With his birthplace erased from the map, Jett Jung ultimately found a home in the arid U.S. plains. Toughened by the hardness of the Southwest—leaving him with a broken nose, wrenched back, stitches, and concussions—Jett learned how to get back up and continue to fight.

Immersed in tales about bigger-than-life vaqueros, ranchers, and frontiersmen, Jung learned the art of storytelling and won a literary award at twelve. Encouraged to continue developing his writing skills, Jung inexplicably wrote nothing for years. He worked, graduated college, traveled, and filled over fifty journals with his experiences. Every city he visited, the conversations he had, Jett couldn’t avoid the obvious—the American dream was a cruel lie. Racism, sexism, poverty, and boundless inequity had, if anything, become worse just in his lifetime. Jung became fixated on social change, but he felt inadequate.

Then Jett was reminded of his childhood mentor, Héctor Sierva, a man from Sinaloa, Mexico, and a former associate of Pancho Villa. Over chess games, Sierva imparted knowledge about politics, society, and specifically how the elite abuse their power unless someone makes a stand. Héctor once told Jett that the most effective way to expose injustice and create change was through writing—the press, poetry, short stories, and novels.

It took Jung several years to reacquaint the basics of writing, and his style is still raw. But Jett Jung is determined; he’ll get back up and keep fighting if he fails.