RESEARCHERS' BIOGRAPHIES

Biografias de los Investigadores
 
 

Lexie McGovern is currently a junior at Tufts University where she is majoring in International Relations and Latin American Studies. Her focus for Latin America stemmed from an early age; Latin America, particularly Mexico, has always been an extremely important part of her life as her mother is Mexican-American. Through her mother and her family, Lexie learned much about the Mexican culture and the Spanish language. As she entered her university studies, Lexie began to explore Latino cultures and became more aware of the uniqueness of each Latino culture. Now, she is enrolled in an Anthropology course called Urban Borderlands which is an incredible course as it allows her the opportunity to investigate Latino cultures not through books, but through personal stories and experiences.
 
Cecilia Dos Santos is a junior at Tufts University majoring in Anthropology and International Relations. She was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina however her family migrated to West Hartford, Connecticut where she has been living since she was four years old. Her interests within anthropology and international relations include Latino and Latin American studies as well as immigration related issues. As a child of an immigrant family herself, Professor Pacini-Hernandez's community research class is of much interest to Cecilia because it will allow her to explore the establishment and development of the Latino community of Somerville, Massachusetts around those issues she finds important. Her research will focus around the migration stories from Salvadoran members of the Latino community in order to collect, preserve, and comparatively study the history and personal family experiences of Salvadorans coming into this community within the last 20 years. She hopes that in conducting this research she will be able to provide the Somerville community as a whole with important information regarding the challenges and obstacles as well as the positive aspects and advantages of the immigration experience from the voice and stories of the immigrants themselves.

 
Esther was born June 21,1987 in Cambrirdge, Massachusetts to an immigrant family from El Salvador. Esther and her family remained in Cambridge for 5 years after Esther was born and then moved to Somerville. She attended
the Cummings School in Somerville for 4 years and then moved to the Healey School where she remained until 8th grade. The summer before entering 9th grade, Esther participated in the painting of a mural thats is now displayed
on Mystic Avenue (see picture on Final Remarks link). She now attends the Somerville High School and is a junior there. She hopes to be able to get further education after high school and
study psychology.
 
Dan Lemus is currently a junior at Somerville High School. He was born on March 29, 1987. Dan was born in the US, but his parents are from El Salvador, they immigrated in 1985. Even though he was Salvadoran he lacked much knowledge of his people’s culture and history. This was one of the reasons he decided to participate in this project. He knows that his parents’ journey was a hard task. During the project he had the opportunity to go to Centro Presente and Concilio Hispano, there he learned a lot about Salvadoran history and about the programs offered there for the community. Now that he is aware of the hardships his people had to go through he is proud of his Salvadoran heritage.