Night was falling, and Louis Mendoza pedaled his bicycle toward a cluster of lights on the outskirts of Rochelle, Ill., population 9,500.
Ending a 100-mile day Aug. 30, he hoped the glow meant a place to eat and spend the night. As he approached, he saw a trailer lit up and emblazoned with the name, "Taqueria Monterrey."

It was one of many defining moments of the six months that Mendoza spent on a nearly 12,000-mile journey around the perimeter of the United States, on a quest to study firsthand the "Latinoization" of America and the impact of immigration.

Mendoza, a second-generation Mexican-American and chairman of the University of Minnesota's Chicano studies program, also felt a profound need to descend from the ivory tower to figure out, along the way, what it all means.

Like the nation, he is still trying to figure that out.
Mendoza returned from the trip Dec. 20 and now is engaged in another solitary challenge: Taming two journals, hundreds of hours of digital audio and video recordings and a 200-page blog into a book that captures the essence of everything he experienced.

'Profound, life-changing'
The project was sparked in the fall of 2006. Mendoza had an opportunity to take a sabbatical. He wanted to write a book. He wanted to live in a new place. A former distance runner, he wanted to get back into shape.
"I wanted to make sure this was a very meaningful experience, a very profound, life-changing experience," he said recently from his north Minneapolis home.
In his position, it's important to him to be in touch with the Latino community; the most compelling issue he'd seen recently has been immigration, both historical and recent.

"My politics are very clear to me, but I wanted to think philosophically about what does this mean to me personally, and to us as a nation," he said. "My goal was to go, and be not an advocate or educator, but to listen."
That meant going to the people where they live, seeking out their stories, collecting and sharing them.
He rode his bike most of the way, but also took trains, ferries and drove. Lots of friends and family members asked why he didn't drive the whole way; he answers that the bike was part of the metaphysical challenge.

It made him vulnerable to the elements, to flat tires, broken chains and a bent derailleur, and to the physical exhaustion that dogged him mostly on the first quarter of his trip.
But it also brought unexpected boons, exposing him to the kindness of strangers of all ethnicities who stopped to ask about his quest, give him water, and share their own stories and opinions.

'Mutual destiny'
He started in San Jose, Calif., on July 1 and began a trip around the perimeter of the country. It led him through many major cities but also the small towns that have been transformed by an infusion of Latino families.

Along the way, he spoke with community organizers, Latinos at every stage of immigration and citizenship, migrant workers, entrepreneurs, kids, elders, professors, tourists and others. From police officers in Worthington, Minn., to Puerto Ricans against gentrification in their Brooklyn neighborhood, all had a stake in the issue of immigration and the future of Latinos in the United States.
Still, despite the anti-immigrant ordinances, miserable migrant working conditions and "Americans welcome" signs he saw along the way, he also took note of the ways that so many Latino immigrants and citizens have carved out a place for themselves in the United States.
He's left feeling optimistic that people will eventually see beyond their differences to a "mutual destiny."
"There are lots of positive signs that we can work it out," he said.
He draws a metaphor between his quest and the process the United States must complete.
"My trip, the physical and emotional, the awareness, and our journey as a people, in terms of where we fit as Latinos, and evolving into a multicultural society we like to believe we are," he said. "It's an evolving process. I don't think the destination is clear; it's an open-ended road."

Maria Elena Baca • 612-673-4409