The “Godfather and guru of Chicano literature” has long been displaced by his godsons and daughters, so it’s surprising that University of Oklahoma Press has recently printed the first collection of his essays, with a forward by World Literature Today Executive Director Robert Con Davis-Undiano. Anaya is a competent nonfiction writer, and though his positions are not earth shaking—indeed they are more often boring than not—they do reflect the early dialogue of Chicano literature.