When Maria Cristina Garcia, the Howard A. Newman Professor of American Studies and Latino Studies Program Director, first joined Cornell faculty in January 1999 through a joint appointment in the Departments of History and Latino Studies, she had no idea that this would be where she would lay roots for the next two decades.
Garcia’s academic focus on mobile and displaced populations draws parallels to her personal upbringing as an immigrant and child of immigrants. “From the moment you arrive on U.S. shores, you’re told to be ‘American’ but no one ever tells you what that means. No one ever gives you a roadmap that tells you what you need to do, so I’ve always been interested in that question: What is the American experience all about? What does it mean to be American?” she says.
Her focus on the American identity led her to earn a B.A. and PhD in American Studies at Georgetown University and University of Texas at Austin, respectively. “What I love about the American Studies course of study is that it’s multidisciplinary. You’re able to understand the history of the United States through different disciplinary lenses to get a more holistic understanding of how this nation evolved.”
In the past two decades, Garcia has taught AMST 1800: Immigration in U.S. History, AMST 4851: Refugees, AMST 1802: Introduction to Latinos in U.S. History, and more. She says that throughout her time teaching various courses, her mission has always been to amplify the voices of people who’ve been obscured throughout history. In doing so, she’s also had to challenge her students’ existing knowledge about certain truths.
“What’s surprising to me throughout the course of my career is that even though we have entire archives and libraries that are dedicated to Latino history and culture, very little of that has been filtered down to schoolbooks that kids read at the elementary and high school levels,” she says. “I’m still surprised that so many decades after I first began, students often tell me ‘why didn’t I study this in high school?’”
To attenuate the gap in knowledge, Garcia has published multiple books about the immigrant experience, the first of which was Havana USA: Cuban Exiles and Cuban Americans in South Florida. While focusing on the history of post-Castro Cuban migration to the U.S. and drawing stark contrasts between immigration policy for this population compared to the Central American population, Garcia went on to write her second book Seeking Refuge: Central American Migration to Mexico, the United States, and Canada. “Refugee policy serves foreign policy interests, and you see that in the Cuban case study and Central American case study in the 1980s.”
She continued her work in refugee policy through her third book The Refugee Challenge in post Cold-War America. In this book, Garcia discusses refugee classification after the end of the Cold War, when anti-communism ceased to be criteria for prioritizing entry. Her most recent book State of Disaster: The Failure of U.S. Migration Policy in an Age of Climate Change, however, focuses on U.S. response to environmental migration and displacement.
In addition to her four books, Garcia has published book chapters, articles, and anthologies during her more than two decades of work, all of which align with her long standing interests in displaced and mobile populations.
These interests tie in with her role as Director of the Latino Studies Program, which has expanded immensely since she first started out in the program 25 years ago. The program now features a minor and cross-listed classes with History, American Studies, Performing and Media Arts, and more. In fact, she and her colleagues are currently working towards the creation of a Latino Studies major, a project they had to sideline during the pandemic.
Outside of the classroom, Garcia is involved in professional societies, many of which are immigration related. “Whenever a journalist writes about immigration, we provide them with the information they need in order for them to write their articles,” she says. “Right now, I’m on the History Advisory Committee to the Statue of Liberty Ellis Island Foundation…I’m advising them on the content that will be displayed in that museum.”
Garcia was recently awarded the Stephen H. Weiss Teaching Award for her commitment in the teaching and mentorship of undergraduate students and education where nominators have described her as brilliant, creative, and engaging.
