture with all my heart. Yes, I.M. Pei, who came from China to these United States back in the day and built so many gorgeous things in our country and around the world.
“I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.” MLK Jr., Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, Oslo, December 1964.
January 20, 2026 at 12:54 AM
“I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.” MLK Jr., Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, Oslo, December 1964.
D.C. peeps, next Saturday at the Folger: an English adaptation of Lope’s “Fuenteovejuna” for children, perfect for our time when we need courage, solidarity, and intelligent kids. It’s the work of UCLA’s Barbara Fuchs, who will later speak on her project to diversify the classics.
Fuente Ovejuna
This family-friendly adaptation of Lope de Vega's Spanish Golden Age classic Fuente Ovejuna invites young audiences to imagine what solidarity looks like, with interactive elements such as audience pa...
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January 18, 2026 at 12:47 AM
D.C. peeps, next Saturday at the Folger: an English adaptation of Lope’s “Fuenteovejuna” for children, perfect for our time when we need courage, solidarity, and intelligent kids. It’s the work of UCLA’s Barbara Fuchs, who will later speak on her project to diversify the classics.
Breaking news! President Trump will have his name engraved next to that of President Kennedy on this plaque, as he too has worshipped here many times and has done a lot for the Catholic Church, and, quite frankly, all of Christendom.
January 17, 2026 at 11:44 PM
Breaking news! President Trump will have his name engraved next to that of President Kennedy on this plaque, as he too has worshipped here many times and has done a lot for the Catholic Church, and, quite frankly, all of Christendom.
It wasn’t wise to spend the first, very cold, afternoon of the semiquincentennial walking around an empty D.C. Yet it was good to see again how Maya Lin can make us behold and thus overcome America’s horrors. By looking at ourselves on the wall, we can imagine a way out of the present calamity.
January 2, 2026 at 5:37 AM
It wasn’t wise to spend the first, very cold, afternoon of the semiquincentennial walking around an empty D.C. Yet it was good to see again how Maya Lin can make us behold and thus overcome America’s horrors. By looking at ourselves on the wall, we can imagine a way out of the present calamity.
One last show in 2025: the magnificent “The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art,” drawn from the National Gallery of Victoria, here at the National Gallery of Art. This is “Gäna” (Self), by Nyapanyapa Yunupiŋu, earth pigments on eucalyptus — just one of multiple stupendous artworks.
December 31, 2025 at 10:52 PM
One last show in 2025: the magnificent “The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art,” drawn from the National Gallery of Victoria, here at the National Gallery of Art. This is “Gäna” (Self), by Nyapanyapa Yunupiŋu, earth pigments on eucalyptus — just one of multiple stupendous artworks.
Quick daytrip to Brno — my last time there it was still Czechoslovakia — to see Mies’s Villa Tugendhat, my dream-home from now on. A Spanish-speaking visitor said it’s “demasiado minimalista,” which may be an oxymoron of sorts: too much of too little. Less is in fact less, and that’s surely good.
December 26, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Quick daytrip to Brno — my last time there it was still Czechoslovakia — to see Mies’s Villa Tugendhat, my dream-home from now on. A Spanish-speaking visitor said it’s “demasiado minimalista,” which may be an oxymoron of sorts: too much of too little. Less is in fact less, and that’s surely good.
Where’s Freud? Silence at Berggasse 19.
December 25, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Where’s Freud? Silence at Berggasse 19.
“Lift up your cell phones.” “We lift them up to the Lord.” As seen during midnight mass at Stephansdom, Vienna, Christmas 2025. #neveragain
December 25, 2025 at 1:14 PM
“Lift up your cell phones.” “We lift them up to the Lord.” As seen during midnight mass at Stephansdom, Vienna, Christmas 2025. #neveragain
What an outstanding collection at Vienna’s Weltmuseum. Came for a quick glimpse of “Montezuma’s headdress” — huge, gorgeous, poignant — but stayed for everything else, such objects linked to Martin Gusinde’s sojourns in Tierra del Fuego, including yet another headdress of a very different kind.
December 24, 2025 at 2:32 PM
What an outstanding collection at Vienna’s Weltmuseum. Came for a quick glimpse of “Montezuma’s headdress” — huge, gorgeous, poignant — but stayed for everything else, such objects linked to Martin Gusinde’s sojourns in Tierra del Fuego, including yet another headdress of a very different kind.
Call me childish, but as someone who spent over thirty years in California, I got a secret thrill when I saw this sign eclipsing huge St. Stephen’s basilica in Budapest on this chilly evening.
December 23, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Call me childish, but as someone who spent over thirty years in California, I got a secret thrill when I saw this sign eclipsing huge St. Stephen’s basilica in Budapest on this chilly evening.
Can’t think of anything in Vienna I like as much as the rooftop on Falkestraße 6 remodeled almost forty years ago by Coop Himmelb(l)au: an opulent building yields to deconstruction and looks richer than ever before — an architectural unconscious, if you will, signaling openness and renewal.
December 23, 2025 at 5:17 AM
Can’t think of anything in Vienna I like as much as the rooftop on Falkestraße 6 remodeled almost forty years ago by Coop Himmelb(l)au: an opulent building yields to deconstruction and looks richer than ever before — an architectural unconscious, if you will, signaling openness and renewal.
The woods by me — actually, closer to the Dutch embassy than my building, but what a celestial respite from brutal politics.
December 20, 2025 at 9:50 PM
The woods by me — actually, closer to the Dutch embassy than my building, but what a celestial respite from brutal politics.
Caminante, sí hay camino, pero es frío y resbaloso.
December 17, 2025 at 4:18 AM
Caminante, sí hay camino, pero es frío y resbaloso.
An icicle hangs from the eyeglasses in Gandhi’s monument in front of the Indian Embassy on this glacial day Washington, D.C. To me it looks like the sculpture is crying. Why shouldn’t it, really, in this hopeless world?
December 15, 2025 at 4:08 AM
An icicle hangs from the eyeglasses in Gandhi’s monument in front of the Indian Embassy on this glacial day Washington, D.C. To me it looks like the sculpture is crying. Why shouldn’t it, really, in this hopeless world?
Everyone loves a little Lam, including me.
December 12, 2025 at 12:46 AM
Everyone loves a little Lam, including me.
Of all the works by Lam in the impressive show at MoMA, what I’d take home if I could is this über-sad darkest “Annunciation” devoid of hope, as far as I can see. Or maybe it’s a super cheerful painting and I just can’t see it — or see.
December 11, 2025 at 3:15 AM
Of all the works by Lam in the impressive show at MoMA, what I’d take home if I could is this über-sad darkest “Annunciation” devoid of hope, as far as I can see. Or maybe it’s a super cheerful painting and I just can’t see it — or see.