Daniel Venegas's work is a precursor of today's Chicano literature not only in openly proclaiming a Chicano identity but also in generating a style and literary attitude that would come to typify the Chicano novels of the late 1960s and the 1970s.

Very little is known of the life of Daniel Venegas. He was the founder and editor of the weekly satirical Los Angeles, California, newspaper El Malcriado (The Spoiled Child) from 1924 into the 1930s, and prior to this he was a journalist for the newspaper El Pueblo (Los Angeles). He also was the author of numerous plays, revues, and a novel. From 1924 to 1933 Venegas's name appeared occasionally in the Los Angeles Spanish-language daily newspapers, La Opinión and El Heraldo de México, usually in reviews of his plays, in reference to his newspaper or to his theatrical company, La Compañía de...