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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book could never have been written without the extraordinary contributions of many different people. I will always be indebted to Connie Maheshwari, Salvador Flores, Yolanda Castillo, Estela Sosa-Garza, Sister Pearl Ceasar, Sister Judy Donovan, Father Bart Flaat, Sister Maria Sánchez, Rosi Ruiz, René Ramirez, and Carmen Anaya for hosting me during my many visits to their schools and communities in the Rio GrandeValley of Texas. Ernie Cortés, Oralia Garza-Cortés, Tim McCluskey , Sister Consuelo Tovar, Sister Christine Stephens, Elizabeth Valdez, Carissa Baldwin, and Jim Drake provided me with many valuable insights into conditions in the Valley and the origins and development of political struggles along the U.S.-Mexican border. Many scholars read through early drafts of this book and provided helpful comments that compelled me to sharpen my analysis and to dig more deeply into the data. I am grateful to Mary Brabeck, Brinton Lykes, Angela Valenzuela, Emilio Zamora, Courtney Cazden, Richard Murnane , Chandler Davidson, Walt Haney, and Guadalupe San Miguel Jr. for their careful readings and incisive criticisms. Zen Camacho, your constant enthusiasm and support for this work have meant so much to me. Maria Brisk, Frank Guajardo, and Lawrence Hernandez—thank you for our stimulating conversations about linguistic and cultural diversity. Several students at Boston College provided me with critical assistance in completing this project. Aaron Ramirez, Steven Blaum, Brianne Chai-Onn, Tito Cruz, Cathy Horn, Tina Zhuo, and Kuldhir Bhati— thank you for your fun-loving sense of humor, patience, and friendships as we moved this manuscript through the final months of preparation. The research for this book was supported by the Annenberg Rural Challenge, Research Incentive Grants from Boston College, and the President’s Travel Fund from Rice University. I would like to thank Vito Perrone for inviting me to work with the Research and Evaluation Team of the Annenberg Rural Challenge and for his helpful comments on early drafts of this manuscript. I am also grateful to Howard Gardner, who hosted me as a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Project Zero during a sabbatical year from Rice, and provided me with a stimulating environment for transcribing my field notes and beginning this book. Finally, I would like to thank my family for your love, which sustained me throughout the writing of this book. Skye and Gabriel, you can’t imagine how much your companionship and those wonderful hugs when I came home in the evening have meant to me. Shelley, thanks once again for standing by me and tolerating my frequent absences and endless obsessions about this project. x ...