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ix acknowledgments Completing this book offers a welcomed opportunity to reflect back on my intellectual trajectory and the many, many people who have shaped my growth, both personal and academic. ThequestionsthatIraiseinthisbookhavebeenwithmeforalongtime—certainly since my time as an undergraduate at the University of California, San Diego’s Thurgood Marshall College, whose staff and the faculty teaching the Dimensions of Culture sequence launched me into a lifetime of exploration into the study of culture, inequality, identity, and social systems. How fortuitous that I chose, on the casual suggestion of a friend, to enroll in George Lipsitz’s “Ethnic Diversity and the City” class. The core ideas that Professor Lipsitz introduced to me then and in subsequent courses are everywhere in this book and in my teaching; he also offered a critically important model to me, especially at that juncture in my life, of the way that a white person can work authentically for racial justice. To this day, he continues to inspire. I am deeply thankful to all of the ethnic studies faculty at ucsd, especially Yen Le Espiritu, Ross Frank, Jorge Mariscal, and Leland Saito (now at the University of Southern California), as well as David Gutiérrez in history and then–graduate assistants Ruby Tapia and Albert Lowe. You have all provided me with an intellectual and political foundation that guides my life’s work. Thank you. My academic work in ethnic studies was integrated at every step with my involvement at ucsd’s Cross-Cultural Center, where I was extremely fortunate to learn from and work with Edwina Welch, Juan Astorga, and Nancy Magpusao, each of whom helped me to reflect honestly upon the person that I was becoming and pushed me forward in important ways. Edwina, Juan, and Nancy: thank you for the work that you continue to do for students and for justice in higher education. I count my experience in the American Studies and Ethnicity graduate program at the University of Southern California as among the most formative moments in my intellectual and personal life. I am deeply thankful to the many faculty and students there, too many now to name, who have worked so hard to build a different model of graduate education and of academia. I am especially grateful for the support and friendship of colleagues who entered ase as part of the very first cohort with me: Michan Connor, Hillary Jenks, Reina Prado, Jenny Stoever-Ackerman, Cam Vu, and Karen Yonemoto. Gerardo x • acknowledgments Licón, Lorena Muñoz, Ana Rosas, and Sharon Sekhon welcomed me enthusiastically during my first few days at usc and have since become great friends and respected colleagues. I have deep appreciation for my fellow participants in the 2003 Irvine Foundation Summer Dissertation Workshop at usc —I’m very glad to have shared the experience with you. Special thanks and hugs to my querida amiga Perla Guerrero for long walks around the neighborhood, trips to Mexico, and chats about anything and everything. To my friend James Thing, thank you for constantly reminding me to think in more complex terms. James, along with Ilda Jiménez y West, Lalo Licón, Hillary Jenks, Jerry Gonzales, and Cynthia Willis, provided support and friendship as part of two writing groups in which I worked through an early draft of this project. And some of my very favorite memories revolve around Sunday-morning writing sessions with my dear friends Hillary Jenks and Marci McMahon. Although we are now scattered around the country, I hope we’ll find a way to do that again someday! I am profoundly appreciative of the opportunity to work with Laura Pulido, my dissertation advisor, mentor, collaborator, and friend. Laura, from our first meeting, I felt an instant connection—intellectual, political, personal—that has only grown in the years since. Thank you for all that you have done to make me a better writer, scholar, teacher, and activist. I look forward to many more years of friendship and collaboration. Similarly, I can’t begin to thank George Sánchez, who was the main driving force behind the establishment of ase, and who devoted so much of his time and energy to building a new kind of academic community and socializing all of us to be responsible, imaginative, productive scholars. George, thank you for your commitment to me and to the visions you hold dear. We have all benefited from your wisdom. Special thanks also to Bill Deverell, who served on my dissertation committee almost immediately after arriving at...

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