Mixing the lyrical with the colloquial, the tender with the tough, Ana Castillo has a deserved reputation as one of the country&#8217;s most powerful and entrancing novelists, but she began her literary career as a poet of uncompromising commitment and passion. <b>My Father Was a Toltec</b><i> </i>is the sassy and street-wise collection of poems that established and secured Castillo's place in the popular canon. It is included here in its entirety along with the best of her early poems. <br><br>Ana Castillo&#8217;s poetry speaks&#8212;in English and Spanish&#8212;to every reader who has felt the pangs of exile, the uninterrupted joy of love, and the deep despair of love lost.