Rather than focusing on the political, philosophical or linguistic aspects of Chicano experience, communicated in abstract schemes or through a conglomerate speaker, poet Leroy V. Quintana draws upon oral tradition to introduce readers to a wide range of characters and their reactions to their social and natural environment. In this aspect his books resemble more the novels of Tomás Rivera and Rolando Hinojosa-Smith than they do those of other Chicano poets. His models come from the traditions of his grandparents and from his intense interest in psychology.

Quintana was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on 10 June 1944. He never knew his father and spent his early years moving between small northern New Mexico towns such as Ratón and Questa, where the old cuentos (tales) had not yet been displaced by Anglo influence. In a 1985 interview with Douglas K. Benson, published in 1987, he talked about his...