Horacio Lopez was born on January 12, 1938, in Cordova, New Mexico to Elias and Cordelia Lopez. Lopez describes his hometown as self-sufficient and self-reliant and that his family grew their own food and raised livestock. His father only received a second-grade education and worked as a miner.

Anna Dean Kepper was Curator of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Library Department of Special Collections from 1973 until her death in 1983. After attaining degrees in museology and American folk culture from the State University of New York in Oneonta, New York, she moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1973. Kepper was active in various university affairs and served on numerous committees including budget and planning, procedures and policy, public relations, the Museum of Natural History, and beautification.