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Acknowledgments for the Gifts of Knowledge First I would like to acknowledge and thank every zinester whose work I experienced as its own theoretical production and act of public scholarship, and who inspired me to keep it real and write from where and who I am. Efforts to disentangle the strands of knowledge that inform this project take me back to people and places that have been meaningful to me throughout my history. I begin by acknowledging my now passed Memas, my three grandmothers, whose home on the hill gave me perspective. Perhaps it is this first gift of perspective that allowed me to experience the chaos and contradictions of my family life, with lived histories on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border, also as gifts—often joyful, sometimes challenging, but always generative. From as early as I can remember, I experienced my mixed-race life as a commingling of truths and values, of old and new ways of being, and of music and food that can be traced in multiple directions across space and time. Growing up on the border was a bittersweet experience of stark realities. When I first read Gloria Anzaldúa, Emma Pérez, Yolanda Leyva, and Chela Sandoval, I experienced both an awakening as well as a deep, and sometimes difficult, knowing. I am profoundly grateful to these scholars and to every Chicana writer and public intellectual whose work helped me to think, feel, and know more deeply, and helped me to believe that I belong. The deep knowing that is sometimes accompanied by a kind of recognition continued as I read, for the first time, the literatures of cultural studies, feminist theories, radical pedagogy, queer theory, and even radical research methods. I am grateful to have been taught to value the lived knowledges of my everyday. When these knowledges combined with those I encountered in graduate school, my life changed. Forever. To those who xi xii / Acknowledgments for the Gifts of Knowledge first introduced me to such meaningful literatures at New Mexico State University, I am always grateful. I am grateful to the women in my masters program who encouraged me to pursue my doctorate and whose work and friendship continue to inspire and sustain me—Robbin Crabtree, Margaret Jacobs, and Catrióna Rueda Esquibel. And I extend continued thanks to my dissertation committee: To Diane Price Herndl, who taught me to value my insistence for joy in the process and whose fierce intelligence I am the beneficiary of. By example, she taught me to recognize all academic endeavors as creative. To Carl Herndl, whose mentorship and collaboration produced a publication I remain so proud to be a part of and who, importantly, taught me to love first F(l)at Tire and then Newcastle. To Amy Slagell, who let me color outside of the lines. To Michael Mendelson, who insisted on cultivating beauty along our intersecting academic pathways. And to Jill Bystydzienski, who helped me fulfill my need and desire to work across disciplines. For Brenda Daly, whose meticulous scholarly eye and caring heart helped me through more drafts of work than I or she care to remember. I can get lost (joyfully so) in the messiness of thinking, and so I want to express particular gratitude for those whose love of detail helped this dissertation become a book. Rebecca Iosca from Chicken Scratch Editing worked with great care and expert precision, and out of our work a friendship emerged. Special thanks, too, to Marissa Juárez and Mary Duerson, whose early editing assistance helped this book take huge leaps in its trajectory. Thanks to Kristin Mock for her help with proofreading this work. I am grateful to Ken McAllister who, even as he was at work on his own book, read and then thoughtfully commented on drafts of this manuscript over an entire morning at a local diner. His careful critique was encouraging and enlightening. I am especially grateful to him and to Rachel for providing me, and the three generations of women I travel with on a quotidian basis, an opportunity to have fun, make music—not to mention the chances he gave me to showcase my bass guitar playing skills. To Eithne Luibheid, who carefully mentored me through my efforts to craft a persuasive prospectus and who, together with Hai, brought all seven of us around their dinner table for great food and conversation. Special thanks, too, to Aimee Carrillo-Rowe and Victor Villanueva whose thoughtful conversations helped...

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