In the last two decades, book collectors have expanded their interests to include long-neglected areas of American literature. Genres like science fiction and mysteries are established and respected avenues for collectors. Native American and African American studies growing specializations of both collectors and dealers. Yet surprisingly, books by and about Chicanos (Mexican Americans), part of America’s second-largest and fastest-growing ethnic group, have attracted comparatively little collector interest. As an indication of collector and dealer interest, it is telling that few price guides list any books by Chicano writers. One of the best, Ahearn and Ahearn’s indispensable Book Collecting: A Comprehensive Guide listed no Chicano writers in the 1978 edition, three in 1986 and five in 1995: Rudolfo Anaya, Fray Angelico Chavez, John Rechy, Floyd Salas and Gary Soto.

This essay provides a brief introduction to five of the most collectible Chicano writers: Sandra Cisneros, Ana Castillo, Rudolfo Anaya, Gary Soto, and Dagoberto Gilb.

Flyer from the Broadway production of Luis Valdez's Zoot Suit, a highlight in Chicano theater.

In the 1980s, Arte Publico only published paperbacks with average print runs of 1000 copies. First editions of The House on Mango Street frequently have notes in their margins or "used" stickers glued to their spines as evidence of their use in university classrooms. The book became one of the press’s bestsellers, on and off campus. Word-of-mouth reviews sent it through several printings before a major publisher, Random House, acquired the rights in 1991. Capitalizing on Cisneros’s growing popularity, Random House followed up its initial trade paperback edition with a hardcover edition, a children’s book using the text of the second chapter (Hairs / Pelitos) and an excellent Spanish translation.

Cisneros’s second book of prose, a collection of lovely short stories, Woman Hollering Creek,, was published by Random House in 1991. In 1995, Sandra Cisneros began reading from a new novel, entitled Caramelo. The enthusiastic audience response led many to predict that this new novel would be the book that would make her a household name, a level of recognition in line with her considerable talent. In the intervening years, writer’s block and the death of her father appear to have derailed the novel, at least temporarily.

Sandra Cisneros has said that her fiction does her political work, addressing sexism and racism by telling stories about the affects of injustice on the human spirit. Her poetry, on the other hand, tends to be intensely personal, intimate and, at times, cynically funny. Her first book was a collection of poems, a thin chapbook of poems, Bad Boys, published in 1980 by Mango Press, a very small Chicano press, active in the late seventies and early eighties. Publication quantities for Mango Press books ranged from 150 to 1000 copies. As a result, Bad Boys is rarely seen.

Fortunately, the poems from Bad Boys are collected in Cisneros’s third book, My Wicked Wicked Ways (Third Woman 1987). Like Mango Street, this poetry collection sold well as a small press paperback. After several printings, Random House reissued the book in hardcover. Random House also published Loose Woman (1994), Cisneros’s most recent poetry collection and latest book. The poems in both collections are about love, sex, breaking the rules and all of the author’s "wicked" ways.

The true first edition of The House on Mango Street, published by Arte Publico Press in 1984.

An illustrated bibliography of Sandra Cisneros's books is available.

Castillo’s second novel, Sapogonia: An Anti-Romance in ³/₈ Meter was published by Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingüe in 1990 in hardcover and paperback editions, like The Mixquiahuala Letters. The books is also experimental. The novel takes place in Sapogonia, "a distinct place in the Americas where all mestizos reside, regardless of nationality, individual racial composition, or legal residential status." (Mestizos are people of mixed heritage—in Mexico, part European and part Indian). In the novel, Castillo attempts to play out the complex heritage of mestizos, part conqueror and part conquered, in the lives of the two main characters. Castillo appears to have been dissatisfied with the book as she took the opportunity to rewrite the core of the novel for the Anchor Books’ reissue in 1994. She had not completed the revisions when Anchor shipped the proof to reviewers, leaving it in an intermediate and very collectible state.

With her third novel and first book by a major publisher, Castillo gained a much wider audience. So Far from God she continues her experimental trend. It is a wonderful novel—a telenovela (soap opera) in book form—about four sisters and their mother living a mystical existance in New Mexico. Castillo’s grounding in the classics of Latin American and Spanish literature is apparent in the novel which is equal parts feminist García-Márquez, Medieval allegory and Spanish burlesque. In a frenetic and almost absurd fashion, Castillo takes on the troubling and complex social issues of poverty and injustice, particularly environmental racism. Many of the events interwoven into the narrative have a basis in fact and, upon the recommendation of her publisher’s attorney, Castillo rewrote a section of the novel to reduce the likelihood of a libel suit. Castillo worked on the changes until late 1992 or early 1993, just a few months before So Far from God was published. Perhaps because of this, few uncorrected proofs have surfaced on the book market. So Far from God had a 20,000 copy first printing and went into a second printing within a month of publication, following several front page write ups in major newspaper book review sections.

