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Ana Castillo is, according to Elsa Saeta writing in Melus, "One of the most articulate, powerful voices in contemporary Chicana literature," a poet, essayist, editor, and novelist whose "work has long questioned, subverted, and challenged the status quo." Writing in Dictionary of Literary Biography, Ibis Gomez-Vega commented that Castillo is "one of a few Mexican American writers who have attracted the attention of the mainstream reading public." Gomez-Vega further noted: "From her earliest writing [Castillo] has tried to unite those segments of the American population often separated by class, economics, gender, and sexual orientation. Her success is a tribute to her self-discipline, her courage, and her considerable literary ability."
In her writing, Castillo explores the tribulations of womanhood, offering pungent socio-political comment as she does so. The style of her work is based on established oral and literary traditions, yet at the same time it is highly innovative. She is "the most daring and experimental of Latino novelists," maintained Commonweal contributor Ilan Stavans, further noting that her "desire to find creative alternatives and to take risks is admirable." In the early 1990s, with the publication of her third novel, Castillo's success as a novelist allowed her to turn to writing full time.
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