Roberto (Bobby) Cervantes

Bobby Cervantes is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of American Studies at the University of Kansas. His dissertation examines the development of rural, poor, and largely unincorporated Texas communities (las colonias) along the U.S.-Mexico border from the 1950s to the present. His research has been supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Organization of American Historians, the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, and the Hall Center for the Humanities, among others. From 2018-2021, he was the assistant editor of American Studies, the quarterly interdisciplinary journal sponsored by the Mid-America American Studies Association and KU Libraries. A native Texan, Bobby’s journalistic work has appeared in the Houston Chronicle, the San Antonio Express-News, the Brownsville Herald, and Texas Monthly.