The poetry of Raymundo "Tigre" Pérez is both a reflection and outgrowth of the Chicano movement. Pérez, like his contemporaries, sought to capture and interpret the social, political, and cultural anxieties of Chicanos through verse. Like many movement poets, he saw the means for social change embodied in the Chicano movement. Inspired by the movement, he adopted the role of a political troubadour rallying his people around the cry of revolution as a means of obtaining social justice. During his peak years as a poet (1970-1972) Pérez advocated revolution and portrayed "the Chicano movement as a focal point for this process," according to critic Charles M. Tatum. Poetry and politics, then, fused together to provide Pérez with form and forum.

Born on 15 March 1946 in a garage in Laredo, Texas, Pérez is a poet very closely linked to the...