Carmen Tafolla is among the foremost Texas poets to come out of the post-1960s Chicano experience. With most writers of the Chicano Movement, she shares a deep consciousness of social injustice, an identification with life in the barrio, and a thorough knowledge of her cultural heritage. Her poetry first came to public attention at a Floricanto festival (Austin, 1975) and in the magazine Caracol.

Mary Carmen Tafolla was born and raised in the west side barrio of San Antonio, Texas. In unpublished autobiographical notes she said that on her mother's side she comes from "a long line of metalworkers, maids, nursemaids ..., [and] servantpeople"; on her father's side there were "preachers, teachers, vaqueros (ranch-hands), and storytellers." It is, in part, because of her awareness of her ancestors that Tafolla has developed her clear sense of Chicano identity and of history. Her poetry is rooted in a collective identity: "The...