While the border is commonly depicted as a site of danger or crisis, Ruiz shows it as a place of community and care. Families move between cultures with ease, switching between Spanish and English, crossing bridges and borders not in fear but as a part of daily life. This depiction honors South Texas as complex, vibrant, and deeply American.

El Paso native and current Austenite, Miguel A. Briones , reclaims Chicano masculinity in Macho No Machismo: Helpful and Nice , a...