Jan 30, 2026. Speaking to La Opinión, Gaspar Rivera-Salgado (director, UCLA Center for Mexican Studies said, “[Recent] raids are not like the ones of years past. We haven't reached the levels of Mexican deportations under Obama.. but we are seeing the disproportionate and overt use of federal officers… employing heavy-handed tactics." Arrest numbers for Indigenous Zapotecs are tough to come by, but the majority CA arrestees have been Mexican. (In Spanish)
Jan 9, 2026. Speaking to La Opinión, Gaspar Rivera-Salgado (director, UCLA Center for Mexican Studies) said, "There is a real danger of a unilateral incursion [in Mexico]... The United States has the military capability and has been obtaining military intelligence, but what we already have in front of us is a real sign... that the president today [Trump] is willing to use force." (In Spanish)
Meet Jacqueline Torres, an Art teacher at San Fernando High School and current M.A. student in Latin American Studies at UCLA.
Meet Carmen Anders, a Spanish teacher who led a life-changing immersion trip to Oaxaca. Her program bridged cultures, deepened language learning and empowered students through authentic connections.
Jun 15, 2025. “Mexican Americans have a saying here, ‘They didn't cross the border, the border crossed them," said Gaspar Rivera Salgado, director of the UCLA Center for Mexican Studies, to The New York Times. The irony of accusations that Los Angeles has been "invaded" by immigrants is not lost on Mexicans and Mexican Americans. Rivera Salgado pointed out that their historical memory goes back to the invasion of Mexico by U.S. troops (among them, Marines) in 1847, during the Mexican-American War. The treaty that ended that war ceded over half of Mexico's territory, including California, to the United States.
At a recent Latin American Institute event, UC Irvine professor Alexander Huezo described how Afro-Colombian communities on Colombia's Pacific coast experience and resist environmental violence.
May 28 & 29, 2024. Director of the UCLA Center for Mexican Studies Gaspar Rivera-Salgado spoke to the LA Times about national elections in Mexico on June 2, and was interviewed by Spectrum News. "Por primera vez una mujer será la presidenta de México, eso es algo histórico y es un avance democrático; hay que celebrar ese hecho ... [Estas elecciones son ]un plebiscito sobre el trabajo que ha hecho Andrés Manuel López Obrador en este sexenio, es decir si la gente quiere que continúe Morena con sus propuestas o quiere algún cambio".
UCLA Magazine delves into the team of UCLA alumni and professors who played an instrumental role in creating the Getty Digital Florentine Codex. The entire 16th-century encyclopedia of Indigenous Mexican knowledge and culture is now easily accessible worldwide for the first time in its history.
Scholars from the UCLA Latin American Institute are celebrating Getty's release of the digital version of the Florentine Codex, an unparalleled repository of 16th-century Indigenous Mexican knowledge and culture.
Latin American Institute summer program prepares K–12 instructors to bring new knowledge into their classrooms.