José Antonio Villarreal

American writer and educator

• Born: July 30, 1924
• Birthplace: Los Angeles, California
• Died: January 13, 2010
• Place of death: Siskiyou County, California

Villarreal’s novel Pocho was the first work featuring Chicano characters to be released by a mainstream publisher, and he parlayed his early success into a long career as a writer and educator in both the United States and Mexico.

Early Life

José Antonio Villarreal (hoh-ZAY an-TOE-nee-oh VEE-yah-ray-AL) was the son of a Mexican-born former revolutionary soldier, José Heladio Villarreal, and Felícitas Ramírez Villarreal. After serving in the Mexican Revolution under Pancho Villa, José Heladio and his family immigrated to the United States in 1921 to become migrant farmworkers. José Antonio, born in Los Angeles, was the elder of two sons and grew up with fifteen sisters. During harvest time, the entire family, which spoke only Spanish, lived outdoors in tents and moved throughout California following seasonal crops. In the late 1920’s, the family finally settled in Santa Clara, south of San Francisco, where José Antonio attended elementary and high school.

In early 1942, not long after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, seventeen-year-old Villarreal received his father’s permission to drop out of school and enlist in the U.S. Navy. He served in the Pacific Theater aboard the U.S.S. Tawasa, and he left the service in 1946 with the rank of quartermaster first-class. Returning home, he enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1950. By the time Villarreal left college, he had already begun writing, and he published his first short story in 1947 in Pegasus, a literary journal. After graduation, Villarreal continued to write while working at a variety of jobs, including bus driver and cannery worker. In 1953, he married Barbara Gentles, and the couple had three children, Ian, Kelly. and Caleb. Villarreal pursued graduate study in the late 1950’s.

Life’s Work

In 1959, Villarreal attracted literary attention with the release of his debut novel, Pocho, published by Doubleday, one of the first works of fiction to detail the experiences of Mexican Americans. A critical success that would be reprinted several times in both English and Spanish over the next twenty-five years, the novel enabled Villarreal to gain entry into the corporate world as a writer. He became a consultant and technical writer at Lockheed Aircraft in Palo Alto, and he worked from 1960 to 1968 in several locations for the corporation, writing speeches and proposals and editing company publications. He also wrote nonfiction articles regarding aspects of Mexican American history for Holiday and West magazines and for the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Review.

In 1968, Villarreal moved to Boulder, Colorado, where for three years he was the supervisor of technical publications and public relations at Ball Brothers Research Corporation. He continued to contribute essays and nonfiction, writing articles for Empire Magazine, part of the Denver Post. In 1971, Villarreal entered the field of education, teaching courses in English at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He moved to the University of Texas at El Paso to teach English and serve as writer-in-residence during the 1972-1973 academic year.

Feeling the call of his heritage, Villarreal moved to Mexico, where in 1973 he became a naturalized citizen. In Mexico City he became editor in chief of Now in Mexico, a travel publication, and he subsequently moved to Guadalajara, where he spent a year working as a translator and radio newscaster. In 1974, Doubleday published his second novel, The Fifth Horseman, which was centered upon his father’s experiences in the Mexican Revolution.

In the mid-1970’s, Villarreal returned to the United States, teaching at the University of Santa Clara from 1975 to 1976 and Texas A&I University in 1976. Following a year writing in Zacatecas, Mexico, his parents’ hometown, he accepted jobs both north and south of the border, teaching literature, composition, or English as a second language at numerous colleges for twelve years. These colleges included the University of the Americas (Mexico City, 1977-1978), American School Foundation (Mexico City, 1977-1982), Centro de Estudios Universitarios (San Angel, Mexico, 1977), University of Mexico (Mexico City, 1978-1979), University of California at Riverside (1978), Pan American University (Edinburg, Texas, 1982-1984), California State University, Los Angeles (1985-1986), Texas State Technical College (1991-1992), and College of the Siskiyous (Weed, California, 1992-1994).

Villarreal’s third and final novel, Clemente Chacón, was published in 1984. In his later years, he returned to California, living in Siskiyou County along the Oregon border, within sight of volcanic Mount Shasta. He continued to contribute occasional articles and fictional pieces until his death in 2010 at the age of eighty-five, leaving a number of completed novels and short stories unpublished.

Significance

Born of humble origin into a family of migrant farmworkers, José Antonio Villarreal had a burning desire to become a writer. He continued an education begun late and interrupted by war, and because of family and employment obligations he experienced only modest success in his chosen occupation before the publication of his first novel in 1959. This novel, Pocho, achieved acclaim as the well-crafted opening salvo in an eventual barrage of what would become known as Chicano literature—works that focused on the lives of Mexican Americans.

Never an especially prolific published writer, Villarreal nonetheless made regular contributions to both fiction and nonfiction that were highly anticipated and generally well received. More than a half century after its first appearance, Pocho is required reading in numerous ethnic study courses, and Villarreal’s body of work has formed the basis for many theses and dissertations.

Equally respected as an educator, Villarreal during a teaching career that spanned more than two decades inspired countless students in both the United States and Mexico to turn their unique experiences into literature. In recognition for his commitment to excellence in both writing and education, Houston International University in 1989 awarded Villarreal an honorary doctorate of humane letters.

Bibliography

Douglas, Christopher. A Genealogy of Literary Multiculturalism. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2009. A study of the relationship between literature and culture from anthropological and sociological points of view.

Kanellos, Nicolás. Hispanic Literature of the United States: A Comprehensive Reference. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood Press, 2003. This book provides an overview of five hundred years of Hispanic writings in North America, including chapters on themes and trends, brief biographies of important Latino writers, and descriptions of significant works.

Meier, Matt S., Conchita Franco Serri, and Richard A. Garcia. Notable Latino Americans: A Biographical Dictionary. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood Press, 1997. A reference that includes more than 125 biographies of Latino individuals, like Villarreal, who have contributed to American society.