“It’s this language loss that lead to personal conflict in my journey of identity: How could I call myself a Latino or Mexican‐American if I am a monolingual English speaker?" he said. “Well guess what, I wasn’t alone being monolingual English speaker then, and the situation is more pronounced now." He described himself as an aspiring hippie coming out of high school in the early 70s, but he knew he wanted to study mathematics. He earned an undergraduate degree in mathematics at Trinity University in San Antonio in 1976 and a master's degree in statistics at the University of Michigan in 1977.