Roberto Lovato is a teacher, journalist, and writer based at The Writers Grotto in San Francisco, California. The author of Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas (Harper Collins), Lovato is also the recipient of a reporting grant from the Pulitzer Center. Until 2015, Lovato was a fellow at UC Berkeley’s Latinx Research Center and recently finished a teaching stint at UCLA.

Benjamin Alire Sáenz is a celebrated American poet and novelist. He has written for children, teens, and adults. His accolades include the 1992 American Book Award for Calendar of Dust, the 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club, and the 2013 Pura Belpré Award for Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe which this interview discusses.

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