Migra!. Kelly Lytle Hernandez

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      It was only with the love, support, and generosity of a community of scholars, activists, archivists, friends, and family that I was able to conduct the research and develop the ideas at the heart of this book. To do my best to thank them all, I must start with this book’s origins in the years that I spent volunteering in the migrant camps of Northern San Diego County. I was just a teenager then, but Reverend Roberto Martínez and Osvaldo Vencor of La Casa de los Hermanos allowed me to participate in their work with undocumented families and laborers living in the canyons. Representing La Casa, I did a little bit of everything. Year after year, Roberto, Osvaldo, the staff of La Casa, and camp residents created space for me to continue contributing in whatever way I could. I thank them for the opportunity that they afforded me to participate in the lives, struggles, and occasional triumphs that were often overlooked as the State of California slid toward the passage of Proposition 187 in November of 1994.

      As I worked in the camps, I took courses from George Lipsitz at the University of California–San Diego. George made me want to be a scholar, and in the past fifteen years I have looked to him as a model of intellectual excellence and dexterity matched by a deep reservoir of personal commitment to the pursuit of a life better lived and a world better made. George asked all the right questions, he allowed me to stumble, and he always pushed me to do just a little bit better because the inquiries at the heart of our work demand and deserve it. Thank you, George.

      As a graduate student, I had the pleasure to work with Eric Monkkonen. It was Eric’s passion for “cop history” that pushed me to see the Border Patrol from a new perspective, to search in unexpected places for evidence of the past, and to test new methods. And it was Eric’s incredible sense of humor that made me look forward to a life in academia.

      This project never would have left the ground without Marian L. Smith, the historian of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service. Marian brokered a rare collaborative agreement between what was then Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Historical Reference Library, the National Archives and Records Administration, and myself, by which I assisted with an ongoing indexing project of all INS files held at NARA. I thank David Brown and Cynthia Fox, who were overseeing the INS indexing project, for graciously allowing me to work in the stacks. The opportunity to participate in an indexing project was an invaluable experience. All of the staff and archivists of NARA were helpful during my summer at the archives, but I worked most closely with Suzanne Harris. Like Marian, Suzanne had an extraordinary knowledge of Record Group 85; her assistance was invaluable, and her generous guidance was a constant support.

      Another crucial resource for this book was the National Border Patrol Museum (NBPM). The NBPM staff was kind, open, and supportive upon learning that I was writing a history of the U.S. Border Patrol. I thank Brenda Tisdale and Kristi Rasura, in particular, for all of their assistance and conversation. I thank Mike Kirkwood, who was then director of the NBPM, for allowing me full and unrestricted access to all of the museum’s records, photos, and files. I am sure that we tell very different stories of the Border Patrol’s past, but the staff of the NBPM exemplified a level of openness and transparency that is uncommon for a police historical society. Also I thank the many Border Patrol officers with whom I spoke during my trips to INS Headquarters in Washington, D.C., the NBPM, and the Public Information Officers who have taken me on tours of the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas and California. Gus de la Viña and Bill Carter took time out of their busy schedules to sit down and share their thoughts with me about the history of the U.S. Border Patrol and their experiences as Border Patrol officers and administrators.

      My initial research in Mexico was facilitated by Antonio Ibarra, Ariel Rodríguez de Kuri, and Jaime Vélez Storey, who so generously introduced me to the Archivo General de México (AGN) and the Archivo Histórico de la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores (AHSRE). A fortuitous partnership with Pablo Yankelevich made it possible to enter and explore the resources of Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Migración. I cannot express enough gratitude to Antonio, Ariel, Jaime, and, most of all, Pablo, whose critical support allowed me to conduct research in Mexico and opened new avenues for my professional and intellectual development.

      Numerous colleagues and mentors have generously read and offered their comments on chapters or articles derived from the manuscript. They include Ellen DuBois, Deborah Cohen, Michael Meranze, Erika Lee, Mae Ngai, Eric Avila, Scot Brown, John Laslett, Teresa Alfaro Velkamp, Roger Waldinger, Ruben HernándezLeon, Kitty Calavita, Benjamin Johnson, Gilbert González, Roger Lane, and Wilbur Miller. Robert Alvarez, George Lipsitz, Steve Aron, Naomi Lamoreaux, Natalia Molina, Geraldine Moyle, George Sánchez, and Vicki Ruiz each read entire drafts of the manuscript. Their comments along with the readers’ reports secured by the University of California Press have strengthened my writing and analysis.

      I want to acknowledge and thank the following institutions for the financial support that they have provided to move this project from an idea to a book: The Mary M. Hughes Research Fellowship in Texas History of the Texas State Historical Association, the Institute of Global Conflict and Cooperation’s Graduate Internship in International Affairs, UC MEXUS, UC MEXUS/CONACYT, the Chicano Studies Research Center at the University of California-Los Angeles, the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at UC–San Diego, the John and Dora Randolph Haynes Faculty Fellowship, the UCLA Institute on American Cultures, the UCLA Academic Senate, UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment Mini-Grant, UCLA International Institute Faculty Fellowship, UCLA Career Enhancement Award, and the UCLA Department of History.

      Remarkable graduate and undergraduate student researchers helped with the completion of this book: Carlos Niera, Anahí Parra Sandoval, Paola Chenillo Alazraki, Jennifer Sonen, Morelia Portillo, Monika Gosin, Adriana Flores, Alfred Flores, Amin Eshaiker, Angela Boyce, Rachel Sarabia, and Liliana Ballario.