In this introduction, we present a brief description of how we have brought our theoretical concepts into this sort of relationship with the “messiness of ordinary life.” These are the everyday practices that we attempt to theorize, practices that are at times emergent, perhaps counterintuitive, and sometimes opaque. Yet these practices do not emerge from nowhere; they are formed and transformed within sociohistorical circumstances. Practices are also constructed by and through discourses, the ways of knowing that populate our streams of talk. The lives of ordinary people, their everyday activities, and what has led them to the place they find* Portions of this chapter appeared in González, N., & Moll, L. (2002), Cruzando el puente: Building bridges to funds of knowledge. Journal of Educational Policy, 16, 623-641; McIntyre, E., Rosebery, A., & González, N. (2001), Classroom diversity: Connecting curriculum to students’ lives, Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.