This book has taken a long time to complete, and I have many people to thank. I am grateful to the RCAF members who shared their stories, memories, and art with me for over a decade. Esteban Villa and Juanishi Orosco, my project began with you on December 23, 2000. Irma Lerma Barbosa, thank you for your time, photographs, and records that have enriched the book. I am grateful to Lorraine García-Nakata for sharing her photographs and memories with me. Thank you to Juan Carrillo, Stan Padilla, Sam Rios Jr. and Christina Ramírez-Rios, Josephine Talamantez, Clara Favela, Malaquias Montoya and Lezlie Salkowitz-Montoya, Tomás Montoya, Nalii Padilla-Delap, Elicia Cervantes-Powell, Terezita Romo, and Rudy Cuellar. To Juan Cervantes, Ricardo Favela, Armando Cid, Sam Quiñones, José Montoya, Jennie Baca, and all RCAF members who have passed, I write in your memory. I would like to thank the staff at the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives at UC Santa Barbara, especially Salvador Güereña, Callie Bowdish, and Mari Khasmanyan. I would like to thank Sheila O’Neill, Chris Rockwell, and Julie Thomas at the Department of Special Collections and University Archives at CSU Sacramento. My thanks to Leisa D. Meyer, Charles McGovern, Alan Wallach, and Susan V. Webster, who served on my dissertation committee at the College of William and Mary, along with Salvador Güereña. To my colleagues both near and far, including Mary Pat Brady, Margo Crawford, Karen Mary Davalos, Colin Gunckel, Carlos Jackson, Tiffany Ana López, and Eliza Rodriguez y Gibson, I thank you for your support. It has been an honor and my good fortune to work with Ananda Cohen-Aponte at Cornell. I am indebted to professors C. Ondine Chavoya and Rafael Pérez-Torres, who reviewed my manuscript early on and helped me conceptualize a stronger book. My sincere gratitude to Kevin Cruz for his hard work and passion for archives and Chicano/a art history. To the English Department and Latino Studies Program at Cornell, thank you for the support and research funds to help me realize my project. I am indebted to the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation and the Career Enhancement Fellowship for Junior Faculty. I would like to thank my friends Stephanie Sauer and Janell Lacayo for their encouragement as I descended into rewrites. Last, but not least, my dear parents, David and Cristine Diaz, you have always had my back and have made everything I wanted to pursue possible. Thanks to you, I have finally finished the book.
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