José Antonio Villarreal (July 30, 1924 - January 13, 2010) was a Chicano novelist best known for his debut work Pocho, published in 1959, which is widely regarded as the first novel by a Mexican American author to receive mainstream recognition and a foundational text in Chicano literature.

Born in Los Angeles, California, to migrant Mexican farmworkers José Heladio Villarreal, a veteran of Pancho Villa's forces in the Mexican Revolution, and Felicitaz Ramírez Villarreal, he moved with his family to Santa Clara at three months old, growing up in tents and boxcars amid the orchards and farms of the Santa Clara Valley.

After graduating high school in 1941, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving four years in the Pacific during World War II before attending the University of California, Berkeley on the G.I. Bill, where he earned a degree in English in 1950.​

His novel Pocho chronicles the life of young Richard Rubio, a semi-autobiographical figure navigating Mexican heritage and American assimilation in 1920s-1940s California, drawing from influences like James Joyce, William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, and Mexican writers while exploring themes of identity, family conflict, and cultural duality.

The book marked a pivotal shift in Latino literature, presenting complex Hispanic characters and arguing for a synthesized Mexican-Anglo American identity, though it faced criticism from some Chicano nationalists for perceived assimilationist themes.

He followed with The Fifth Horseman in 1974, a prequel centered on his father's revolutionary experiences ending with Pancho Villa's death, and planned an incomplete tetralogy including The Houyhnhnms and Call Me Ishmael, while also publishing Clemente Chacon.​

Throughout his career, he taught English at institutions like the University of Colorado, lived extensively in Mexico, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1973, edited Now in Mexico magazine, worked as a translator and radio newscaster in Guadalajara, and contributed short stories to publications such as Pegasus and the San Francisco Review.

He rejected strict Chicano labeling for his work, viewing it as part of broader American literature, and spent much of his life traveling between California, Colorado, Texas, and Mexico.

José Antonio Villarreal died in Siskiyou County, California, leaving a legacy that continues to prompt scholarly reassessment of his innovative narrative style and contributions to Mexican American literary history.​