A native of Los Angeles and the son and grandson of immigrants from Mexico and El Salvador, Rubén Martínez holds the Fletcher Jones Chair in Literature and Writing at Loyola Marymount University, and is an artist in residence at Stanford University’s Institute for Diversity in the Arts. He is the author of: Desert America: A Journey Across Our Most Divided Landscape (Metropolitan/Holt), Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail (Metropolitan/Holt), The New Americans (New Press) and The Other Side: Notes from the New L.A., Mexico City and Beyond (Vintage). As a musician, he has collaborated with Grammy-winning musicians like Quetzal and La Marisoul of La Santa Cecilia, Los Illegals, Concrete Blonde and the Roches. He is the host of the VARIEDADES “performance salon” at the Echo club in Los Angeles, “variety” shows that focus on topical themes. The Ballad of Ricardo Flores Magón, a full-length musical he wrote about the most famous Mexican anarchist most Americans have never heard of, featured L.A.’s Latino musical luminaries and was filmed and broadcast by KCETLink television. He hosted and co-wrote the feature-length documentary film about the first century after contact between Europe and the New World, When Worlds Collide, for PBS. He won an Emmy Award for hosting KCET-TV’s politics and culture series, Life & Times. His essays, opinions and reportage have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, Boom: A Journal of California, Salon, Village Voice, The Nation, Spin, Sojourners, and Mother Jones. He is the recipient of a Lannan Foundation Fellowship, a Loeb Fellowship from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, a Freedom of Information Award from the ACLU and a Greater Press Club of Los Angeles Award of Excellence. www.rubenmartinez.la