James Earl "Jim" Rogers was born on on September 15, 1938 and moved with his family to Las Vegas, Nevada from Los Alamos, New Mexico in 1953. Rogers graduated from Las Vegas High School in 1956 and eventually went on to earn degrees from the University of Arizona in accounting and law, a masters of law from the University of Southern California in 1963, and his doctorate of law from the University of Arizona in 1998.

Isaac Eloy Barrón identifies as a Mexican American. However, as he explains, it took a move five hundred miles away, from North Las Vegas to Winnemucca, to learn what it meant to be Mexican—and that he spoke with a Chihuahuan accent. It was also in Winnemucca that Barrón lauched his stellar career as an educator.