José Acosta Torres is one of several fiction writers whose work was introduced in the literary review El Grito: A Journal of Contemporary Mexican-American Thought, published in Berkeley by Octavio I. Romano-V. and Herminio Ríos-C. from 1967 to 1974. His first story, "Dormir es vivir" (To Sleep is to Live), appeared in the spring of 1972, and his second, "Sinfonía" (Symphony), appeared in the summer of 1973, the year his entire collection of fifteen stories was published by Quinto Sol Publications under the title Cachito Mío (My Little One).

The storytelling technique used by Acosta Torres is an old and popular one: relatos ejemplares (exemplary stories) are especially designed with the purpose of teaching morals or imparting knowledge. In Spain the technique goes back to the Middle Ages; one of the earliest books of this nature is Libro de los enxiemplos del conde Lucanor et...