Roberto Cintli Rodríguez ( 1954 – 31 July 2023) was a Mexican-American journalist, columnist, poet, author, and academic of Mexican American Studies at the University of Arizona.
Soon after, the officers attacked him, confiscated his camera and film, and beat him so badly that he spent three days in the Los Angeles County Hospital.
From 1979 to 1986, Rodriguez sought justice in court for this incident, which involved two trials; he eventually won his case, being awarded $205,000 by a jury, which he used to start a bilingual magazine.
Rodriguez supported students and spoke out at protests, governing board meetings, and other public hearings against the passing of Arizona House Bill 2281 led by Tom Horne, which banned the Mexican American Studies Department Programs and banned and confiscated books on Chicano and Indigenous People's history, critical race theory, and decoloniality in the Tucson Unified School District.
"[7] Rodriguez was attacked by the far-right for his vocal support of the Mexican American Studies Department Programs, which included a threat on his life.