Erotic Journeys: Mexican Immigrants and Their Sex Lives

Acknowledgments

Many generous people have made this book possible. First, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to the sixty immigrant women and men who opened their hearts and souls and trusted me with their personal life and sexual stories. I have done everything possible to make sure this book is an honest and genuine reXection of their accounts. And second, I am grateful to those who helped me to immerse myself in their stories in order to give life to this study. With profound cariño, respect, and admiration I acknowledge Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo for being an enthusiastic and encouraging mentor and friend for more than ten years. Without her academic guidance, unconditional encouragement, and critical revisions of diVerent drafts, this book would have not been conceived. Pierrette querida, de todo corazón mil gracias por siempre. María Patricia Fernández-Kelly and Barrie Thorne stimulated my intellectual curiosity and growth and helped me with valuable and insightful comments at diVerent stages of this project. I feel profoundly indebted, humbled, and honored for the time, energy, and dedication both of them invested to help nurture my work. I also appreciate the many supportive professionals, activists, community organizers, friends, compañeras and compañeros who cooperated during the sampling process. I want to thank Antonio Bernabé, Francisco Cacho, Reyna Campos, Natividad Encarnación, Alice Heidy, Walter Iglesias, Irma Radillo, María Eugenia Sotelo Regil, María E. Zepeda, and all the volunteers and professionals, who along the way, unconditionally helped me identify study participants at many supportive institutions in Los Angeles. I thank these community-based organizations and schools Acknowledgments ix for helping me recruit study participants and for their priceless support during the research process. My special gratitude goes to the Mexican Consulate for oVering me the Nuestra Familia book and other didactic materials, which I used as an incentive for my informants. Many mentors, colleagues, and friends have stimulated my feminist thinking and my intellectual curiosity in the Weld of gender and sexuality studies. Thank you for your support at diVerent stages of this project: Tomás Almaguer, Constance R. Ahrons, Ernestine Avila, Lionel Cantú, Héctor Carrillo, Wendy Chapkis, Robert W. Connell, Diane di Mauro, Rafael M. Díaz, Manuel Fernández Alemany, Judith Grant, Matthew C. Gutmann, Gilbert Herdt, Michael A. Messner, Sharmila Rudrappa, Denise A. Segura, Jodi O’Brien, and Patricia Zavella. All of you are an inspiration; you have a special place in my heart. Those who kindly edited parts or entire versions of the book manuscript include my good friends Patricia Emerson and William Rodarmor. They contributed their generous support as I struggled to Wnd my voice in English without getting lost in translation. My gratitude goes to Naomi Schneider for encouraging and supporting this project as I went through that experience. I acknowledge the generous Wnancial support I received from diVerent institutions: the Social Science Research Council for the dissertation fellowship I received through its Sexuality Research Fellowship Program; the University of California for the President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California at Berkeley; the Ford Foundation for a faculty award through the “Sexuality, Inequality, and Health: Practitioner Training Initiative” at San Francisco State University, Project Director, Gilbert Herdt; and a University Cooperative Society Subvention Grant awarded by the University of Texas at Austin. The latter provided funding for artistic and photographic work and editing. I have been fortunate to have had the support of José E. Limón, Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies, and Debra Umberson, Chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, to Wnish this project while a novice assistant professor. I want to express my gratitude to Victoria E. Rodríguez and Peter M. Ward for their encouragement, guidance, and support while I worked on the book. I want to thank Christine L. Williams for her insightful comments as I struggled with the Wnal version of this manuscript—thanks for being such a terriWc and supportive mentor, colleague, and friend. Lastly, I express my appreciation to Carol A. Chavez for being a patient and helpful research assistant who kindly helped me in various tasks in the completion of the manuscript. x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would never have written this book without the support of those who love me the most. Yo no hubiera podido escribir este libro sin el apoyo de quienes me aman más. Dedicar...