El Puente Graduate Research Fellows

Ana Paula is an international student from Quito, Ecuador. Six years ago, she came to the United States to pursue her Bachelor’s degree in Statistics and Economics at the University of New Mexico (UNM). After taking two research classes and doing an independent study, Ana realized research is something she is passionate about. Ana just earned her Master of Arts in economics and is a third year PhD student at UNM. In addition, she works as a research assistant for the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences where she focuses on the economic aspects of risky health behavior.

Research Statement: Ana’s main research interest is in health economics with a focus on substance abuse and risky health behaviors. She is especially interested in studying the impact of alcohol and sugar-sweetened beverage taxes on different health, mortality and morbidity outcomes.

Areas of Research: Health economics, labor economics, public economics, applied econometrics, and Latin American economics.

Mentoring Philosophy: During her time at UNM, Ana had the opportunity to work in different positions in student affairs and she discovered her passion is working and helping students. As a New Student Orientation Leader, Resident Advisor, Student Hall Coordinator and the Vice President of the Associated Students of the University of New Mexico (ASUNM), she learned the students always come first. Ana truly believes every student deserves to have opportunities like El Puente. All students have the ability to succeed, and as a mentor, it is her goal and duty to guide them through this process and show them the hidden curriculum of academia. She believes mentors should serve as a resource to students, so they know they have someone they can rely on not only academically but also for any kind of support. Ana has been through the process of doing research and applying to graduate school, she knows how hard it can be. Therefore, she wants to help others who are going through the same process. Through mentorship, she hopes to make meaningful connections with students at El Puente and make sure they feel they belong in academia and at the university.

Gustavo was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. His family migrated from a Zapotec community in the Valles Centrales of Oaxaca. As the first in his family to continue with higher education, he began his journey at Santa Monica College (SMC) where he received an AA in Social and Behavioral Sciences. He transferred to the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and double majored in Chicana/o Studies and American Indian Studies. After receiving an MA in American Studies at the University of New Mexico (UNM), he joined the inaugural cohort of Chicana/o Studies where he is currently pursuing a PhD. Gustavo has taught in the Chicana/o Studies department, mentored community college transfer student through the NM Humanities Now! Mellon Transfer Program and has worked with undergraduate students conducting research in the El Puente Research Fellowship. He is a member of the Chicanx World Making and Futurities collective, a multimedia project that uses blogs, podcasts, and zines to disseminate stories of dissent and worldmaking!

Research Statement: Gustavo’s dissertation project, Constellations of Oaxacan Worldmaking: Subversive Cultural Expressions across OaxaCalifornia explores Oaxacan survivance from the 1980’s to the present. His project analyzes the ways Oaxacan cultural producers deconstruct and subvert colonial capitalist conditions across Mexico and the United States. Gustavo project brings together a rich archive of music, art, podcasts, poetry, and language to interrogate systems of power and to illuminate everyday strategies of creative resistance.

Areas of Reasearch: Latinx Indigeneity, Oaxacan & Zapotec Studies, Decoloniality, Migration, Cultural Production, and Community Based Multi-Media

Mentoring Philosophy: His philosophy aims to share knowledge and skills for students to excel as scholars and compassionate human beings. As a Chicana/o Studies scholar, he argues that education has a much grander purpose than finding a career. Women of color feminists have talked about education and the importance of consciousness raising. For him, education is intimately connected to consciousness raising and mentoring. Gustavo’s philosophy aims to provide students with tools to have critical self-compassion, to analyze systems of power, to actively participate in collectivity and dissent, and to constantly dream of another world. His philosophy centers self-reflexivity, community building, justice, and humanization. He creates hubs for students to be vulnerable, supportive, and open. Gustavo’s philosophy aims to nurture confidence, so that students may walk through campus and the world in an empowering way.

