Alberto Diaz-Cayeros in Baja

Alberto Diaz-Cayeros is a senior fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development and Rule of Law at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and professor (by courtesy) at the political science department of Stanford University. He served as director of the Center for Latin American Studies from 2016 to 2023, and from 2009 to 2013 he was associate professor and director of the Center for U.S.-Mexico Studies at the University of California, San Diego. He earned his PhD in political science at Duke University and a BA in Economics at ITAM in Mexico City.

Professor Diaz-Cayeros has focused on federalism, poverty, public health, police professionalization, and violence in Latin America, and Mexico in particular. He has published widely in Spanish and English, including his book Federalism, Fiscal Authority and Centralization in Latin America, published by Cambridge University Press in 2007 (reprinted in 2016) and his latest book (with Federico Estevez and Beatriz Magaloni), The Political Logic of Poverty Relief Electoral Strategies and Social Policy in Mexico. His current project uses historical cartography to study the developmental legacies of colonial rule and governance in indigenous communities in Mexico.

During our program, Professor Diaz-Cayeros will discuss some of the history of exploration of the Baja Peninsula and cartographers, as well as the peculiar depiction of California as an island in historical maps. He will prepare a lecture on the social dimensions of human settlements in the Baja California peninsula, including an overview of the complex interaction of people and the environment in the Tijuana San Diego metropolitan area, and the way in which more peripheric communities are working together to protect fisheries and mangroves while regulating the impact of the tourist industry. He will provide a third session on Mexico’s recent election and the newly inaugurated, female president and the challenges her government faces in citizen security, poverty alleviation, and social inclusion. 

• Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies

• Director, Center for Latin American Studies, Stanford University

• Professor (by courtesy), Political Science Department, Stanford University

• PhD, Political Science, Duke University, 1997

• MA, Political Science, Duke University, 1993

• Licenciatura, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), Economics, 1990