Dr. Mario Sifuentez is an Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Merced and is currently the director of the Humanities Center at UC Merced. He received his BA, as well as his MA, from the University of Oregon in Ethnic Studies, and History. He completed his Ph.D. at Brown University in American Studies with a focus on immigration and labor. His book Of Forests and Fields: Mexican Labor in the Pacific Northwest (Rutgers University Press, 2016) analyzes the factors that brought ethnic Mexican immigrants to the Pacific Northwest and the ways in which immigrants responded to the labor conditions by demanding both labor rights and citizenship rights. It was named a CHOICE “Outstanding Academic Title.” He is currently at work on his second project on water, food, and farmworkers in California's Central Valley.