Biography
I study the people and histories of Mexican American, Chicanx, and Latinx communities in the United States with an emphasis on race, gender, and education in the American West. I often say, as I learned from la raza in Indiana, that “Aztlán is everywhere.” Understanding the North American migrations of Mexican-heritage people and the places they call home has intrigued me since I was a young person and learned about my own South Texas history. This concern informs my inquiries about recovering and recuperating Chicanx/Latinx history, especially in places and among populations who remain understudied. In my forthcoming book, Desert Dreams: Mexican Arizona and the Politics of Educational Equality, I explore how Mexican Americans embraced public schools as a conduit to political access and cultural preservation in the face of Americanization in the century following the Mexican American War. Desert Dreams reveals how they challenged the structure of “Juan Crow,” the unofficial segregation of Mexican-heritage people in the United States. It explains how their civil rights politics influenced the ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) and the passage of the Bilingual Education Act (1968), both of which significantly improved the educational outcomes of Mexican American children across the nation.
Prior to joining UNL, I held the Joe B. Frantz Associate Professorship of American History at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi — a Hispanic and Minority Serving Institution in my hometown.
