Arantza Caudillo Álvarez

Class of 2026

Faculty Advisors: Aidee Guzman, Xavier Basurto

Peer Mentor: Valeria Gracia Olvera

Arantza Caudillo is originally from Puebla, Mexico, and moved to South Florida during her early adolescence. She graduated summa cum laude from Florida State University (FSU) with a Bachelors of Science in International Affairs and Human Rights and Social Justice.

Inspired by her personal experiences, Arantza focused her undergraduate career on immigration rights. She interned at the FSU Center for the Advancement of Human Rights and the International Rescue Committee, both aid immigrants through pro-bono legal work and resettlement services, respectively. Arantza also directed the student-led organization After They Arrive, which helps immigrants through community service. She was named the FSU’s Humanitarian of the Year and received the Betty Phifer award for her commitment to public service.

Arantza also completed an honors thesis titled “Moments of Freedom in Hidalgo, Mexico: Indigenous Women’s Networks of Production in the Sierra Otomí-Tepehua-Nahua.” She received three fellowships to conduct ethnographic research in Hidalgo, Mexico while working with the nonprofit Psychology and Human Rights. Her thesis examines how Indigenous Otomí, Tepehua, and Nahuatl-speaking women navigate their reconfiguring gender roles resulting from the incursion of global capitalism. She found that women leverage their knowledge in embroidery and agriculture to build gendered networks of production that allow them to enhance their agency and adapt to changing socioeconomic realities within the constraints of patriarchy, capitalism, and colonial legacies. She has presented this research at FSU and Johns Hopkins University.

As a Foreign Language and Latin American Studies Fellow at CLAS, Arantza looks forward to deepening her undergraduate research by investigating deagrarianization in rural central Mexico and its socioeconomic effects. She believes Stanford’s Nahuatl language courses and its faculty’s expertise in Mexican and decolonial studies will provide essential tools for this work. Arantza ultimately aspires to pursue a J.D. and Ph.D. to continue working at the intersection of social activism and academia.