“Walking like Christ” through the Long Chicano/a/x Movement: Spirituality, Racialization, and Visions of the Decolonial in Andrés Montoya’s a jury of trees

Abstract

In this essay, I examine the posthumous collection a jury of trees (2017) by Chicano poet Andrés Montoya (1968–1999). I argue that post-1960s attempts to roll back achievements of the broader Civil Rights Movement shape Montoya’s view of spirituality-as-politics and his concept of a long Chicano/Chicana/Chicanx social justice movement. The study follows the chronological trajectory of Montoya’s development as a poet and activist, focusing on Montoya’s critique of multiculturalism and its relation to the articulation of a decolonial imperative in a jury of trees.