Josie Méndez-Negrete is a professor emerita of Mexican American studies in the Department of Bilingual-Bicultural Studies, the Mexican American Studies Program, and the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She is the author of two previous books: A Life on Hold: Living with Schizophrenia takes us inside the heartbreak of mental illness. Las Hijas de Juan: Daughters Betrayed narrates a story of domestic and sexual violence in her family.