Rate My Professor Alberto García

Alberto García is an Assistant Professor of History and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of History at San José State University. He earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in History from the University of California, Berkeley, an M.A. in Latin American Studies from Stanford University, and a B.A. in History from the University of California, Davis. As a historian of modern Latin America, García specializes in twentieth-century Mexico, with particular emphasis on migration to the United States, the Bracero Program, rural politics, state development, and religion. His research investigates the bilateral Bracero Program, which operated from 1942 to 1964, allowing Mexican men to work as seasonal contract laborers in the U.S. He analyzes how the Mexican government recruited and selected guest workers, the political considerations at national, regional, and local levels that shaped the program, and the factors influencing individual migration decisions. This scholarship illuminates the origins of the largest Mexican immigrant community in the U.S. today, many of whom descend from braceros, and highlights contrasts between historical guest worker policies and contemporary U.S. immigration restrictions.

García authored the book Abandoning Their Beloved Land: The Politics of Bracero Migration in Mexico (University of California Press, 2023), which won the 2023 William M. LeoGrande Prize for the best book on U.S.-Latin American Relations, awarded by the School of Public Affairs and the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies at American University. He also published "Regulating Bracero Migration: How National, Regional, and Local Political Considerations Shaped the Bracero Program" in Hispanic American Historical Review 101, no. 3 (2021): 433-60. García teaches courses on Mexican history, comparative Latin American history, U.S. immigration, and U.S. foreign relations, fostering critical thinking and argumentative skills for careers in teaching, government, law, journalism, museums, and non-governmental organizations. His office is located in DMH 137, and he maintains regular office hours for students.