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Books and poetry are a huge part of Professor Juan Rodriguez's life. One need travel no farther than his office in the Skills Lab to see this firsthand.
Two shelves are stuffed with books, old and new, some with Spanish titles and others in English. Among the clutter, bundles of papers and even more books in stacks, numerous manila envelopes are stuffed next to a dusty computer monitor that looks untouched.
Rodriguez has taught in the Spanish and English Program on campus since 1976.
"English is a pretty tough language," he said. "When I teach, I do not use lectures because it is too structured. I enjoy talking to my students and reaching out to them in a personal level."
Before he began teaching, Rodriguez, who was born in the Dominican Republic, moved from New York City to Houston, Texas, to attend St. Thomas University.
"Writing poetry was always my favorite emotional outlet," he said.
As a college student, his short stories and poems were published in magazines. Most of them were in the genre of social protest.
For example, one of his earliest ones was titled, "There is a Crack in the Melting Pot."
Rodriguez first majored in composition and literature, but changed his mind after he realized it was not for him.
After graduation, he traveled back to the Dominican Republic.
"I left at the age of 10 and didn't look back," he said. "I was gone from there for 17 years. It was my time to go back."
The experience of traveling further inspired his love for writing in Spanish and English. Several of his poems are mild with social criticism.
In addition to having published poetry, he has also written six academic books that include instructional books for English. All are available at Barnes and Noble, as well as on the internet at www.amazon.com.
"Out of all my books, I only have one that won an award," he said, handing over a paper back copy of Mi Feliz Liberacion. Only 2,000 copies were printed and sold in Spain. Rodriguez owns 300 of them.
"Writing poetry has become so easy," he said. "When feeling emotional, a poem can be easily written with decent quality."
Rodriguez said it is important to come up with a title first. "That gives you the central idea of what you are going to write. Then it begins to develop and flows from there."
With More Than Material Things is his next book in progress, which he has been working on for a little over a year. When translating a poem into another language, it may sound a little different, which is why Rodriguez takes the time to translate his own poems. "I want the poems to have the same quality when read."
Another idea for a book is up his sleeve. Without disclosing more details, Rodriguez said that it was a grammar book using characters.
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