Although fiction about poor immigrants and migrant Americans has long been an important feature of American literature, and Chicano migrant workers have been part of American life since the nineteenth century, the first fiction that directly addresses the plight of Mexican and Chicano migrants did not appear until the late 1940s in the works of such authors as Mario Suárez and Luis Pérez. Early experiences by migrants are also chronicled in many corridos (ballads) of the time. In 1971 the first novel dedicated entirely to the life of the Chicano migrant people, Tomás Rivera's ". . . y no se lo tragó la tierra"/". . .and the Earth Did Not Part," appeared, providing a prototype for this subgenre of Chicano literature. The followers of Rivera are many, among them Rolando Hinojosa, author of Klail City y sus alrededores (1976), and Saúl Sánchez, who...