Obviously, my novel did not meet the criteria of the status quo. Using a technique censors often use, they zoomed in on one detail of the novel, the so-called bad words in Spanish, and they used that excuse. Had they read the novel they would have discovered that the novel is not about profanity. That was never the novel’s goal. The novel was a reflection of my childhood, a view into the Nuevo Mexicano culture of a small town. I looked at values, I looked at folkways, I created heroic characters out of poor farmers. I wrote about old healing remedies used by the folk to cure physiological and psychological illness. I elevated what I found in my childhood, because that’s the way I had experienced my childhood. Poverty and suffering did not overwhelm us; they made us stronger. My novel was my view of the human condition, and it reflected the Mexicanos of New Mexico because that was the community I knew. —“Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry,” Rudolfo Anaya What overall tone does Anaya use and why?