[4] Troncoso studied Mexican history and politics to learn about his heritage and graduated magna cum laude in government, with a Latin American Certificate.

Troncoso typically sets aside the polemics about social discomfort sometimes found in contemporary Chicano literature and concentrates instead on the moral and intellectual lives of his characters.

His novel The Nature of Truth (Northwestern University Press) was first published in 2003, and is a story about a Yale research student who discovers that his boss, a renowned professor, hides a Nazi past.

His second novel, From This Wicked Patch of Dust (University of Arizona Press), is a story about the Martinez family, who begins life in a shantytown on the U.S.-Mexico border, and struggles to stay together despite cultural clashes, different religions, and contemporary politics.

A reviewer from The Dallas Morning News wrote: "In a media market where cultural stereotypes abound, it's refreshing to read a novel featuring Latino characters who are nuanced and authentic.

Sergio Troncoso's latest, From This Wicked Patch of Dust, follows a family from humble beginnings in a Texas border town through several decades as its members move beyond their Mexican Catholic culture to inhabit Jewish, Muslim and Ivy League spaces....These middle spaces have long been fodder for writers, though the El Paso-born and Harvard-educated Troncoso has created new, empathetic characters to explore it.

No, the real beauty of this book is that it mines the rich diversity of tradition and culture among Latinos, as well as the commonalities they share with other Americans- love of family, faith and country.

Crossing Borders: Personal Essays (Arte Público Press) was also published in 2011, and is a collection of sixteen essays about how Troncoso made the leap from growing up poor along the border to the Ivy League, his wife's battle against breast cancer, his struggles as a writer in New York and Texas, fatherhood, interfaith marriage, and Troncoso's appreciation of Judaism.

On July 29, 2014, the El Paso City Council voted unanimously to rename the Ysleta public library branch in honor of Sergio Troncoso.

That year the author was elected to a second two-year term on the board of councilors of the Texas Institute of Letters and in May he was appointed secretary, an officer of the TIL.

A reviewer for The Texas Observer wrote: "The El Paso author’s newest collection depicts contemporary Mexican American life with a characteristic blend of sorrow and humor.

His two-year term as president was noted for achieving a record number of submissions for the twelve annual literary contests of the Texas Institute of Letters, increased engagement with members that resulted in a record number paying their membership dues, two years of financial surpluses, and the selection of lifetime achievement awards for Benjamin Alire Sáenz and Celeste Bedford Walker, the first African-American to win that award.

The organization truly is morphing into something beyond white guys from Dallas and Austin.”[21] Troncoso's term as TIL president ended at the annual banquet in El Paso, Texas on April 23, 2022.

Previous Fellows of the institute have included J. Frank Dobie, Thomas C. Lea III, John Graves, A.C. Greene, Robert Flynn, William D. Wittliff, and Carolyn C. Osborn.

In 2024, Troncoso was inducted into the Texas Literary Hall of Fame, along with Tracy Daugherty, Molly Ivins, Cormac McCarthy, Jan Seale, and Cynthia Leitich Smith.