Mixing the lyrical with the colloquial, the tender with the tough, Ana Castillo has a deserved reputation as one of the countrys most powerful and entrancing novelists, but she began her literary career as a poet of uncompromising commitment and passion. My Father Was a Toltec is the sassy and street-wise collection of poems that established and secured Castillo's place in the popular canon. It is included here in its entirety along with the best of her early poems. Ana Castillos poetry speaksin English and Spanishto every reader who has felt the pangs of exile, the uninterrupted joy of love, and the deep despair of love lost.From the Trade Paperback edition.