INFORMATION: 20 Years of Joda.

Chusma House Publications,, (1992). SIGNED first edition -. Near fine in illustrated wrappers (name inside front cover) Uncommon - and especially so inscribed.. First printing, a large trade paperback original. A book which combines poetry in both Spanish and English, drawings by Montoya, song lyrics and more. Rigoberto Gonzalez noted that the title "is 'joda' as in 'twenty years of struggle,' as in 'twenty years of fighting back.' A collection, commemorating two decades worth of work by Chicano poet Jose Montoya, one of the writers who pioneered the use of Calo and code-switching in American poetry, includes a portfolio with representations of Pachucas y Pachucos, Cholas y Cholos, Chicanas y Chicanos and other images reflecting a vatos worldview. 'I chose to include em,' Montoya explains in his preface, 'because they were done in el mismo espiritu that the poems were written in'." The book also includes lyrics to songs and corridos, many of which are performed by Montoyas musical group Tro Casindio. But the true engines in the book are his poems, many of which have become classics of Chicano letters, like 'El Louie', an all-attitude urban elegy and the celebrated poem 'The Movement Has Gone For Its Ph.D Over at the University or, The Gang Wars Are Back.' Born in Escoboza, New Mexico, Jos Montoya was raised there in Albuquerque and in California. He is a multidisciplinary artist: poet, painter, writer, and musician. Montoya is a founding member of the Rebel Chicano Art Front, better known as the Royal Chicano Air Force, a group of artists and poets in Sacramento, California. Boldly INSCRIBED by Montoya on the title page. 254 pp. Cover art by Jose Montoya.