Biography
B.A. History, CSU Fullerton
M.A. History, CSU Fullerton
Born in Guadalajara, Mexico, I have been living in Southern California from an early age and continued my presence in the Pacific in higher education. I obtained my B.A. in History from CSU Fullerton where I mostly studied Latin American and East Asian history. I returned to CSUF to obtain my M.A. with a thesis titled, “Agents of Modernity: Japanese Mexicans and Transpacific Politics, 1897-1945.” At UCI, I continue to research the histories of Asian migration and community-building in 19th and 20th century Latin America. My dissertation focuses on Japanese migrants’ presence on the Pacific states of Jalisco and Colima from 1906-1936. I examine these individuals’ sense of nationalism and belonging in the Mexican and Japanese context and whether they synchronized these concepts to create a Transpacific community. This research compass extends to the tracing of their forms of contract and commercial labor, interracial marriages and other forms of social relations, and communications with Mexican governments as well as the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Advisors: Heidi Tinsman, Kevan Aguilar
First Field: Latin American History
Second Field: World History, Imperial Japan
Dissertation Topic: (Working title): “Transpacific Encounters: Japanese Presence in Jalisco and Colima, 1906-1936.”
Awards
School of Humanities Summer Dissertation Fellowship (UC Irvine, 2024)
School of Humanities Charles & Ann Quilter Graduate Student Award in History (UC Irvine, 2024)
Cardenas Market Foundation Scholarship (International Scholarship and Tuition Services, Inc., 2002)
Department of History Summer Research Award (UC Irvine, 2022)
Center of Asian Studies Spending the Grant Award (UC Irvine, 2022)
William Rojas Scholarship (Ontario Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, 2022)
Eugene Cota Robles Graduate Student Fellowship (UC Irvine, 2021-2027)
Lawrence B. De Graaf History Graduate Student Fellowship (CSU Fullerton, 2020)
CSUF Emeriti/Benson Scholarship (CSU Fullerton, 2019)
Publications
“A People without A Nation: Anti-Chinese Campaigns and Violence in Northern Mexico, 1900-1940,” in WelebaethanJournal of History vol. 47, 2020, pp. 113-131, available at http://www.welebaethan.org
“Chinese American Museums [Permanent Exhibitions] Review,” in Welebaethan Journal of History vol. 47, 2020, pp. 502-505, available at http://www.welebaethan.org
“A Bloody Memory: Tlatelolco ’68 in Mexican Pop Culture, 1968-2018,” in Welebaethan Journal of History vol. 46, 2019, pp. 273-284, available at https://www.welebaethan.
“Shūkyō: The Arrival of Religion in Meiji Era Japan,” in Welebaethan Journal of History, vol. 44, 2017, pp. 166-178, print publication.