Jose Montoya, activist, poet, artist, teacher, ally, friend
Jose Montoya, Sacramento poet, activist and artist. RIP. – Ally, Friend, Teacher.
Stephen Magagnini
Jose Montoya, one of the most influential and inspirational figures in California Chicano history, died Wednesday, Sept. 25 . He was 81.
One of Sacramento’s poet laureates, Montoya was co-founder of the Royal Chicano Air Force, a collection of artists-turned-activists who used their words, music and images to fight for justice and equality for farmworkers and other marginalized Americans.
Read the full Bee report here. http://www.sacbee.com/2013/09/26/5771228/jose-montoya-sacramento-poet-and.html
The son of farmworker champion Cesar Chavez, Paul F. Chavez, and United Farm Workers President Arturo S. Rodriguez said in a joint statement, “We will always cherish Jose for how he inspired us as well as so many others through his art. But we will also remember him for the countless times when he walked picket lines, helped organize UFW events and fed the farmworkers during every major strike, boycott and political campaign. He was truly a servant of the farmworker movement and we will always be in his debt.”
See: https://sites.google.com/site/chicanodigital/home/the-farmworker-movement-in-sacramento-1972-1976
Montoya touched the lives of thousands of students during his 27 years as a professor of art, photography and education at California State University, Sacramento, along with high school and junior college students at Leland High School in Wheatland and at Yuba Community College.