I was raised in La Verne, the former orange capital of California into a traditional Mexican-American household with deep indigenous roots. My father was an immigrant; my mother was born in the United States. They both went to segregated schools in the 1930s. Until I was two, my parents were farm workers and traveled around southern California picking citrus. After that, my father labored in a factory. Most of my extended family lived within a two-block radius from my house, including my great-grandmother, who was a curandera (healer). Her yard was a traditional medicine garden and it was there that my scientific curiosity took root. Like most young scientists, I had an insatiable need to figure out how things work. Once, I decimated my father’s rose garden, dissecting the flowers from petal to stamen! Today, I’m a professor of plant biology at California State University, Northridge (CSUN).
http://www.wow.com/article/Lm8uYt/590384eae4b05279d4edbba6
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