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.

Another Side of History breaks down the hegemonic door that has tried to shut out complexities of Mexican American and borderland history.

Spirit of the Coywolf is a scintillating representation of powerful Native Afro-Latina women and the American Southwest.