Gema Kloppe-Santamaría

3 weeks ago | americasquarterly.org | Gema Kloppe-Santamaría |Julia Young

Gema Kloppe-SantamaríaReading Time: 7 minutesKloppe-Santamaría is a Nicaraguan-born sociologist and historian specializing in violence, crime, and gender in Mexico and Central America. She is an associate research professor of Latin American History at George Washington University and a lecturer of Sociology at University College Cork. Author of In the Vortex of Violence: Lynching, Extralegal Justice, and the State in Post-Revolutionary Mexico (University of California Press, 2020).

Feb 10, 2025 | theconversation.com | Julia Young |Gema Kloppe-Santamaría

For many observers of the 2024 US presidential election, Donald Trump’s ability to harness so much of the Latino vote remains one of the more puzzling issues. Latino voters – men in particular – swung decisively towards Trump last November: increasing by 16 points from 2016 to 42% of the bloc in 2024. This despite Trump’s consistent history of antagonistic remarks about Latino immigrants.

Oct 9, 2024 | revista.drclas.harvard.edu | Gema Kloppe-Santamaría

On March 19, 2010, two graduate students at the Tec de Monterrey, Jorge Antonio Mercado Alonso and Javier Francisco Arredondo Verdugo, were killed by members of the Mexican Army inside the university campus. To cover up the murder, the Army and Mexican authorities initially claimed the victims were armed sicarios—hitmen— with organized crime connections.

Jun 4, 2024 | wilsoncenter.org | Gema Kloppe-Santamaría |Julia Zulver

On Sunday, 2 June, Mexico elected its first woman president: Claudia Sheinbaum. Symbolically, this represents a huge leap forward for women in Mexico. While the country has been a regional forerunner in terms of the participation of women in politics, its most powerful role has never been held by a woman. Her victory should not be examined in isolation.

May 16, 2024 | americasquarterly.org | Julia Zulver |Gema Kloppe-Santamaría

Reading Time: 5 minutesMEXICO CITY— On May 10th, Mexico’s Mother’s Day, hundreds of madres buscadoras marched in cities across the country to demand justice and effective responses from the government on behalf of their disappeared family members. In recent years, what was once one of Mexico’s most popular and festive celebrations has become a painful reminder of the thousands of mothers that have lost their children, either at the hands of organized crime, state security forces, or both.