Angelica N. Garcia

Angelica works with Professor David Torres-Rouff and her research interests include late 19th and early 20th century history, history of architecture, the United States Southwest, labor, gender and ethnic studies. Her current research explores the built environment in the Southwest from 1880 to 1920 and the transformation from rural to urban and industrial communities. Additionally, her research foci explore the relationship between the built environment, Mexican and Mexican Americans, gender and socio-economic classes, as well as the government, non-government, private and industrial influences in the development of these environments. The built environment dictated how people worked, interacted with dominant systems, defined how gender was negotiated in specific areas of space, and how ethnic identities were formed and transformed. Angelica’s research underscores the importance of these relationships. Architecture and the built environment are inextricably linked to people’s daily interactions with their homes, places of work, spaces of entertainment and each other. By exploring how people interacted within their built environment in the past, individuals and communities gain an understanding of how to situate themselves today.