The narrative structure of Texaco is nonlinear and indefinite. It draws our attention to the ways that both official historical records and personal histories contain gaps. Any attempt to map the story onto a linear historical timeline will be incomplete and requires interpretive choices. The purpose of this timeline project is to think about how information gets included or left out of our knowledge base as a result of globalizing and colonizing processes. We will systematically try to define what can be known about the struggle for freedom in the African Diaspora as it is represented in Texaco, what cannot be known, and where we have to read between the lines or use our imaginations to understand how the past has shaped the present.