About

Andrew K. Sandoval-Strausz is an associate history professor and director of the Latino/a studies program at Penn State University. His research focuses on the history of Latino immigrants, particularly their contributions to urban development and demographic shifts in American cities. He authored the book Barrio America: How Latino Immigrants Saved the American City, which explores the demographic and cultural transformation of Oak Cliff in Dallas, Texas, from the 1970s onward, highlighting the significant role of Mexican and Mexican-American immigrants in revitalizing and shaping the neighborhood. Sandoval-Strausz's work emphasizes the importance of Latino immigrants in addressing urban crises and challenges the narrative that views immigration as a problem, instead framing it as a solution that has historically contributed to the economic and social stability of cities like Dallas. His research includes oral histories of immigrants and long-time residents, providing a detailed account of their experiences and the broader impact of immigration policies such as the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act. His insights aim to inform contemporary debates on immigration by illustrating the positive influence of Latino immigrants on urban communities.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Mechanical engineering
• Engineering
• Thermodynamics
• Meteorology
• Geography
• Mathematics
• Physics
• Environmental science
• Business

Selected publications

• Bad Bunny shows support for Kamala Harris – and could help sway Puerto Rican voters in Pennsylvania’s industrial cities

  2024-10-03

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• A Place at the Nayarit: How a Mexican Restaurant Nourished a Community. By Natalia Molina

  Western Historical Quarterly · 2023-05-17

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Journal Article A Place at the Nayarit: How a Mexican Restaurant Nourished a Community. By Natalia Molina Get access A Place at the Nayarit: How a Mexican Restaurant Nourished a Community By Natalia Molina (Oakland: University of California Press, 2022. ix + 294 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $29.95) A K Sandoval-Strausz A K Sandoval-Strausz Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA aus1050@psu.edu Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Western Historical Quarterly, whad075, https://doi.org/10.1093/whq/whad075 Published: 17 May 2023

  PublisherDOI

• UHY volume 50 issue 2 Cover and Front matter

  Urban History · 2023

  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science
  • Business

  An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

  DOI

• UHY volume 49 issue 1 Cover and Front matter

  Urban History · 2022

  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science
  • Environmental science

  An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

  DOI

• Charros: How Mexican Cowboys Are Remapping Race and American Identity

  Journal of American Ethnic History · 2021-04-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• UHY volume 48 issue 3 Cover and Front matter

  Urban History · 2021

  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science
  • Geography

  An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

  DOI

• <i>Boyle Heights: How a Los Angeles Neighborhood Became the Future of American Democracy.</i> By George Sánchez

  Journal of Social History · 2021-12-03

  article1st authorCorresponding

  From George J. Sánchez, one of the most prominent scholars in the field of Latino history, comes Boyle Heights: How a Los Angeles Neighborhood Became the Future of American Democracy. The book is both a labor of love and a well-chosen community study: the former because Boyle Heights is the neighborhood where the author’s parents settled upon arriving from Mexico in the late 1950s; the latter because this section of Los Angeles presents an early example of the kinds of demographic changes that have transformed many neighborhoods in American cities both big and small. Sánchez focuses on “how this community came to be a thriving multiracial neighborhood, what challenges it faced in maintaining a sense of community over time, and how the legacy of this progressive multiracialism continued to exert a powerful influence over residents when the neighborhood became overwhelmingly Latino in the last third of the twentieth century”...

  PublisherDOI

• Latino Urbanism

  Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History · 2018-02-26

  reference-entry1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract “Latino urbanism” describes a culturally specific set of spatial forms and practices created by people of Hispanic origin. It includes many different aspects of those forms and practices, including town planning; domestic, religious, and civic architecture; the adaptation of existing residential, commercial, and other structures; and the everyday use of spaces such as yards, sidewalks, storefronts, streets, and parks. Latino urbanism has developed over both time and space. It is the evolving product of half a millennium of colonization, settlement, international and domestic migration, and globalization. It has spanned a wide geographic range, beginning in the southern half of North America and gradually expanding to much of the hemisphere. There have been many variations on Latino urbanism, but most include certain key features: shared central places where people show their sense of community, a walking culture that encourages face-to-face interaction with neighbors, and a sense that sociability should take place as much in the public realm as in the privacy of the home. More recently, planners and architects have realized that Latino urbanism offers solutions to problems such as sprawl, social isolation, and environmental unsustainability. The term “urbanism” connotes city spaces, and Latino urbanism is most concentrated and most apparent at the center of metropolitan areas. At the same time, it has also been manifested in a wide variety of places and at different scales, from small religious altars in private homes; to Spanish-dominant commercial streetscapes in Latino neighborhoods; and ultimately to settlement patterns that reach from the densely packed centers of cities to the diversifying suburbs that surround them, out to the agricultural hinterlands at their far peripheries—and across borders to big cities and small pueblos elsewhere in the Americas.

  PublisherDOI

• The hotel in history: evolving perspectives

  Journal of Tourism History · 2017-01-02 · 23 citations

  articleOpen access

  This discussion draws together six of the leading practitioners of hotel history in order to explore the state of the field and its larger relevance. Together they touch on questions related to imperialism and colonialism, science and technology, transatlantic connections, national distinctiveness (or lack thereof), as well as economic, social and cultural history.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Introduction. Why Transnationalize Urban History?

  University of Pennsylvania Press eBooks · 2017-12-31 · 2 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Louise Miskell

  18 shared

• Phil Withington

  University of Sheffield

  16 shared

• Nancy H. Kwak

  University of California, San Diego

  10 shared

• Richard Rodger

  University of Edinburgh

  9 shared

• Frederik Buylaert

  Ghent University Hospital

  9 shared

• Leeds Beckett

  9 shared

• Andrew McTominey

  9 shared

• Erika Hanna

  University of Bristol

  9 shared

Labs

• Barrio AmericaPI

Awards & honors

• Elected to Membership in the Society of American Historians…
• International Latino Book Award for Best Academic Book (2021…
• Caroline Bancroft Prize (2020)
• Catherine Bauer Wurster Prize for Best Article, Society for…
• Best Article Prize, Society of Architectural Historians, Sou…