The Chapter Authors

Aldo A. Lauria Santiago is a professor in the Departments of Latino and Caribbean Studies and History at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. He has a PhD in history from the University of Chicago. His recent publications include Rethinking the Struggle for Puerto Rican Rights (coauthored by Lorrin Thomas). His book on the early history of the Puerto Rican community in New York City is forthcoming. At Rutgers he directs the Center for Latin American Studies and the Puerto Rico Archival Collaboration, He also the Latino Studies Research Initiative.

Alex Trillo has a PhD in sociology from Stony Brook University (SUNY). He is an associate professor at Saint Peter’s University. His recent publications focus on segregation and homicides in New York City and how homeless mothers create opportunities for mobility.

Ana Y. Ramos-Zayas is the Frederick Clifford Ford Professor of Ethnicity, Race, and Migration and professor of American studies and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at Yale University. She has a PhD in anthropology from Columbia University. Her most recent book is titled Parenting Empires: Class, Whiteness, and the Moral Economy of Privilege in Latin America.

Anil Venkatesh is an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Adelphi University. He has a PhD in mathematics from Duke University.

Benjamin Lapidus is a Grammy-nominated musician who has performed and recorded worldwide as a bandleader and supporting musician. As a scholar, he has published widely on Latin music and is a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Daniela Valdes is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at Rutgers University specializing in U.S.-based social movements and the carceral state. Valdes’s dissertation explores the political cultures of Black and Latinx trans/nonbinary communities in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area. Valdes is an oral historian and community researcher who collaborates with grassroots groups including the Rikers Public Memory Project and Movimiento Cosecha.

Elena Sabogal is a sociologist with a PhD from Florida International University. She was formerly an associate professor and chair in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies at William Paterson University. Currently, she is a visiting scholar with the Center for Latin American Studies at Rutgers University. Her recent publications focus on Peruvian migration and Peruvians in the United States.

Elsa Candelario is a professor of professional practice at the Rutgers University School of Social Work where she also directs the Latina/o/x Initiatives for Service, Training, and Assessment certificate program. She has a DSW from the University of Alabama and an MSSW from Columbia University. She also has over two decades of experience as a nonprofit administrator.  Candelario served as member of the New Jersey governor’s Blue-Ribbon Advisory Panel on Immigrant Integration and also chaired the New Jersey Latino Health Advisory Committee

Gianncarlo Muschi is an adjunct professor of Latino Studies at St. Edwards University. He received his PhD in history from the University of Houston. His recent publications focus on Latino music and Peruvians in New Jersey.

Giovani Burgos is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Adelphi University. He has a PhD in sociology from Indiana University. His research interests center on the pathways linking structural disadvantages to marginalized populations’ well-being.

Ismael García Colón is an anthropologist with a PhD from the University of Connecticut. He is a professor at the College of Staten Island and Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His most recent book is Colonial Migrants at the Heart of Empire: Puerto Rican Workers on U.S. Farms.

Jennifer Ayala is a professor of education at Saint Peter’s University, where she also directs the Center for Undocumented Students. She has a PhD in psychology from the City University of New York’s Graduate Center. Her publications focus on education, community, and health education.

Johana Londoño is an associate professor in the Department of Latino and Caribbean Studies at Rutgers, New Brunswick. Her PhD is in American studies from New York University. She is the author of Abstract Barrios: The Crises of Latinx Visibility in Cities.

Kathleen López is an associate professor in the Departments of Latino and Caribbean Studies and History at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. She received a PhD in history from the University of Michigan. She is the author of Chinese Cubans: A Transnational History. At Rutgers she Co-coordinates the Latino Studies Research Initiative.

Laura Curran (PhD, University of California, Berkeley) is vice-provost for faculty affairs at Rutgers University. She was coprincipal investigator on a grant-funded project to create a certificate program to train social work students to work in Latino communities and oversaw development of courses focused on Latino populations.

Lilia Fernández is a professor in the History Department at the University of Illinois, Chicago. While at Rutgers, she was the Henry Rutgers Term Chair in Latino Studies. She received a PhD in history from the University of California, San Diego. She is the author of Brown in the Windy City: Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in Postwar Chicago.

Lyna L. Wiggins is professor emerita of urban planning at Bloustein School, Rutgers University. She has a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. Wiggins’s research interests focus on planning methods and computer applications in planning, particularly urban geographic information systems.

Melanie Z. Plasencia earned her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. From 2021-24, she was the Cesar Chávez Postdoctoral Fellow at Dartmouth College and is now an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University, Newark. She completed her undergraduate studies in the Rutgers University Department of Latino and Caribbean Studies.

Raymond Sánchez Mayers is an at the Rutgers University School of Social Work.   where he also directs the Latino/a Initiatives for Service, Training, and Assessment. He has a PhD from Brandeis University. His areas of interest include geographic information, financial management for nonprofits, and issues related to Latinos.

Ulla D. Berg is an associate professor in the Departments of Latino and Caribbean Studies and Anthropology at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. She has a PhD in anthropology from New York University. She is the author of Mobile Selves: Race, Migration and Belonging between Peru and the US.

William Suárez Gómez is an assistant professor in the Department of Health Equity, Administration and Technology at Lehman College, City University of New York. Suárez holds an MS in Agricultural Science from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez. His PhD is in International Development and Economics Studies from the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom.

Yamil Avivi has a PhD in American culture from the University of Michigan. His work focuses on the intersection of queer and Latino studies, and he has written on Latino Muslims as well. He is currently an Independent Scholar.