He received the Thomas F. Buckley College of Arts and Sciences Award for Teaching Excellence in 2004. He is the author of Revolution in the Street: Women, Workers and Urban Protest in Veracruz, 1870-1927 (Scholarly Resources Inc/Rowman and Littlefield, 2001), which won the 1999 Michael C. Meyer Prize for best first manuscript in Latin American History and the 2002 Thomas F. McGann Prize from the Rocky Mountain Council on Latin American Studies. He is editor and contributor to On The Border: Society and Culture Between the U.S. and Mexico (Scholarly Resources/Rowman and Littlefield, 2004). He is currently finishing three book projects including a biography of Mexican songwriter Agustín Lara, an illustrated study (and documentary film) on Carnival in Veracruz as well as a co-edited a volume on tourism in Mexico.