Mexican Center

Who We Are

The Mexican Center of LLILAS, established in 1980, is one of the foremost centers for the study of Mexico in the United States. It's mission is to promote greater knowledge and understanding of Mexico and to coordinate the advancement of Mexican studies at the University of Texas at Austin. With more than sixty Mexicanist faculty on campus, UT Austin has one of the largest research and teaching groups on Mexico and bilateral U.S.-Mexico relations outside Mexico. Their research covers a range of interests from folk culture and Nahuatl language, the Maya, and colonial and modern history, to water resources in the Rio Grande Valley, gender and contemporary Mexican politics, and migration to mention just a few. The Mexican Center brings together students and faculty, visiting researchers, and the communities of Austin, Texas, and Mexico to foster a fuller understanding of our region.

What We Do

Scholarships
The Mexican Center offers more than $70,000 annually in stipends and travel grants to students at UT Austin. Funds provide support for U.S. students to conduct research in Mexico and for Mexican students to study at UT. For more information about the fellowships we offer and to apply online, visit Fellowships.

Visiting Scholars
In partnership with the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Relations, we host the Matias Romero Visiting Chair in Mexican Studies, which brings a distinguished academic from Mexico to teach a graduate seminar at UT each year. For a complete listing of previous Matias Romero Chairs, visit Matias Romero Visiting Chair. The Mexican Center also offers the C.B. Smith Travel Fellowship in PhD students and faculty members at Mexican universities who wish to do short-term research at the libraries of UT Austin, especially the renowned Benson Latin American Collection. To learn more about the C.B. Smith Travel Fellowships, visit Fellowships.

Exchange
LLILAS recently initiated exchange agreements with two Mexican research institutions: El Colegio de México, Mexico's most prestigious university for the study of international relations, and CIESAS (Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social), the leading institution for the study of the social sciences. We also maintain strong ties with the Universidad Veracruzana, one of Mexico's largest public universities.

Events
The Mexican Center organizes talks and conferences on a wide array of topics related to Mexico. Recent events have included a symposium on Olmec civilization and an artist residency at the Blanton Museum of Art for an emerging Mexican photographer. In 2010, to honor the 200th anniversary of Mexican independence and the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution, the Mexican Center hosted the speaker series Many Mexicos, 1810-2010: Reflections on Independence, Revolution, and the Making of Modern Mexico. To learn more about these events, visit Mexico 2010.