Borderlands Saints: Secular Sanctity in Chicano/a and Mexican Culture

Acknowledgments

ix aCknowledgMents This book has been many years in the making. Over that time I have incurred many debts to family, friends, teachers, mentors, students, and colleagues. These relationships are formative, and I am humbled by the generosity that so many people have shown me. Before I acknowledge these debts, however, I want to express gratitude for the privilege of research and writing itself. While the process of writing this book has often been frustrating, it has also, quite unexpectedly , been a companion and a refuge for me through some very hard times. Looking back, I can say that writing this book has reinvigorated me for the work ahead even as it has taught me to embrace my time with loved ones, especially my children, all the more. I thank Walter Mignolo, Carolyn Porter, and Antonio Viego for guiding me through different stages of my academic journey. Special thanks go to Alberto Moreiras, Gabriela Nouzeilles, and Janice Radway, who saw the earliest incarnations of this project at Duke University and inspired me to embrace the borderlands condition in every sense. At UC Davis, I have been fortunate to work alongside brilliant and indomitable colleagues. I am especially grateful for the intellectual, professional, and moral support provided me by Emilio Bejel, Nathan Brown, Miroslava Chávez-García, Seeta Chaganti, Chen-Nee Chuah, Frances Dolan, Margaret Ferguson, Kathleen Frederickson, Elizabeth Freeman, Bishnupriya Ghosh, Danielle Heard, Hsuan Hsu, Mark Jerng, Michael Lazzara, David Lloyd, Christopher Loar, Colin Milburn, Elizabeth Miller, Ana Peluffo, Riché Richardson, Matthew Stratton, Julie Sze, Cecilia Tsu, Louis Warren, Claire Waters, and Michael Ziser. I must single out Scott Simmon for his support and friendship; he has been the best chair I could have hoped for during my tenure year. Lastly, I have learned much from the students I have taught and mentored at UC Davis, especially Sharada Balachandran-Orihuela, Emily Davidson, Isabel Porras, and Kaitlin Walker. I look forward to seeing their careers develop. I am deeply grateful to Leslie Mitchner and everyone at Rutgers University Press for their expert stewardship of my project, and to Pippa Letsky for her excellent editorial work. Special thanks go to the anonymous readers of my manuscript and tenure file for their incisive and helpful comments. Many other friends throughout the academy have been important interlocutors and have provided much needed support. Thanks to Aimee Bahng, Rafael Díaz, Ricardo Domínguez, Kirsten Silva Gruesz, Laura G. Gutiérrez, Simon Hay, Javier Krauel, x acknowledgments Jorge Marturano, Claudia Milian, Gabriela Nuñez, Catherine Ramírez, José David Saldívar, Alanna Thain, Christian Thorne, Virginia Tuma, and Maarten Van Delden for their inspirational friendship. Most of all, I thank mis hermanas del alma Amy Sara Carroll and Tabea Linhard, who have always been ready to listen and share their love with me through good times and bad. Finally, I am so blessed to be friends with Robert McKee Irwin (gracias por todo, querido) and Valeria La Saponara (grazie, bellissima). My family and oldest friends deserve special mention. Thank you to the Dobbins family: Maureen, Terry, and especially Greg, for the love and support they showed me over the years. Steve Otroshkin, thank you for always making me laugh when I need it most. To Jean Rebholz, hermana de otra madre, I hope that you know what you mean to me. Thank you for always being there. Nothing would have been possible without mi familia. I owe everything to the Coke family, especially Chris, Bill, Mike, and Apple; to toda la familia Clamont; to my brother, Eddie, my sister-in-law, Sylvia, my niece, Amelia, and my nephew, Elías; and most of all, to my late parents Frederick and María Elena Martín. Siempre están en mi corazón. My greatest blessing is my children, Santiago and Mateo. So much of this book was written while holding one of them inside or out there, in the world. Les dedico este libro por toda la luz y esperanza que me traen. Borderlands saints ...