Prior to publishing The Mixquiahuala Letters in 1986, Castillo wrote three volumes of poetry, all very scarce now: Otro Canto (Alternativa Publications 1977), The Invitation (200 copies privately printed in 1979 and another 700 copies in 1986) and Women are Not Roses (Arte Publico 1984). Her fourth poetry collection, My Father was a Toltec, originally published in 1988 by West End Press, was recently reissued in hardcover edition with a selection of her best early poems. The poems are more conventional in form than her novels, but they address the same injustices. Castillo’s latest books are a collection of short stories called Loverboys and a novel, Peel Me Like an Onion.

The author's signature.

His best and best-known book is still Bless Me, Ultima. Anaya’s touching story about seven-year-old Antonio and his relationship with Ultima, a curandera, or folk healer, captivates readers with its mystical setting and the touching relationship between the young boy and old woman. The novel takes place in rural New Mexico in the final days of World War II. Magic, both good and evil, is integral to everyday life in the book. Thematically, Bless Me, Ultima is closely related to the novels of Tony Hillerman and Southwestern Native American writers in whose work the desert landscape embodies spiritual meaning. Anaya’s vision of the spiritual world is true to New World Catholicism and its uneasy blend of European monotheism and the animist religions indigenous to the Americas.

Has also written Heart of Aztlán, a political Chicano novel, Tortuga, a novel about a boy encased in a body cast, a collection of short stories, Silence of the Llano, a retelling of Mexican myths Lord of the Dawn, and a travelogue, A Chicano in China.

Recently, Anaya has turned to writing mysteries; thus far, he has published three mysteries featuring detective Sonny Baca, along with a related novel, Alburquerque. The mysteries, Zia Summer, Rio Grande Fall, and Shaman Winter, are relatively common in the first edition. He has also written a number of books for children, including Farolitos of Christmas, Farolitos for Abuelo, Maya’s Children, and My Land Sings.

Soto’s early poetry is often grim and violent, depicting the marginalization of migrant farm workers and poor Hispanics in his hometown, Fresno, California. He captured the essence of the poor farmworkers’ life in the hot, dusty, agricultural heartland of California. The power of Soto’s simple language quickly catapulted him to national attention. In the 1980s, Soto’s writing gradually changed, although hardship, poverty, and discrimination are still frequent themes. His latest poetry and prose collections are neither didactic nor idealistic, but find joy in the small details of life and display an optimism rarely present in his earlier work.

As Soto grew older, married and had a daughter (now in graduate school), he began writing for children and young adults, publishing numerous volumes of poetry and prose. Among his best juvenile work is the collection of short stories, Baseball in April, which has sold nearly 100,000 copies and his two recent books, Buried Onions and Petty Crimes. Both Buried Onions and Petty Crimes are written for a teen-age audience and depict the modern day realities of poor teenagers. The strong response, especially from Mexican Americans, gave Soto a mission "to make readers and writers out of this group of kids." Soto feels this mission especially strongly because no one in his family ever read while he was growing up. To better reach young Chicanos, he recently turned three of his books into short films starring Mexican American actors. 

Soto continues to write adult poetry, publishing more than 50 poems in Poetry over the last twenty years. His New and Selected Poems (Chronicle Books 1995) garnered his second National Book Award nomination last year. His two most recent poetry collections are Junior College and A Natural Man.

The trade hardcover edition of Soto's first book, one of only 500 copies.

Arte Publico’s faith in Rain of Gold proved justified and the book sold well. Once Arte Publico demonstrated that an audience existed for Rain of Gold in its original form, a major publisher acquired the rights. Dell brought out Rain of Gold, once rejected by all the major paperback publishers, in a large – and expensive – format with a quickly exhausted 100,000 copy first printing. The second installment of the story, Wild Steps of Heaven was published in 1996.

Rain of Gold was Villaseñor’s third book. His first, Macho! (Bantam 1973) was published during a brief window of opportunity in the 1970s when publishers tried to take advantage of the growing Chicano Civil Rights movement. Bantam hyped Macho! as "The first great Chicano novel!", which, of course, it wasn’t. Even Villaseñor himself recognized that he was "Bantam’s token Mexican" with the right story at the right time. The novel tells the story of a young migrant worker’s attempt to cross the border to find work. Macho! works because of the author’s earnestness, not because of the quality of the writing. Like Rain of Gold, Macho! was read voraciously by Mexican Americans, allegedly becoming the most frequently stolen book from the Los Angeles County Library. Villaseñor is able to get at the feeling of the immigrant experience as well as any writer and has been well-received as a result.

Following Macho!, Villaseñor moved to non-fiction with a fascinating recreation of the jury deliberations in the Juan Corona mass murder trial. Jury: The Trial of Juan Corona (Little, Brown & Co. 1977) will shake its readers’ faith in the American trial-by-jury system. Villaseñor self-published a book called Snow-Goose Global Thanksgiving, detailing his annual peace event held at his ranch each year.

The author's first book, published under the name Edmund Villaseñor.