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Lourdes Carmona
After graduating from California State University, San Marcos, with a double major in Social Sciences and Spanish, I chose to pursue graduate studies in the Latin American Studies Program at UC San Diego because of its strong academic reputation, exceptional faculty, interdisciplinary approach, and fully funded program. In 2024, I received a $2,000 grant from the Latin American Studies Program to support my fieldwork in Morelos, Mexico, where I conducted research with two Indigenous communities. My experience in the LAS graduate program has given me the space to grow as a researcher—and the invaluable opportunity to write my thesis in Spanish, staying true to the communities and histories that ground and inspire my work.
Research Interest: The complex narratives surrounding Malintzin and Mestizaje. Through Participatory Action Workshops (Talleres de Acción Participativa) and Zine Praxis, I aim to use collaborative, community-centered methods as tools for decolonization and critical reflection.
Hometown: Yecapixtla, Morelos, México City, and San Diego, California
Email: ecarmona@ucsd.edu
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Juliana Diaz
Juliana is a graduate student in the Latin American Studies program with a concentration in International Migration.
Prior to pursuing my graduate studies in San Diego, I graduated from the University of Southern California with my Bachelors in Sociology (minor in Spanish). As an undergraduate, I came across a Sociology course in my second year that focused on the Mexican immigrant experience, in which our discussions focused on examining the effects of global inequality, as well as legal status, language, and gender (among additional factors) that serve in distinguishing the experiences of Mexican immigrant populations in the U.S. Here, it was made privy to me to the possibility of pursuing studies centered on migration & immigration. This newfound revelation provided the impetus and encouragement that led me to Oaxaca, México in my third year to participate in a study abroad program focused on migration (both from and through México), borders (U.S-México/México-Guatemala), and transnational communities.These experiences, along with my identity as a first-generation college student whose family's story is shaped by migration and immigration, have had a nuanced impact on my personal and academic interests.
Research Interest: International Migration, Transnational Identities, Transborder Mobility, U.S-México Border, Transfronterizx community (in the Tijuana/San Diego Region), Social Networks, Latin America
Hometown: Santa Ana, California
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Charlie Ehrman
Charlie Ehrman is a graduate student in the Latin American Studies program with a concentration in International Migration.
Before joining UCSD, Charlie graduated summa cum laude from Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY) with a degree in Middle Eastern Studies and Political Science.
Ehrman spent years working in video production in Los Angeles before returning to his hometown in New York to pursue his education as a non-traditional undergrad.
During his time at CUNY Queens College, he worked for the Ibrahim Student Leadership & Dialogue Middle East Program as a student-scholar and documentary filmmaker, traveling throughout the Middle East with an interfaith coalition of students, rooted in religious understanding and conflict transformation.
Charlie’s interest in migration stems from his identity as a New Yorker, whose great-grandparents immigrated through Ellis Island, prompting him to question the exclusionary framework of the US’s contemporary immigration and asylum system. This interest has been deepened by his involvement in observing and accompanying asylum seekers at federal immigration courts in NYC.
Charlie has done fieldwork in the US-Mexico Borderlands and has lived in Tijuana. International Migration ties together his interests between the Eastern and Western hemispheres. Charlie will research the challenges and barriers faced by non-Spanish-speaking asylum seekers and refugees in Tijuana and more broadly across Mexico, particularly those from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Haiti.
Research Interest: Migration, Comparative Asylum Systems, Refugees, Citizenship, Borders, US-Mexico Borderlands and Relations, Immigrant Integration, Migrant Detention, Language Justice, Migrant Labor rights, Cross-Regional Middle East-Latin America Studies, South-South Relations, Islam and Judaism in Mexico, Jewish-Arab Sociopolitical History, Ethnic Conflict, Conflict Resolution, Settler Colonialism
Hometown: New York (Queens & Long Island)
Email: cjehrman@ucsd.edu
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Cristian Fuentes Hernandez
Cristian Fuentes Hernandez is a community organizer and political educator based in San Ysidro. An alumnus of UC San Diego, he is passionate about youth empowerment, civic engagement, and public policy that centers working-class communities. With experience in grassroots outreach, planning groups, and political campaigns, Cristian works to bridge the gap between local government and the people it serves—especially young immigrants and underserved neighborhoods in South Bay.
