Acknowledgments

“Every mind is another world.” This is the lesson my grandfather, Tata Diego, imparted in me from his life journey building homes in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico. While making the practical and even predictable calculations of constructing an edifice, he reflected deeply on the diversity of perspectives, tools, and knowledge that shaped the end results. My approach to researching and, later, writing the book was, in part, attuned to bringing together a diversity of views, methodologies, and imaginative possibilities that were informed by many wonderful and courageous people in different cities, campuses, and research centers. Among the bravest were the participants in Kern County who imparted their raw stories, giving life to the book. They allowed me to accompany them in their social worlds, however temporarily, to document accurately and reflect deeply on what it all might mean to contract and recover from Valley Fever as people with complex lives working on industrial farms, as leaders in their community, or as witnesses and survivors of the harsh conditions of a polluted environment and incarceration. Their many stories made this book possible and permissible. A special thanks to the Aguirres, the De Andas, the Esparzas, and Salvador Partida, all of whom entrusted me to carry out the research study.

The biggest credit is to professor George Lipsitz who poured his heart and soul into the study and whom I owe my deepest and sincerest gratitude. George guided me in conversation and with the writing at every step and turn of the research, ensuring that neither the stories nor my own sense of self were lost in the challenging process of honing both the critical edge of analysis and the skills required of academia. The bones of the dissertation were assembled in collaboration both with George and with the mentorship of Denise Segura and Victor Rios from the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to whom I owe my sincerest gratitude as well. A special thanks to both the Chicano Studies Institute and the UC President’s Dissertation Year Fellowship at UC Santa Barbara, which funded multiple years of study. Thank you to the UC Davis Center for Poverty Research and the Stanford Center for Poverty and Inequality, which provided funding for my visiting scholar position at UC Davis.

Life as a junior scholar was especially tumultuous before, and shortly after, the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. When I most doubted myself, powerful scholars and friends came to revive my sense of purpose. Nan Enstad, Julie Sze, and Annie Hikido provided me with generous feedback and suggestions on the messy drafts of my book chapters and reoriented me after the uncertainty I experienced from my own daughter’s health challenges. Thank you to Liliana Rodriguez and Fatima Suarez for their generous feedback on early drafts and their sense of solidarity in the struggle. Thank you to Marisa Salinas for her unyielding mentorship and for sharing her contagious love for so many people and in ways that nurture the soul, which helped me complete the book project and plan the next steps in my career. Special thanks to Edna Ledesma Ely, Alimta Miranda, Carolina Sarmiento, and Armando Ibarra who provided their friendship and collegiality during my years at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The faculty in the Department of Community and Environmental Sociology and the staff in the Applied Population Lab, especially those who retired in my first three years there, Jane Collins, Gary Green, Dan Veroff, and Leann Tigges, were instrumental in building momentum for the stories highlighted in the book. The students in the joint sociology graduate program at UW-Madison, including Jane Ahn and Danielle Schmidt, brought so much enthusiasm to my daily life. They kept me reading much of the new literature covered in the book. There are many more amazing and wonderful people to acknowledge. I am especially grateful to Ryan Mulligan at Temple University Press for guiding the book through the review process and securing blind reviewers who also provided generous feedback and direction for the writing.

Behind the scenes, the labor of love has helped make this project come to full fruition. I want to acknowledge the greatest sources of strength and sensibility, my mother, America Rios Aizu, and my grandmother, Maria Elena Rios Aizu. I have no words to show my gratitude. I could not have done the project without either of them. Thank you to my partner, Manuel “el Gornie” Favela, who worked the day and night shifts raising our three children Camilo, Marisol, and Manuelito, while I found an escape route through the front door to write. I often joked that my children, Milo, Mari and Manu, were my research assistants. But they were more like my mirrors reflecting time and life’s gifts. My three children pulled me away as much as pushed me back into the book at all hours of the day and night. Thank you to my extended family, Clara Cid, Rosie, Tina, and Margarita Favela, who reenergized my batteries with reminders to live creatively and freely. Special thanks to my soul sister Kristina Hernandez who provided love and encouragement for this project from start to finish. Finally, I could not have committed to doing this work without Fernando Jimenez, “El Papa,” who looked out for me in his own way and connected me to his extended family of choice in Bakersfield. Betty and Manuel from Bakersfield, thank you for providing a safe and loving home for me during the field research phase of the project. Manuel was taken too young by the pandemic, but I know Betty is still holding down the house. Thank you both. Thank you everyone.