Ruben Martinez, an Emmy Award-winning writer and performer, holds the Fletcher Jones Chair in Literature & Writing at Loyola Marymount University. He is the author of Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail. His most recent book, The New Americans, a series of essays on migration and the global era, is the companion to the acclaimed PBS television series of the same name. Martinez was named a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. He is also the recipient of a Lannan Foundation fellowship, and a Freedom of Information Award from the American Civil Liberties Union. Among his notable contributions as a journalist in print and broadcast media, he has been a guest commentator on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered," was news editor at the L.A. Weekly, and won an Emmy Award as host for the KCET politics and culture series, "Life & Times."

Hailing originally from New Mexico, Joe Garcia has now been an Angelino for close to 30 years. A guitarist with Rock, R & B, Folk, Country and Latin musical roots, he searches for a mystical simplicity in his creative endeavors. His collaboration with Rubén Martinez, in friendship and song, has wound its way through deserts, forests and the neglected corners of empire for close to 10 years.