Initially, "outsider status" was thrust upon him; later, he adopted it willingly, writing about the Southwest in an effort to communicate where he came from to those unfamiliar with his childhood world. Troncoso writes to preserve his connections to the past, but he puts pen to paper just as much for the future.

Crossing Borders: Personal Essays reveals a writer, father and husband who has crossed linguistic, cultural and intellectual borders to provoke debate about contemporary Mexican-American identity.