Drawing on the work on "scholarship boys" (Carrillo, 2010; Hoggart, 1957/2006; Rodriguez, 1982), this qualitative study explores the schooling trajectories of working-class, Mexican-origin "ghetto nerds" (Diaz, 2007) in order to introduce Mestiz@ Theory of Intelligences (MTI). For the purpose of this study, "ghetto nerd" is a concept that captures the political, cultural, social, and aesthetic dimensions of three academically successful Mexican-origin males that were born and raised in low-income settings, urban communities in the U.S. This research expands on Howard Gardner's (1985) Multiple Intelligences (MI) theory by conceptualizing a Mestiz@ Theory of Intelligences. As such, this study explores how working-class Latino males perform and embody "gifted identities" as forms of intelligence. Findings provide a critical contribution to current debates on the academic underperformance of Latino male students and notions of intelligence, and they offer the potential for cultivating and affirming gifted mestiz@ identities.