Luis Omar Salinas was born on 27 June 1937 in Robstown, Texas, to Olivia Treviño and Rosendo Valdez Salinas. Soon after his birth his father, a merchant and owner of a small grocery, moved the family to Monterrey, Mexico, where he opened a store. His mother contracted tuberculosis and died in 1941, causing several changes in Luis Salinas's life. His father returned to Robstown where, after a few months of coping with his family alone, he gave up his children for adoption: his daughter Irma went to live with her Aunt Anita and Luis went to live with Rosendo's brother Alfredo, who had recently married.

Alfredo's family left Texas for California while Salinas was in elementary school, first settling in San Francisco and later in Fresno, where, for the first time, Salinas lived among Anglos who did not embrace the racism of Texas (segregated schools and second-rate jobs). In...