Indiana State University Newsroom

Los Angeles-based author and journalist Hector Tobar will speak at Indiana State University on Oct. 19 about his book, "Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Freed Them" as part of the University Speakers Series.

Beginning at 7 p.m. in Tilson Auditorium, Tobar will discuss his book on the 2010 disaster that trapped a crew of miners and technical support personnel underground for a record 69 days.

A Los Angeles born author and journalist known for examining the ever-changing relationship between the U.S. and Latin America, Tobar also authored New York Times Notable Book "The Barbarian Nurseries," "Translation Nation: Defining a New American Identity in the Spanish-Speaking United States" and "The Tattooed Soldier."

For two decades, he worked for the Los Angeles Times, serving as a city reporter, national and foreign correspondent and traveled on assignments to places from Alaska to Iraq. He also was part of the reporting team that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 1992 Los Angeles riots following the acquittal of police officers who had been on trial regarding a videotaped and widely covered police brutality incident.

He has served as The Times bureau chief in Buenos Aires and Mexico City and for several years wrote a column for the Los Angeles Times. He has experience as features editor at the LA Weekly and as editor of the bilingual San Francisco magazine El Tecolote.

Tobar has a Master in Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of California Irvine and studied at the University of California Santa Cruz and at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City.

A married father of three and the son of Guatemalan immigrants, Tobar was named one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in the United States in 2006 by Hispanic Business magazine and has been a finalist for the PEN USA West Award for First Fiction. He currently serves as a visiting assistant professor at the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communications.

Tobar's appearance at Indiana State is free and open to the public.

Writer: Betsy Simon, media relations assistant director, Office of Communications and Marketing, Indiana State University, 812-237-7972 or betsy.simon@indstate.edu