José Montoya

José Montoya (May 28, 1932 – September 25, 2013) was a poet and an artist from Sacramento, California. He was one of the most influential Chicano bilingual poets. He has published many well-known poems in anthologies and magazines, and served as Sacramento's poet laureate.

Biography He was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and raised, along with his brother, Malaquias Montoya, in the San Joaquin Valley in California. He and his family were migrant farm workers and Montoya started helping in the fields at age nine. The experience made Montoya decide that "farm work would not be his destiny." His mother was an artist herself, stenciling images for churches and homes and creating her own pigments and his experiences assisting her helped him think about becoming an artist.

From 1951 to 1955, he served in the United States Navy. After the Korean War, he used his G.I. Bill to go to college. Here, he worked for over twenty five years and started a unique program called the "Barrio Art Program."

Works Montoya, José. El Sol y Los De Abajo and other R.C.A.F. poems por José Montoya. San Francisco: Ediciones Pocho-che, 1972. Montoya, José. In Formation: 20 Years of Joda. Chusma House Publications, 1992. Trio Casindio and the Royal Chicano Air Force. 20 Years of Songs by José Montoya. Montoya, José. Los Compas: Chale Gallego y'l Xorty. Copilot Press, 2010.