Cecilia Márquez Awarded Carnegie Fellowship

“People don’t develop political ideologies in a vacuum,” said Hunt Family Assistant Professor of History Cecilia Márquez. “As a historian, I always look to the past to understand how we got here.” 

The question of how history shapes the political present is at the center of Márquez’s newest research project, which has been awarded a prestigious Carnegie Fellowship. The fellowship will support her work examining the historical roots of Latino participation in right-wing and far-right political movements in the United States — a topic that has appeared more and more frequently in national headlines in the past decade. 

The Andrew Carnegie Fellows Program provides scholars with time and resources to pursue research addressing some of the most pressing challenges facing society today. Founded in 2015, the program initially funded a broad range of humanities and social science research. Beginning in 2024, the foundation shifted the program’s focus as part of a three-year commitment to studying political polarization in the United States, making Márquez’s project particularly timely. 

For Márquez, the recognition is both an honor and an affirmation of a project that explores a complex — and sometimes uncomfortable — dimension of Latino political history. 

“I think sometimes in Latino history and Latino studies we struggle to talk about the parts of our community that don’t fit the narrative of social justice movements,” Márquez said. “So, to receive this honor is really affirming that this work is important in helping us think about the big question of our time, which is political polarization.” 

During the fellowship period, Márquez will complete research for a new book project titled “Latinos and the Right,” a narrative driven book for a popular audience tracing Latino conservative activism and far right politics from the 1960s through 2020. By placing contemporary political developments in historical context, the project aims to broaden how scholars, journalists and policymakers understand the dynamics of political polarization in the United States. 

Recent events illustrate why that historical context matters. Headline-making Latino right-wing extremists are often portrayed as anomalies, Márquez said, but her research suggests they are part of a longer and more complicated history. 

"I think sometimes in Latino history and Latino studies we struggle to talk about the parts of our community that don’t fit the narrative of social justice movements. So, to receive this honor is really affirming that this work is important in helping us think about the big question of our time, which is political polarization."

Her work challenges the common assumption that Latino political identity is uniformly progressive. Instead, Márquez argues that Latino engagement with conservative and far right politics has developed over decades and is shaped by a range of social, racial and geopolitical forces. 

To answer that question, Márquez examines how forces such as anti-Black racism, anti-Indigeneity, religious conservatism, gender and sexual politics and transnational political ideologies have shaped political identities within Latino communities. Her research also traces how these ideas move across borders and generations — shaped by forces from Cold War anticommunist movements and contemporary political developments in Latin America to the growing influence of evangelical Christianity among Latinos — and how far right beliefs circulate through institutions and information networks, including churches, social media and misinformation campaigns.  

Uncovering these histories requires extensive archival and oral history research. Yet tracing Latino participation in rightwing movements presents a particular challenge: The history is often scattered across collections that were never designed to document it. 

“There’s no central archive of Latino rightwing activism,” Márquez said. “So, that often means going through rightwing archives and discovering where Latinos appear in these movements.” 

As a result, Márquez spends much of her time examining broader collections documenting conservative activism, identifying Latino participants through organizational records, speeches and correspondence.  

One figure she studies is Pedro del Valle, a Puerto Rican Marine Corps general who later became involved in extremist rightwing circles in the mid-20th century. By tracing stories like these, Márquez hopes to illuminate broader patterns in how political identities form and evolve over time.

The Carnegie Fellowship will support Márquez’s research for two years. She plans to complete additional archival work and conduct oral history interviews during the first year, and devote the second year to writing.

“Latino communities are complex, with different political histories and visions of the future — and they need to be understood on their own terms.”

Beyond the book itself, the fellowship will also support a broader scholarly and public conversation around the topic. Márquez plans to convene a conference bringing together scholars, journalists, policymakers and community leaders to examine Latino political polarization and its broader implications. The goal, she said, is to foster deeper conversations about how political ideas spread, why they resonate differently with different communities and how historical research can inform contemporary policy discussions. 

Those conversations are increasingly important. Today, Latinos represent the youngest and fastest growing demographic group in the country, and their influence and political participation will continue to play a significant role in shaping the nation’s future. 

At the same time, as Márquez’ research emphasizes, Latino communities are far from politically uniform. 

“When we talk about Latinos, we’re talking about people who arrived last week and people whose families were here before parts of this country were the United States,” she said. “Latino communities are complex, with different political histories and visions of the future — and they need to be understood on their own terms.”