1. "La Jefita," which appeared in El Espejo in 1969, is reprinted by Valdez and Steiner (1972:266-68) and by Epringham (1982:20-24).

2. "El Sol y los de Abajo" appears in Montoya's El Sol y los de Abajo and Other R.C.A.F. Poems (1972) and is reprinted by Hernandez (1991:65-68).

3. This is precisely the task taken up by the Chicana poets of the post-movement period (M. Sánchez 1985).

4. "El Louie" appears in Valdez and Steiner (1972:333-37) and is reprinted in Epringham (1982:58-65). "Los Vatos" first appeared in El Espejo in 1969 and is reprinted almost in full by J. Saldívar (1986:11-12). These poems, as well as the others discussed in this chapter, will probably appear in Montoya's forthcoming In Formation: The Selected Poems of José Montoya / The RCAF: A Retrospect , to be published by Chusma House.

5. In ambivalent fashion, Saldívar (1986: 13) also views Benny as "anti-hero" and the poem as a "radical alteration of hero and world" in comparison to the corrido ethos.

6. Cf. Hernandez's reading of this concluding section of the poem:

Attempting to maintain the dignified tone of the corrido , the poet seems suddenly to realize the discrepancies between past and contemporary history and feels that he must stop, after apologetically attempting to rationalize his present condition. He seeks to compare his father's historical experience with his own, half-heartedly arguing that circumstances have changed ("En las mismas situaciones / Diferentes condiciones"). He brings his ballad to an abrupt halt by addressing himself and his peer group with a single negation—an emphatic and meaningful caló term: "¡Chale!"—as a dramatic recognition that the language of the urban underworld can provide contemporary Chicanos with the rhetorical means by which to convey an epic stance.

"El corrido de mi jefe" represents a masterful structural depiction of the psychological process that the poetic voice undergoes in attempting to reconcile his present and his past. The next stanza brings to full consciousness this fundamental conflict. It involves no less than the son's image of his father's exemplar masculinity and his own apprehension ("me faitan los huevos de mi jefe") at achieving a heroic level ''worthy of the ballads." The use of Spanish signals to an in-group audience, with a sense of urgency, the need to develop a renewed epic awareness, now inhibited by psychological oppression ("the gava's yugo de confusión").

In the last stanza, the poetic voice draws from the ancient Mayan tradition ("Chilam Balam's prophetic / Chant") to reaffirm the vision that has been revealed through the journey into the past. The redemption is granted by the claim to a pre-Columbian spiritual heritage which legitimizes the historical experience of Chicanos and transcends that of the mestizo—expressed in the interplay of English and Spanish: the languages of the conquerors, in this context the consciousness of the poet announces triumphantly that only through such a process of self-discovery will Chicanos achieve their aesthetic and historical liberation. (1991:75)

I differ with Hernandez's otherwise supportive reading on three key points: "the father's exemplar masculinity" and the poetic son's "apprehension . . . at achieving a heroic level" are actually present from the beginning; a single "Chale!" hardly constitutes recognition of the epic possibilities of the urban underworld; and, finally, Hernandez seems too uncritically accepting of the poet's final "vision."

7. For Montoya's admiring acknowledgment of the corrido, see Montoya 1980c.