Sacramento County Supervisor Phil Serna, whose father, the
late Sacramento Mayor Joe Serna Jr. knew Montoya well, said that the Sacramento community had lost a gentle soul with an extraordinarily creative mind.
“He was someone who could use spoken word to conjure
poignant imagery and promote a healthy contemplative state,” said Serna. “His
poems gave us pause to reconsider our individual and cultural condition.”
Montoya was born in Escobosa, New Mexico, and grew up in
central California. He worked with labor leader Cesar Chavez and the United
Farm Workers.
He was Sacramento’s third poet laureate, named to the post
by the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission in 2002. He is the author of collections of poetry such as the
acclaimed “In Formation: 20 Years of Joda.”
In interviews, Montoya said he learned arts from his mother,
whose own artistic endeavors involved decorating church interiors. He also was
the founder of Sacramento State’s Barrio Arts program.
Jose Montoya, one of the original members of the Royal Chicano Air Force, retouches the mural he and several other artists painted in
1977 at Southside Park. Montoya and the artists have been working on the mural,
which has been vandalized, for more than two weeks. Monday, August 20, 2001,
Sacramento, Calif. THE SACRAMENTO BEE
