When José Antonio Villarreal’s novel Pocho was first published in 1959, it gained modest critical acclaim and largely went unnoticed among the Mexican American population. The interest in literature dealing with the lives and trials of ethnic minorities came mainly from scholars and academics who recognized their value. Pocho’s rise in popularity came during its second printing in 1970, right at the height of the Chicano Movement and in the same year as the Chicano Moratorium protest march in Los Angeles, California. Although credited as the first novel of the Chicano literary canon, its title and subject matter were not well received initially by the younger generation of Chicanas and Chicanos, many of whom were rebelling against the themes presented in the book, such as American cultural assimilation, patriarchy, and individualism. Villarreal, born in 1924, belonged to the Mexican American generation of the 1940s and 1950s, which had experienced racism, discrimination, and economic oppression, and yet firmly subscribed to notions of patriotism, national pride, and personal success.