Mario T. Garcia is Distinguished Professor of Chicano Studies and History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of more than twenty books on Chicano history, most recently The Making of a Mexican American Mayor: Raymond L. Telles of El Paso and the Origins of Latino Political Power and Father Luis Olivares--A Biography: Faith Politics and the Origins of the Sanctuary Movement in Los Angeles. He is a Guggenheim Fellow.

Ellen McCracken is a professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at University of California, Santa Barbara, specializing in U.S. Latino and Latin American literature. Her books include New Latina Narrative, The Life and Writing of Fray Angélico Chávez, and Paratexts and Performance in the Novels of Junot Díaz and Sandra Cisneros.