SOURCE: A Preface to Floricanto en Aztlán, The Chicano Studies Center: University of California, Los Angeles, 1971.

In the following foreword to Alurista's first collection of poems, Gómez-Quiñones introduces Alurista to the reader, speaks of the importance of poetry to Chicano culture, and of Alurista's importance to Chicano poetry.

Alurista has had a major impact on the Movement in poetry, symbols, views. His influence demands attention, hence the following presentation of one hundred of the poet's earliest work written during times seminal to the current renaissance, 1968-1969. Clearly the writings parallel the altering dynamic within the Movement. The collection is poetry and testimony. Let it be said that the collection is of the writings of that time, Alurista has written more and has gone beyond in theme and style.

Literature reflects time and place; poetry is consciousness, spoken in beauty, our consciousness, as the poetry of...