Acknowl­edg­ments for this book are offered with deep appre­ci­a­tion to the indi­vid­u­als and insti­tu­tions whose sup­port has been instru­men­tal in its cre­ation. A fel­low­ship from the Rad­cliffe Insti­tute at Har­vard Uni­ver­si­ty was the foun­da­tion of this project, pro­vid­ing not only finan­cial resources but also intel­lec­tu­al stim­u­la­tion. Dur­ing my time at Rad­cliffe, I was for­tu­nate to receive invalu­able help from two tal­ent­ed under­grad­u­ates, Tania Domínguez-Rangel and Jesús Estra­da-Martínez, whose fresh per­spec­tives and thought­ful feed­back guid­ed the devel­op­ment of this book. I owe a spe­cial debt of grat­i­tude to my part­ner, Vir­ginia Espino, whose insight and men­tor­ship were essen­tial in shap­ing my under­stand­ing of the crit­i­cal texts and schol­ars that inform this work. Her intro­duc­tion to key schol­ars like Nell Irvin Painter, Mae Ngai, Kel­ly Lytle Hernán­dez, Natalia Moli­na, and Cheryl I. Har­ris gave me the intel­lec­tu­al tools nec­es­sary to approach the sub­ject mat­ter with depth and sen­si­tiv­i­ty.

I also want to express my thanks to Kit Rach­lis, who facil­i­tat­ed my trav­els to Guatemala through his sup­port at Cal­i­for­nia Sun­day Mag­a­zine. These trav­els pro­vid­ed me with invalu­able first­hand expe­ri­ences that helped enrich the nar­ra­tive with­in this book. Rachel Pos­er, a for­mer edi­tor at Harper’s Mag­a­zine, also played a piv­otal role by pub­lish­ing my account of my jour­ney across the Unit­ed States. This pub­li­ca­tion allowed me to expand on my explo­ration of cul­tur­al and soci­etal issues, mak­ing the themes of this book more acces­si­ble to a wider audi­ence. Dorothy Wick­enden and David Rem­nick at The New York­er were also instru­men­tal, offer­ing a plat­form for my “Per­son­al His­to­ry” piece that reflect­ed on my expe­ri­ences in East Hol­ly­wood, nav­i­gat­ing the com­plex­i­ties of civ­il rights activism and white suprema­cy. These pub­lish­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties have allowed me to explore ideas that would lat­er take shape in this book, con­tribut­ing to the broad­er dia­logue on race, iden­ti­ty, and social jus­tice. The vis­i­bil­i­ty pro­vid­ed by these out­lets played a cru­cial role in shap­ing the direc­tion of the work.

Many of the foun­da­tion­al con­cepts and ideas with­in this book also grew out of my con­tri­bu­tions to The New York Times, and I am incred­i­bly grate­ful to Sewell Chan for offer­ing me the oppor­tu­ni­ty to pub­lish op-eds there. His trust in my writ­ing allowed me to explore and refine the ideas that lat­er became cen­tral to this book. A heart­felt thank you is due to Yxta Maya Mur­ray, who took the time to review an ear­ly draft of my man­u­script. Her thought­ful and gen­er­ous feed­back pushed me to refine my approach and gave me the con­fi­dence to con­tin­ue devel­op­ing the work. I am also deeply thank­ful to Alex Espinoza and Maris­sa K. López, whose encour­age­ment sparked the ini­tial idea for this project and kept me focused when I was strug­gling with its direc­tion. Their unwa­ver­ing sup­port was piv­otal in mov­ing the project from an idea to a com­plet­ed man­u­script.

Through­out my career as a jour­nal­ist, I have been for­tu­nate to meet and engage with indi­vid­u­als who have trust­ed me with their sto­ries. These sto­ries, often deeply per­son­al and vul­ner­a­ble, have enriched this book and made it pos­si­ble. With­out the gen­eros­i­ty of those who shared their expe­ri­ences, this work would not have come to fruition. I offer my deep­est thanks to all those who opened their lives to me, allow­ing me to gain a deep­er under­stand­ing of the com­plex issues dis­cussed here. I also wish to acknowl­edge the aca­d­e­m­ic and intel­lec­tu­al com­mu­ni­ty at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Irvine. My col­leagues and stu­dents there have been a con­stant source of inspi­ra­tion, offer­ing valu­able insights into the Lati­no expe­ri­ence and chal­leng­ing me to think more crit­i­cal­ly about our shared future. The con­ver­sa­tions and dis­cus­sions that took place in the class­room and beyond have shaped this book’s ideas, and I am grate­ful for their ongo­ing sup­port and encour­age­ment. The col­lab­o­ra­tive nature of our aca­d­e­m­ic com­mu­ni­ty has pro­found­ly impact­ed the work and direc­tion of this book, and I am thank­ful for the many ways in which my col­leagues and stu­dents have enriched my under­stand­ing of the world and the themes with­in these pages. With­out their guid­ance, this project would not have reached its full poten­tial.