When Ignacio López-Calvo and I began to ponder and think of this anthology based on the themes of refuge and refugees, we inevitably began to speak about each other's past. Ignacio shared his daily life in Spain, his friendships, the richness of social life in his city and the ability to connect with strangers, such as a bartender or someone sitting next to us at the bus stop. I also shared with him my extensive Chilean family and how they show up unannounced without the typical formalities we abide in the America of the North.

We are both emigrants by choice and have found a home in an academic community in the United States, Ignacio in the west and I in the east, but our common points of reference always return to our own identities in Spain and Chile. We are both outsiders and insiders in the cultures we share. I am close to this theme since the majority of the generation of my great grandparents and grandparents were refugees from the Nazis and also from the Russian pogroms. This history, to cite Walter Benjamin, is part of the culture of our hearts. Since 2017, Ignacio has been working with Scholars at Risk, the organization mentioned in F. Javier Cevallos’ chapter, as the faculty representative from University of California, Merced. Responding to the urgency of the current situation in Afghanistan, he has led a campaign to bring a scholar at risk from Afghanistan (and his or her family) to teach or do research at his campus until it is safe for them to return to their country. This campaign helped an Afghani scholar at risk, a graduate student, to join the Interdisciplinary Humanities Graduate Group program at his university. UC Merced's Center for the Humanities, for which he is the director, is coordinating this effort with other University of California campuses as well as organizations like Scholars at Risk and Scholar Rescue Fund, which have extensive experience with this type of work, including the vetting of scholars that will join us at different University of California campuses. This initiative will not only help safeguard academic freedom around the world, but, more importantly, it will also save the lives of some of our colleagues in Afghanistan and those of their families.