Gabriel Panuco-Mercado

Gabriel Panuco-Mercado was born and raised in California’s San Gabriel Valley (SGV) and holds a BSFS from Georgetown University in International History. At Stanford, he is a Ph.D. student in history with a focus on late-twentieth century Mexican undocumented migration to the United States. He explores how gendered and racial shifts in post-1986 immigration reshaped migrants’ sense of belonging and relationship to racial capitalism in Mexico and the United States. His research draws extensively on oral history and is inspired by his upbringing in a working-class migrant community. 

Gabriel’s work is also guided by his experiences in community and labor organizing. In the SGV, he has contributed to community and tenant organizing, and as a student in Washington, DC, he organized with local domestic workers for two years. 

Now, as a RAISE fellow, he intends to take on public history efforts to empower students in immigrant communities with tools to make visible and uplift their communities’ stories. Through the Testimonio Workshop (hosted by People’s Café in El Monte, CA), students will learn about and theorize oral history praxis as a tool to foment critical inquiry and platform community-mediated narratives.