To offer testimonio is inherently political, a vehicle that counters the hegemony of the state and illuminates the repression and denial of human rights. Claiming Home, Shaping Community offers the testimonios from and about the lives of Mexican-descent people who left rural agricultural valles, specifically the Imperial and the San Joaquin Valleys, to pursue higher education at a University of California campus.

While symbolically their journeys embody the master narrative of the "American Dream," Claiming Home, Shaping Community does not echo the "rags to riches"...