He is the author of Mexican Coal Mining Labor in Texas and Coahuila, 1880-1930 (2000) and is currently working on histories of Tejano politics in Laredo and of Mexican Americans in north Texas. He serves on the boards of the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project, the Farmworker Movement Documentation Project, and an online archival project of the United Farm Workers from 1962-1993. A native Tejano, he graduated from Texas public schools.