My Father Was a Toltec and Selected Poems

by Ana Castillo

One of the country's most powerful and entrancing novelists, Castillo began her literary career as a poet of uncompromising commitment. This collection brings back into print the best of her early work, including the entire text of her landmark 1988 collection, My Father Was a Toltec. Author readings.

Genres: Poetry, Latinx

100 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1994

About the author

Ana Castillo (June 15, 1953-) is a celebrated and distinguished poet, novelist, short story writer, essayist, editor, playwright, translator and independent scholar. Castillo was born and raised in Chicago. She has contributed to periodicals and on-line venues (Salon and Oxygen) and national magazines, including More and the Sunday New York Times. Castillo’s writings have been the subject of numerous scholarly investigations and publications. Among her award winning, best sellling titles: novels include So Far From God, The Guardians and Peel My Love like an Onion, among other poetry: I Ask the Impossible. Her novel, Sapogonia was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. She has been profiled and interviewed on National Public Radio and the History Channel and was a radio-essayist with NPR in Chicago. Ana Castillo is editor of La Tolteca, an arts and literary ‘zine dedicated to the advancement of a world without borders and censorship and was on the advisory board of the new American Writers Museum, which opened its door in Chicago, 2017. In 2014 Dr. Castillo held the Lund-Gil Endowed Chair at Dominican University, River Forest, IL and served on the faculty with Bread Loaf Summer Program (Middlebury College) in 2015 and 2016. She also held the first Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Endowed Chair at DePaul University, The Martin Luther King, Jr Distinguished Visiting Scholar post at M.I.T. and was the Poet-in-Residence at Westminster College in Utah in 2012, among other teaching posts throughout her extensive career. Ana Castillo holds an M.A from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D., University of Bremen, Germany in American Studies and an honorary doctorate from Colby College. She received an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation for her first novel, The Mixquiahuala Letters. Her other awards include a Carl Sandburg Award, a Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts in fiction and poetry. She was also awarded a 1998 Sor Juana Achievement Award by the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum in Chicago. Dr. Castillo’s So Far From God and Loverboys are two titles on the banned book list controversy with the TUSD in Arizona. 2013 Recipient of the American Studies Association Gloria Anzaldúa Prize to an independent scholar. via www.anacastillo.net

Reviews

[Octavio Solis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ana Castillo's proto-feminist poetry collection from 1988 resonates even more strongly today. There's a rawness to her imagery, a lustiness, a bravado that we seem to need so badly. A million errant Mexican fathers are called out, longed for, disparaged, made peace with, and call out all over again in these short verses, while the strength of the lonely Chicana far from home, living in bitter cold Chicago weather is canonized with her own tears and encrusted blood from countless beatings and daily disgraces. There's deep hurt being reckoned with here, family betrayals and personal losses, but in Ana's poems, that pain is raised above the temporal and given an awesome status, one which grants her (and us) citizenship to a fierce country unlike the one we're being culled from now.

[♡ venus ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting collection, lyrical and unique. The poems in this collection were raw and powerful, and while the ones in Spanish were unfortunately lost on me, Ana Castillo's unique writing style and perspective made her poems very interesting. The way she writes about her culture and experiences with identity and race was lovely. While it was nothing groundbreaking for me, it was still a very interesting and beautifully written read nonetheless.

Some of my favourite lines:

i would apologise for being
less god than animal
but naturally that is not my way.

autumn is when bones turn yellow and
all things return to what they once were or never really stopped
being.

We are left
with one final resolution
in our own predestined way,
we are going forward.
There is no going back.

[Frank García · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best lines in Chicana poetic history: “I speak English with a crooked smile”

[Lynda Lopez Basurto · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t read a ton of poetry but sometimes poetry disrupts the normal patterns of thoughts, which is nice. I thought this book had its gems throughout and worth an afternoon read to escape.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Chana]

i started this in a bookstore and couldn't put it down.. there were so many poems in it that i could relate to... that sent me on a memory bliss.. meant to purchase it but never did.. i revisited the book in a future date and found the same poems no longer affected me the same way --- maybe i had healed??? quien sabe..

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent collection of Ana's work. But beware half of the book is in spanish, so unless you know the language pick up a dictionary.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had read quite a few of her individual poems before reading the entire volume. I didn't like this volume quite as much as I had expected to, but it's still excellent poetry.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ana's poetry is sensual, beautiful, and real. Must read.

[Carly Orosz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this collection! Castillo's poetry manages to be raw and gritty yet also weirdly dreamlike at the same time. Would absolutely recommend this book to someone looking for a new poet to read.