Research Interest: Local Politics, Latin America, Borders, Economic Development, Voter Behaviour
Hometown: San Ysidro, CA
Email: crfuente@ucsd.edu
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Iliana Maiz
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Fabian Mendoza
I am a first-generation graduate student in the LAS program who graduated recently from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in English. Hailing originally from Santa Ana, California, I am interested in the important role that language and academia play in the production of knowledge in service to Latin American communities, social justice advocacy, and in finding remediating alternatives to the open wound produced by colonialism and globalization.Research Interest: Chicano/a/x subjective fragmentation, ego psychology, the formation of Latin America in the 20th century, decolonial thought, immigration, and more!Hometown: Santa Ana, CAEmail: famendoza@ucsd.edu -
Amci Morales
Amci Morales is a first-generation graduate student, writer, and researcher whose work weaves personal narrative, cultural memory, and critical inquiry. She earned her B.A. in Sociology with a concentration in Social Inequality at the University of California San Diego, where she is currently completing her M.A. in Latin American Studies.
Her thesis embraces a non-traditional structure grounded in fragmentos, memory-work, and embodied storytelling. Through autofiction and autotheory, Amci uses writing as a form of resistance and reclamation, especially for women, mothers, and marginalized communities whose voices have been historically silenced or misrepresented. Her work explores survival, gender, sexuality, motherhood, emotional life, and the interior worlds of women of color navigating systems that demand quietness or endurance.
Amci’s research draws from an interdisciplinary landscape, engaging feminist thought, decolonial theory, community and Indigenous knowledge, narrative studies, and Latinx cultural histories. She is particularly interested in how storytelling becomes a method for rebuilding voice, making meaning from rupture, and documenting the complexities of lived experience.
Research Interest: Feminism, Gender, Sexuality & Motherhood. Autofiction & Autotheory. Narrative & Memory Studies. Cultural Traditions & Community Knowledge. Critical & Decolonial Theory. Indigenous Spirituality Practices. Mexican/Latinx History & Diaspora. Oral Histories & Storytelling as Method. Interdisciplinary Studies.
Hometown: San Diego, California
Email: amh012@ucsd.edu
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Bernadette Illusion Muniz
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Julian Padilla
I was proudly born and raised here in San Diego from a Mexican background. I attended UCSD where I earned a B.A in Political Science: Race, Ethnicity and Politics and a B.A in Latin American Studies. I previously participated in a Study Abroad program in Argentina and Chile, opening doors for me to learn more about the Southern Cone. Since then, I have invested my time and research into the Chilean dictatorship in hopes of providing voices to those who have been silenced.
Research Interest: Pinochet Dictatorship, Authoritarian Regimes, Memory and Reconciliation, Southern Cone Politics, Chile, Latin American History (late 20th century), US-Latin America Relations
Hometown: San Diego, CA
Email: j2padill@ucsd.edu
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Maria Alcazar Pedroza
I graduated from San Diego State University with a bachelor's in Sociology and a double minor in Latin American Studies and Religious Studies. I grew up in San Diego and moved here at the age of seven from Michoacan, Mexico. I am interested in expanding my understanding of the immigration system in the United States through a historical lens that centers marginalized voices.Research Interest: Immigration policy regarding the border crisis, asylum seekers, detention centers, DACA, decolonial theory, and border relations.Hometown: Michoacan, MexicoEmail: malcazarpedroza@ucsd.edu -
Sophia Veran
(She/her/hers)
Sophia Veran is a first year graduate student in the LAS program and graduated from UCSD with a B.A. in History and a minor in Literatures of the World. She looks forward to researching the relationships between gender expression, literature, and political motives within Latin American societies. As well as being a graduate student in the LAS program, she will be a TA in the Making of the Modern World Writing Program in ERC for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Research Interest: Liminality, Gender Expression, Social Anthropology, Literature as a Political Tool, Storytelling
Culture, the Mythologization of the Ideal Woman in Medieval Iberia and Latin America, Social EntanglementHometown: Concord, California
Email: sveransa@ucsd.edu