Dr. Rosalie Schwartz started college at age 30 after she married Larry and had two daughters, Phyllis and Thelma. During the next decade, she earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in history from San Diego State University and a Ph.D. in Latin American history at the University of California, San Diego. Her research, supported by Fulbright and National Endowment grants, took her to libraries and archives in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, and Spain. In 1980, she was named an American Historical Association Fellow and worked for a year as an advisor on Latin American issues in the Capitol Hill office of U.S. Congressman Lee H. Hamilton (D-Indiana). Dr. Schwartz taught U.S. and Latin American history at various southern California universities while continuing to research and write on topics ranging from Cuban bandits (Lawless Liberators) to tourism (Pleasure Island and Flying Down to Rio) and a historical novel set in the Prohibition era (A Twist of Lemon).