Rubén Martí­nez, 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.\"