She is the author of numerous articles in professional journals and two books, Origins and Destinies: Immigration, Race, and Ethnicity in America (Wadsworth, 1996), co-edited with Ruben G. Rumbaut, and Political and Economic Migrants in America: Cubans and Mexicans (University of Texas Press, 1985). Her research interests are in the areas of the sociology of immigration, race, and ethnicity in America, as well as the sociology of Cuba’s revolution and exodus. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago.