| Contemporary Chicana Poetry |
| Preface |
 | I— Setting the Context: Gender, Ethnicity, and Silence in Contemporary Chicana Poetry |
| • | The Historical Context |
| • | The Literary Paradigm |
| • | Oral Versus Written Traditions |
| • | Distribution and Access |
| • | Poetry: The Chosen Form of Expression |
| • | The Implied Audience |
 | II— The Birthing of the Poetic "I" in Alma Villanueva's Mother, May I? The Search for a Female Identity |
| III— The Chicana as Scribe: Harmonizing Gender and Culture in Lorna Dee Cervantes' "Beneath the Shadow of the Freeway" |
| IV— Prohibition and Sexuality in Lucha Corpi's Palabras De Mediodia / Noon Words |
| V— The Dramatization of a Shifting Poetic Consciousness: Bernice Zamora's Restless Serpents |
| Afterword |
| Appendix A— Poems from Bloodroot by Alma Villanueva |
| Appendix B— Poems from Alma Villanueva's Irvine Collection |
| Appendix C— Mother, May I? By Alma Villanueva |
| Notes |
| Bibliography |
| Index |