Calendar of Events

In 2020 the Mexican government conducted its census and incorporated African descendants into the categories of race and ethnicity, which had not been done since the 1830s. In this census, more than 2.5 million people self-identified as African descendant. Some media outlets and individuals attributed this high number to recent arrivals from West Africa or from the Caribbean especially in places like Mexico City. Dr. Gaitors archival research demonstrates that African descendants have had a significant presence in the nation of Mexico, not only currently but in the colonial period and during the transition to independence. African descendants were not just physically present. They held significant roles socially, impacted economic systems throughout Mexico, were central in political discussion and held a critical space for the African diaspora outside of Mexico’s borders. This talk shows how history is crucial to illuminate the seemingly invisible. And it explores a variety of archival documents such as census records, political discourse, ship records and travel narratives combined with different methodologies to paint a vivid picture of African descendant’s presence in Mexican history allowing for a better understanding of today.

Dr. Alberto Rodriguez has published: Mexican American Baseball in the Alamo Region (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2015), “Ponte El Guante! Baseball on the US/Mexican Border: The Game and Community Building, 1920s-1970s,” The Journal of the West(Fall 2015), “Spanish Southern States Recording Expedition,” with Rene Torres, Journal of Texas Music History (Fall 2016) “Africana Aesthetics: Creating a Critical Black Narrative from Photographs in South Texas” in Africana Theory, Policy, and Leadership: A Social Science Analysis edited by James L. Conyers, Jr. (Transaction Publishers: 2016), and “Elena of Avalor and Mama Coco: Latina Sheroes and Knowledge Keepers” in Recasting the Disney Princess in an Era of New Media and Social Movements edited Shearon Roberts, (Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group Lexington Books, Lanham, Maryland, 2020). His upcoming projects Urban Borderlands: Anglos, Mexicans, and African Americans in South Texas 1929-1964 and Rancho La Union: A Transnational History of the Borderlands are a comparative multiethnic analysis of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, focusing on race relations in American and Borderland society with a specialty in Mexican American and African American encounters.

Rodriguez holds a PhD from the University of Houston in 20th Century American History with a minor in Women Studies and teaches courses on Latin@ History, Mexican American History, Chican@ History, Texas History and African American History. 

Rodriguez currently is an Associate Professor of History, managing editor of The Journal of South Texas History and Coordinator of Publications for the Institute for Architectural Engineering at Texas A&M University-Kingsville.

3-Hour Professional Development Opportunity for Faculty and Staff. Objectives: Increase awareness of male student success in higher education; Review national enrollment and graduation data on male students; Increase awareness of barriers and issues impacting male students in higher education; Increase awareness of programs, practices and initiatives that positively impact male retention. 

3-Hour Professional Development Opportunity for Faculty and Staff. Objectives: Increase awareness of male student success in higher education; Review national enrollment and graduation data on male students; Increase awareness of barriers and issues impacting male students in higher education; Increase awareness of programs, practices and initiatives that positively impact male retention.