Alejandro Benavides was born in the southern Texas town of Carrizo Springs. At age six he migrated to Aurora with his parents and lived in the historical immigrant working-class neighborhood near the railroad Mexican boxcar camp that this book is dedicated to. After he graduated from East Aurora high-school Alejandro served in the military, then began his post-secondary education and earned a Ph.D. in Education Leadership from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. He is an educator, historian and author. His publications include the commemorative issue of Aquí es Mi Tierra: The History of the Aurora Latin American Club, Blackface Minstrelsy in Aurora, Illinois: A Historical & Sociological Perspective and Olivia: Boxcar. Camp Girl & Visionary of La Hispanidad.
Alejandro’s career includes bilingual-education teacher, high-school bilingual- education teacher, bilingual specialist at the Illinois State Board of Education, bilingual special-education administrator and due-process compliance specialist at the Chicago Public Schools, assistant superintendent of secondary schools at East Aurora School District 131 and superintendent of the state Illinois Center for Rehabilitation and Education in Chicago.
