Marco E. López Quezada's compelling memoir takes us on a journey between many points in his life. We get a broader sense of the connections and movement between the United States' southwest, and northern and central Mexico during a time when people of conscience were fully waking up and formulating strategies to stand up to racial inequality and repression. The country had gone through a significant world war followed close behind by another conflict in the Pacific. At the same time, here at home, our country was gearing up for a substantial struggle around racial inequities and social injustice. This book is a look into the life and formation of a Mexican-American boy who grows into a man during these unsettling but exciting times in our country's history.

López Quezada’s memoir is a coming of age story, which is more global in its scope and ultimate message. It is a book that gives us hope despite the pitfalls of us being complex human beings, having to grapple with our upbringings and internal conflicts, and the outside world in which we find ourselves interacting.