Summary

The next essay is titled "Going Cowboy." In it, Crucet recounts how, after moving to Lincoln to take a job at the University of Nebraska, she learned that 25 percent of the incoming class would be first-generation college students coming from a rural background. In order to learn about their culture and background, she visits a ranch that allows its guests to temporarily work and live like a “real Sandhill cowboy” (100). This was in the summer of 2015 at around the same time that Donald Trump announced his run for the Republican nomination by “slandering all Mexicans as rapists and murderers” (101). This made Crucet nervous about her time in a rural area where, as a Latinx person, she may be unwelcome.

She learns to ride horses and herd cattle and spends time getting to know the rancher and his...