Name: Robert Alvarez
Professor, Ethnic Studies
Ph.D. Stanford University, 1979

Field of Expertise: Alvarez is an expert on national and regional identity in the US-Mexico Borderland. He has conducted community ethnography along the border of California and Arizona, focusing on the settlement of early Mexican immigrants to the US. In addition, much of his work centers on the transnational and global fruit industry in Mexico and the Western Hemisphere. He is currently investigating changes in Mexican agriculture as a result of global markets and trade. Alvarez has also done extensive applied research in education focused on Latino/Chicano high school retention in the US-Mexico Borderlands.

Region of Interest: U.S.-Mexico Border Region, Mexico, Western Hemisphere, Latinos in the U.S.

Media Interview Topics: Robert Alvarez can provide commentary on national and regional identity in the US-Mexico Borderland; community ethnography along the border of California and Arizona, focusing on the settlement of early Mexican immigrants to the US and family accomodation for over three generations of time; transnational and global fruit industry in Mexico and the Western Hemisphere. He has conducted research on markets and entrepreneurs in the Mexican- US, chile, mango and lime export trade, and is currently investigating changes in Mexican agriculture as a result of global markets and trade; education focused on Latino/Chicano high school retention in the US-Mexico Borderlands.

Selected Publications:
Mangos, Chiles and Truckers: the Business of Transnationalism .  University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis 2006.

"The Transnational State and Empire: US Certification in the Mexican Mango and Persian Lime Industries" Human Organization V.65(1) 2006.