Graduate Students

Michael Aldas

I graduated from Brigham Young University-Idaho with a BA in History and University of Louisville with an MA in Higher Education Administration. I am an active duty Army officer and was selected to be a Spanish instructor at the United States Military Academy. 

Research Interest: How Ecuadorians from different communities use everyday language to shape beliefs about Kichwa, indigeneity, ancestry, and cultural belonging, both openly and through subtle features of Ecuadorian Spanish.

Hometown: Chicago, Illinois

Email: mialdas@ucsd.edu

Cristian N. Aquino

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 

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 

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

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

Riley (Red) Klug

(they/them & she/her)

I am a first generation graduate student from New Martinsville, West Virginia. I received my BA in both Art History and Anthropology with minors in History, Native American Studies, and Political Science from West Virginia University in 2024.

My research interests center on queer and travesti experimental film and performance in the post-dictatorship Southern Cone region, specifically both Argentina and Chile. I am interested in understanding and analyzing the 'trasheo travesti' aesthetic and how it has been influential in discussions of post-dictatorship reconstruction. My work is heavily influenced by queer and trans feminisms in the Southern Cone, specifically that by Nestor Perlongher, Pedro Lemebel, and Nelly Richards among others. It is my goal to shed light on post-dictatorship performance for its discussions of AIDS, sex work, eroticism, and anti-neoliberalism.

My work bridges the gap between literature and film, looking at the literary work of Pedro Lemebel and Nestor Perlongher in connection with other queer and travesti filmic and photographic performance. The primary focus of my master’s thesis is literature, but I still choose to tie in discussions of modern art theory and the analysis of film and visual media in my writing. I find that comparative literature and film have much in common, the main difference is that the literature specification is not a moving image, but an imagined one. I would like to translate my own understanding of queer literature to that of queer performance, starting with my knowledge base in Lemebel’s literary, photographic, and experimental videographic post dictatorship discussion of AIDS and neoliberalism.

Research Interest: Women’s rights; Argentina; feminist theory; abortion, post abortive, and maternity care; gender studies; LGBTQ+ rights; feminist and queer film, performance art, and literature; contentious politics; art history, theory, and production. 

Hometown: New Martinsville, WV

Email: riklug@ucsd.edu

Iliana Maiz

Fabian Mendoza

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

Bernadette Illusion Muniz

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

Maria Alcazar Pedroza

Yael M V Rangel

(He/Him/His)

I was born in California, but lived in Michoacán, Mexico up until the age of 12. I moved around a bit, but have always tried to return to México whenever possible. I had four transformative years at UCSD studying Spanish Literature and Clinical Psychology. My years, through being so close to the border, there developed my interest in border culture and lifestyle. After graduating, I have spent two years mostly working with children. 

Research interest: Cross-border relations, cross-border lifestyle, Mexican-American identity

Hometown: Morelia, Michoacán

Email: ymvargas@ucsd.edu

Lucas Taglia

Lucas is a first year graduate student in the LAS program. He earned a BA from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, having studied Political Science and Spanish. He grew up in Madison, WI, and has lived and studied in Buenos Aires (2016-2017) and Milwaukee (2018-2022).

Research Interest: Politics, society, history, Southern Cone, 20th Century, Cold War, political identity, international relations, race and ethnicity, cultural anthropology, authoritarian regimes. 

Hometown: Madison, WI

Email: ltaglia@ucsd.edu

Damian Valenzuela

My name is Damian Valenzuela and I am a first-year, first-generation graduate student in the LAS program. I have recently graduated from CSULB with a B.A. in History with a concentration in Latin America. Born and raised in Santa Ana, California, my experience growing up in a Hispanic populated community with immigrant parents has shaped my desire to further understand the relations between US and Latin American histories. My undergraduate research at CSULB proved beneficial as it allowed me to explore theoretical frameworks and historical methodologies in Latin American and Mexican history in particular. I look forward to broadening my understanding of Latin American history through the interdisciplinary approach that the LAS program at UCSD has to offer. 

Research Interest: Modern Latin American History, Revolutions, Social Movements, Decolonial Thought, Settler Colonialism, US-Mexican Borderlands, Race and Class, and Immigration. 

Hometown: Santa Ana, California 

Email: d3valenzuela@ucsd.edu

Karo Valerio

Research Interest:  Decolonial Restorative Literature, Migration and Dislocation, Afro-Carribean Diaspora, Critical Race Theory, Post-colonial Feminism. 

Hometown: Newark, New Jersey and Nagua, Dominican Republic

Email: kavaleri@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 Entanglement

Hometown: Concord, California

Email: sveransa@ucsd.edu

Eden Wiggins

Eden Wiggins is a first-year student in the MA Latin American studies program. Eden grew up in Joppa, Maryland, and was privy to diverse influences from migrants from Latin America, Africa, and Asia. She graduated from the Illustrious Claflin University, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biology with minors in Chemistry and Spanish. Eden is a lover of people, and culture and global diversity has always been a value that has been instilled in her since childhood. Eden’s interests are multidisciplinary and all driven by her love of learning and advocacy. Eden is also a performer who enjoys acting and singing.

Research Interest: Migration, Race/Ethnicity in Latin America, Educational Attainment Gaps, Intersection of the Latin and Black Diasporas.

Hometown: Joppa, MD

Email: edwiggins@ucsd.edu