Core Faculty

 On Leave Fall 2022

Ph.D. 1992, University of Chicago, History
M.A. 1984, New York University, Latin American and Caribbean Studies
B.A. 1977, Princeton University, Sociology & Latin American Studies

For additional information on research and courses: http://lauria.rutgers.edu/

Research Interests

Puerto Ricans & Latinos in the US, Latin America, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Peasant and Working Class History, Revolt and Revolution; New York City History; US Labor History; US Race/Ethnic History;

Biographical Information

Aldo A. Lauria Santiago is a Professor in the Latino and Caribbean Studies and History Departments of the School of Arts and Sciences. His most recent publication is a history of Puerto Rican movements in the US co-authored with Rutgers Camden colleague Lorrin Thomas (Rethinking the Struggle for Puerto Rican Rights). He also has a book on the history of Puerto Ricans in New York City before the 1950s under contract with the University of North Carolina Press, and a forthcoming book with Rutgers University Press co-edited with Ulla Berg (Latinos in New Jersey).

His earlier work focuses on Central America. To Rise in Darkness (Duke University Press, 2008), co-authored by Jeffrey Gould (Indiana University), is a history of the 1932 peasant/communist revolt of El Salvador and the traumatic memory of state-sponsored mass murder that followed it and has haunted the country ever since. His previous An Agrarian Republic (Pittsburgh, 1999) traces the social, economic and political history of El Salvador during the nineteenth century. Other research focuses on the regional history of the peasantry in Western Mexico.

At Rutgers he Directs the Center for Latin American Studies and co-coordinates the Latino Studies Research Initiative.

He has served professionally in different capacities: as President of the New England Council of Latin American Studies, as Chair of the Latino Studies Section of the Latin American Studies Association and as coordinator of many conferences, panels and organizations.  He has served on various editorial and executive boards including the Puerto Rican Studies Association, the Latino Studies section and the Central American Studies section of the Latin American Studies Association, Labor and Working Class History Association, Centro Journal, Archive and Library Advisory Board of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Americas and others.

Courses Regularly Taught

Publications

Multimedia, Public Humanities, and Research Websites

• Puerto Rican New Yorkers: Workers, Unions and Politics in the Struggle for a Better Life, 1910s-1960s
• Lauria Santiago Professional Website
• Advanced Research in Latin American Studies
• Puerto Rico Archival Collaborations, Working Group, Research, Bibliographic and Digital Library Project
• Latin American History Digitized Research Collections Guide
• Resources for New Jersey Historical and Latino Research 
• Hispanic-Themed Texts at the American Antiquarian Society
• Guide to CIDOC collections on Popular Religiosity in Latin America
• Academic Research and Writing Software
• Academia Site

Books

• 2017. Rethinking the Struggle for Puerto Rican Rights (Lorrin R Thomas, co-author).  Routledge, 2018.
• 2008. To Rise in Darkness: Revolution, Repression, and Memory in El Salvador (Jeffrey Gould, Co-Author). Durham: Duke University Press.
• 2004. Landscapes of Struggle: Politics, Society, and Community in El Salvador (Co-editor Leigh Binford). Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
• 2003. Una República Agraria: los campesinos en la economía y la política de El Salvador en el siglo XIX. San Salvador: Dirección de Publicaciones e Impresos, Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y el Arte.
• 1999. An Agrarian Republic: Commercial Agriculture and the Politics of Peasant Communities in El Salvador, 1823-1914. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
• 1998. Identity and Struggle at the Margins of the Nation-State: The Laboring Peoples of Central America and the Hispanic Caribbean (co-editor Aviva Chomsky). Durham:Duke University Press.
• 1991. The Social-Historical Construction of Repression in El Salvador. New York: Columbia University/New York University

Books in Progress

• A history of Puerto Rican workers and work in New York City, 1918-1970
• Nineteenth-Century Peasants, Coffee and Mestizaje in Eastern Mexico

Book Chapters

• 2011. “Land, Labor, Production and Trade: Nineteenth century Economic and Social Patters”. In (Ed.) Holloway, Thomas. A companion to Latin American History. Malden: Blackwell Pub.
• 2005. “The Culture and Politics of State Terror and Repression in El Salvador” In (Eds.) Menjívar, Cecilia and Néstor Rodriguez. When States Kill: Latin America, the U.S., and Technologies of Terror. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Articles

• 2011. "Holding the City Hostage: Popular Sectors and Elites in San Miguel, El Salvador, 1875". The Americas. 68 (1): 63-95
• 2005. "Nos llaman ladrones y se roban nuestro salario: hacia una reinterpretacion de la movilizacion rural salvadoreña". Revista De Historia. (San Jose, C. R.). (51-52): 51-52
• 2004. ""[Review of] Cultivating Coffee: The Farmers of Carazo, Nicaragua, 1880-1930". The Americas. 61 (2): 265-267
• "[Review of] Experiencias contrastadas: industrialización y conflictos en los textiles del centro-oriente de México, 1884-1917". The Americas. 59 (1): 114-116.
• 2002. "Trabajan para vivir: descripcion de El Salvador por John Newbigging en la decada de 1880". Mesoamerica (Antigua,Guatemala). 23 (43): 104-133.
• 1998. "[Review of] Militarization and Demilitarization in El Salvador's Transition to Democracy". The Journal of Developing Areas. 32 (4): 556-558
• 1995. "Historical research and sources on El Salvador". Latin American Research Review. 30 (2): 151-176.
• 1997. "[Review of] El paso del cometa: Estado, política y culturas populares en Costa Rica (1800-1950)". The Hispanic American Historical Review. 77 (4): 735-736.

Media Appearances

• forthcoming