Carlos Hernandez

I am a Ph.D. student in Latin American History who specializes in modern Mexico. Originally from Dallas, I was privileged to grow up in a bilingual and bicultural household. Through annual childhood trips to central Mexico, I became captivated by my family’s heritage at an early age. After earning my B.A. in Political Science and English with a minor in Hispanic Studies from Texas A&M University (magna cum laude), I completed my Master’s in Latin American and Caribbean History at the University of Florida, where I held a McKnight Fellowship and taught courses on Latin American and United States history.

As a reflection of my personal background and professional trajectory, I am broadly interested in cultural history and questions of national identity. My Master’s thesis examined nineteenth-century constructions of race and nation vis-à-vis the official memory of Mexican independence, or historia patria. More recently, under Gil Joseph’s generous mentoring, my research has carried me into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. My dissertation project traces the emergence of Mexican beach tourism in relation to the rise of the neoliberal state and the citizen-consumer, while foregrounding local responses to developmentalist pressures. With the financial support of the John F. Enders Fellowship (Yale) and the Latin American and Iberian Studies Summer Travel Grant (Yale), I recently conducted preliminary research in Mexico City’s Archivo General de la Nación to better understand the ways Mexico has been packaged for both foreign and domestic consumption. I am currently writing an article based on my findings.

In addition to researching, writing, and conferencing, I proudly serve as a graduate assistant at Yale’s La Casa Cultural. Working in tandem with other entities on campus, my colleagues and I are continually developing diversity initiatives and cultural programming that will help make Yale a more welcoming and inclusive community for Latinx students and scholars.

I invite prospective Latin Americanists (especially Mexicanists) to contact me with questions regarding our program, my research, or graduate school in general.