My Father Was a Toltec: and Selected Poems

I have never connected with a collection of poetry so immediately and fully as I have with "My Father was a Toltec." I have wanted to love poetry my whole life, but I failed to find a poet that really reached me. That ended when I found Ana Castillo. Her poetry is powerful, precise, angry and emotional, totally vulnerable, and unspoiled by conventional training.She tells the story of everything it is to be a woman. All the women I have shown this collection to have loved it as intensely as I do.

Ana Castillo is a devotee of Guadalupe, and a beloved Latina author and curandera! She writes in Spanish and English, which I personally find charming. Haters who say "Speak English only" should check their bigotry at the door and find their hearts! Muchas gracias, querida Ana!

Reading this book...these poems is awonderful experience .going into the mind of a poet letting them unleadh theyre stories its awsome.great book

Most of the poems are in English and they are wonderful. Ana Castillo shares her heritage as only poetry, which canevoke emotions of all kinds. I wish the Spanish ones were translated.

The book arrived in great conditions. It's better than I expected!

Call them what you will, street poetry, poems from the hood,or beauty personified, Ana Castillo's work speaks to all themature themes of the American experience during the past halfcentury or so --- racism, sexism, ethnic pride and ethnic struggle.With such an ethnocentric title as "my Father was a Toltec,"it is no wonder that Castillo harbors a contradictory image ofgangster father: on the one hand, proud of her Mexican heritageand that her father hailed from such a great civilization, on theother, having no illusions as to who he really was, a member of theToltec gang of Chicago's West Side and all that goes with it. Thesepoems are important for two reasons: one, they give us a glimpse intothe Latino culture in America and the struggle they and she endured,but two, it forces us to confront the very differences that drivepeople and races apart. While the image of her father is abit steeped in stereotypical themes of the lazy, mambo-dancing,womanizing, fedora-donning, silk-suit-and-tie-wearing Chicano, wemust conclude by saying 'if the shoe fits, wear it.' The themesin this collection are strong in flavor and not for the the faintof heart which is why I will have trouble with sleep tonight.These poems titillate, teach, but most importantly, touch us withtheir humanity.

I was first introduced to Ana Castillo, when I read her marvelous novel, "So Far From God" ("Tan Lejos de Dios"), which was a journey through magical realism, Chicana identity and the experience of people who have lived and cultivated the land as far back as ten generations. This was a true example of the indigenous experience in the United States. Totally beautiful and powerful......"My Father Was a Toltec" doesn't fail to disappoint. This collection of poems looks at the Chicana/indigenous Mexican/female experience in the United States, and in Mexican culture. Ana writes in English, Spanish, Spanglish and sprinkles it with words in Toltec (the culture of her father). Castillo, an avid writer and practicioner of santeria (a mixture of the Catholic and indigenous ritualistic beliefs), truly has a connection to this duel (even triple) identity. Castillo grew up in a Mexican neighborhood, in the South side of Chicago, and finally took a trip with her mother to their native Mexico, when she was older (this is captured in her poetry).I definitely reccomend this book. Ana Castillo is an auther more readers should know about!! This is such an important example of Latina literature. Those from the culture will identify with her, and those non-Latinos and non-Spanish speakers will definitely receive an education.

I enjoyed the realism of this poetry, as a writer myself I know what good and bad times are, and when you write about them, you pour your soul into it! I can tell that is what Ana Castillo did!!!!! I loved it, hope you do too!