• Mario Mercado-Diaz
  • Mario Mercado-Diaz
  • Curriculum Vitae
  • Mario Mercado-Diaz is generally interested in international migration, social inequality, urban development, urban space, community life, decolonial theory and cultural sociology. His current research focuses on Puerto Rican migrant integration outcomes in new or emerging destinations and established destinations. He uses a mixed method approach (quantitative and qualitative) and an intersectional lens to study the effects of race and ethnicity, gender, class and education on migrant integration in new and emerging migrant destination. Specifically, he looks at migrants with relative advantage entering the professional labor markets in Texas and New York. For his dissertation research, he will compare integration outcomes and experiences of Puerto Ricans, Cubans and Venezuelans moving to Houston, Texas. Mario has ample research experience having served as a research assistant on numerous projects, more recently having done fieldwork for the Afro-Latin@ Forum and serving as a research assistant for a project on neighborhood inequality led by Dr. Laurie Krivo, Dr. Zaire Dinzey-Flores and Dr. Hana Shepherd. He earned his MA on Latin American Studies at the University of Texas, Austin. His masters thesis ("Distances and Proximities: Havana and San Juan from the Point of View of Literature and Oral Histories") used an interdisciplinary approach (Anthropology, Sociology and Cultural Studies) to compare the changing dynamics of urban space in specific neighborhoods of Havana, Cuba and San Juan, Puerto Rico (see http://lavigia.wix.com/elmuelle). He has also published journalistic articles in various online magazines, both in English and in Spanish.