Natalia was raised in Oakland, CA and attended Santa Monica College and transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles, where she received her Bachelors in Chicana/o Studies and American Indian Studies. Having received her Master’s in American Studies at University of New Mexico (UNM), Natalia is now a PhD student in the inaugural graduate cohort in Chicana/o Studies at UNM. Natalia is currently a Crossing Latinidades Pre-Doctoral Mellon Fellow and is co-author and research assistant for the Crossing Latinidades consortium project, “AfroChicanx Digital Humanities Project: Memories, Narratives, and Oppositional Consciousness of Black Diasporas”, led by Chicana/o Studies, Dr. Doris Careaga. As a transfer advocate, Natalia has supported initiatives on campus to increase transfer student visibility and support, including working with the CNM-UNM Mellon New Mexico Huminites Now! Transfer Initiative and co-created the Chicanx Studies Transfer Research Program. Beyond the academy, Natalia is a member of the Chicanx World Making and Futurities Project, a rasquache multi-media hub of Chicanx pensamiento.

Research Statement: Natalia is currently working on her dissertation entitled, “Queremos Muchos Mundos: Chicanx Transnational Organizing and the Radical Imaginations for Autonomy”. Her dissertation explores the transnational relationship between Chicanx and Mexican leftists organizing and struggle against neoliberal projects of resource, land, and labor extraction. Centering how communities against this backdrop of domination, imagine and enact autonomy.

Areas of Research: Chicanx Politics, Transnational Feminism, Political Imaginaries, Chicana Feminism, Oral Histories, Digital Humanities

Mentoring Philosophy: As a recipient of undergraduate programs such as, UCLA’s department of Chicana/o Studies Undergraduate Honors Research Program and UCLA’s Ronald E. McNair Research Program, Natalia is committed to the mission and vision of El Puente. Specifically, as her trajectory through graduate school, has been deeply impacted by the mentorship of these programs. Natalia’s philosophy is grounded in the belief that all students have the capabilities to be knowledge producers and to radically transform the culture of the academic ivory tower. Through mentorship, which Natalia grounds in a comprehensive and holistic approach, she aims to foster meaningful relationships that carry students through their research and graduate school endeavors.

Noah is a life-long New Mexican raised in Albuquerque and the surrounding area. In 2022, he graduated with his bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry with a designation from the Honors College at the University of New Mexico. Noah is currently a second-year medical student at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. During his free time, he enjoys serving his community in efforts promoting healthcare access including Albuquerque’s uninsured and undocumented populations by working as a student-doctor at the One Hope Centro de Vida Clinic. Noah also enjoys hanging out with his friends and family by visiting local trivia nights, catching a movie around town, or eating at local businesses serving up some of the best cuisine such as Monroe’s and Padilla’s. When given the opportunity, he likes to travel and experience live music and concerts as much as possible. Noah is a former El Puente Undergraduate Fellow and is excited to return as a Graduate Research Fellow.

Research Interest: Noah’s main research interests are hospital medicine, healthcare quality improvement, diseases disproportionately affecting Latinx populations, critical care medicine, and investigating atypical disease presentations that appear in the clinic.

Research Statement: Noah is currently working on a quality improvement project to investigate the efficacy of Glucommander insulin calculator to safely transition hospitalized patients from intravenous insulin to long-acting subcutaneous glargine while avoiding dangerous hyper and hypo-glycemic events. Other projects that he has worked on consist of exploring access to and sentiments around genetic screening for the Common Hispanic Mutation of Cerebral Cavernous Malformation, and the exploration of Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) and its role in regeneration of the nervous system after spinal cord injury.

Mentoring Philosophy: As a prior El Puente Undergraduate Research Fellow, Noah understands the importance of building a strong foundation in research to excel in higher education. He credits his experience as an undergraduate with helping him pursue a medical education and continue investigating questions that are important to him and his field. Noah recognizes that there are barriers that are unique to students at a minority serving institution like the University of New Mexico, and that they might stand in the way of competing with peers that do not come from the same background. He recognizes that traditional approaches to academia are not always relevant or effective for all students to excel and is excited to find common ground in mentoring students to help them overcome barriers that might prevent them from conducting research of their own. He also recognizes that there are resources in the community that he can bring to students when his experiences are not enough to address all the factors standing in the way of a mentee’s path to a successful career in academia.