Deborah Méndez-Wilson (née Quintana-Vigil) is a fourth-generation Coloradan whose mestizo family roots in the United States date back to 1704 New Mexico and the Vigil lineage of land grant families in the northern New Mexico/southern Colorado territory. She is a University of Colorado at Boulder graduate, and has spent most of her adult life working in journalism and public relations. As a journalist, she has worked for the Associated Press, and has freelanced for several publications. In 1979, she married a Venezuelan engineer and immigrated to his country, where she spent a decade as a “gringa reencauchada” and joyously immersed in the rich, diverse culture, history, languages, customs, cooking, literature, geography, politics and socioeconomic realities of her adopted land. Today, she is re-married, and she and her husband are raising their son in one of Denver’s largest, most affluent and educated exurbs.