I am a historian and sociologist of international migration, Latin America, and Latino communities in the United States. My research focuses on how experiences of migration within Latin America has been transferred to the United States by new generations of Latino immigrants. During my academic career, I have presented at conferences in Germany, Mexico, Guatemala, and the United States. These presentations have led to the publication of articles in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters in edited volumes.
In 2021, I published two articles that draw on my dissertation project. In “U.S.-Peruvian Business Relations and Their Effects on the Pioneer Migration of Peruvians to Paterson, New Jersey 1920-1950,” published by The Latin Americanist, I analyze the effects of U.S. Capitalism and the development of trading routes in the initiation of the Peruvian migration to Paterson. In “Desarrollo de la informalidad y prácticas alternativas en la comunidad peruana de Paterson, Nueva Jersey,” published by the Colombian academic journal Antípoda: Revista De Antropología y Arqueología, I recover the experience of Peruvian migrants, examining how they formed their own organizations and institutions using collective and informal practices.
In 2023, the article “Informality, Recurseo, and Entrepreneurship among Peruvians in Paterson, New Jersey 1960–2001,” was published in the Journal of American Ethnic History. In this work, I explore the processes of adapting particular cultural features for the economic adjustment of Peruvian migrants. Likewise, I have written the book chapter “The First Peruvians in Paterson, New Jersey, 1920-1950,” a biographical account of ten Peruvians that settled in Paterson between 1920 and 1950. It provides insights about how their migration experience delineated patterns of migration and adjustment that were replicated by contemporary generations of migrants. This chapter will be published in 2025 by Rutgers University Press in the volume Latino New Jersey: Histories, Communities and Politics. My scholarly work has also been cited in El Comercio (2018), the leading newspaper in Peru, and in BBC News Mundo (2023).
My academic research has been the outcome of my own personal experience as a Peruvian immigrant in Paterson. When I arrived to the city in 2001, I found many elements of Peruvianness and informality that sparked my interest in investigating the socioeconomic dynamics of my compatriots in the area. In the following years, I returned several times to visit family members, most of them veteran migrants who settled in the area since the late 1970s. In these visits, I established contact with other Peruvians through my family. During the summer of 2016 and 2017, when I conducted field work in Paterson, I utilized these connections to establish relationships with leaders of the community, business owners, and members of the Peruvian consulate that contributed to my research. Being a Peruvian immigrant like them enabled me to gain their trust to interview them; these informants shared personal material from their private collections and welcomed me into the community. I began participating in public events and communal meetings, becoming known among co-nationals as the historian of the Peruvian community of Paterson. In 2019, after defending my dissertation, I acknowledged their support and trust with a public presentation of my research through an event sponsored by the Peruvian consulate of Paterson.
I am currently on the advisory committee for the Hamilton Partnership for Paterson. The organization is currently preparing a digital interactive exhibit titled The People of Paterson. For this project I have prepared profiles on influential Peruvians in the community to be featured in the exhibit. This project will help bring my research to a wider audience.