My research has always focused on Economic Development – Sustainability, especially in the rural areas of Latin America. I am particularly interested on the networks that isolated communities create within their societies to survive despite years of government policies aimed to integrate the region into the national economy. Most recently my focus has been in remittances, especially the policies that governments of Mexico and El Salvador have implemented to attract money from remittances and funnel it towards community development project (3x1 program in Mexico). My goal is to follow up on these projects and on the economic, social and cultural impacts that they are having in these rural communities. In particular I am especially interested in the role that women are having in the implementation and coordination of some of these projects.
Another research interest is in neighborhood asset mapping in community revitalization and planning projects. By mapping asset information provided directly from local residents, or community building approach, residents feel empower in defining the desired outcomes of the community and in creating and implementing solutions. These maps should then be incorporated into any government funded redevelopment project.
More recently I have been doing research among immigrant women populations and the way their past involvement in NGOs in their home country have encourage them to participate in similar organizations in the USA, and how this participation influences their original membership in their countries of origin. By interviewing a few members of cooperatives in the State of California and the city of New York I have found a correlation between their previous involvements in cooperatives in Latin America (textile, ceramic, coffee) and their involvement in similar organizations in the USA. My current research interest is focused on the opportunities that local cooperatives offer to immigrant women as sources of social and economic empowerment. In addition, as these women become empowered they become active agents of social change, and provide funding to bring economic changes to their native countries.
My doctoral dissertation combined a social network approach to indigenous communities grower based certified organic coffee organizations and the world markets. The study analyzed the social and environmental impacts as well as future tendencies of organic agriculture and sustainable rural development in Latin America.
