SC Connecticut News

Ángel Escamilla García, Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Yale Faculty of Arts and Sciences, is on a mission to uncover the invisible systems that shape our decisions and engender social phenomena like racism, discrimination, and inequality. Born in Chiapas, Mexico, Escamilla García received his B.A. in Social Anthropology at the Universidad Veracruzana in 2011. He then pursued postgraduate education at Northwestern University, earning his PhD in Sociology in 2022.

Escamilla García's research focuses on the migration experience of vulnerable groups from Latin America to the United States. His current project investigates the roles of linguistic isolation among Guatemalan child migrants who speak Indigenous languages. "My interest is showing the importance of recognizing them [Indigenous people] as an independent group that have a distinctive pattern of migration and a distinctive rich history," he said.

In his research, Escamilla García discovered that 30% of Guatemalan children who migrate as unaccompanied minors to the United States speak an Indigenous language. He emphasizes the importance of autonomy and choice when creating and maintaining identity for these migrants.

Research ethics is a fundamental principle behind Escamilla García’s work with Latin American minor immigrants. While dealing with vulnerable groups, he empowers his interviewees to exercise autonomy. Those included in interviews have the freedom to walk out if they feel uncomfortable and can revoke consent at any time.

Escamilla García's interest in Latin American emigration is not new; it can be traced back to the 19th century where Black sociologists like Kelly Miller were pioneering this field of study. Currently, he is working on a series of articles detailing the contributions of minority sociology pioneers such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Monroe Nathan Work.

Currently, Escamilla García is working on a book proposal entitled Negotiating Violence: Central American Youth and their Precarious Journeys through Mexico. The manuscript explores how Central American youth migrants understand and respond to the constant violence and precariousness they face.

"Sociology gives you the tools to explore not the root causes but the structural causes of racism, discrimination, inequality— that is, for me what I love about sociology," he said. "Sociology gives you this broad, robust understanding. When you know about the source of inequality and how it works, you see the world differently."