Sonia Hernández, Ph.D.

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Sonia Hernández, Ph.D.

Sonia Hernández, Ph.D.


Sonia Hernández is Professor of History at Texas A&M University. She is a former UT Board of Regents Scholar, former Fulbright scholar, and currently a Chancellor EDGES Fellow. Hernández earned a PhD in Latin American History from the University of Houston in 2006 and specializes in the intersections of gender and labor in the U.S.-Mexican Borderlands, Chicana/o history, and Modern Mexico. She is the author of Working Women into the Borderlands (Texas A&M University Press, 2014) which won the Sara A. Whaley Book Prize (NWSA) and the Liz Carpenter Award (TSHA), among others. A Spanish translation of this book was published as Mujeres, trabajo y región fronteriza (Tamaulipas: ITCA; Mexico City: INEHRM, 2017). She is the author of For a Just and Better World: Engendering Anarchism in the Mexican Borderlands, 1900-1938 (University of Illinois Press, 20121) which earned the Philip Taft Labor Book Award (Cornell & LAWCHA) and is co-editor with John Morán González of Reverberations of Racial Violence: Critical Reflections on the History of the Border (University of Texas Press, 2021). She is co-founder of the award-winning public history project Refusing to Forget which brings public awareness of the role of state-sanctioned, anti-Mexican violence in the early 20th century. Hernández is at work on a new book project, “Por un compatriota: Transnational Networks, State Violence, and the Case of Gregorio Cortez, 1900-1920,” which re-visits the 1901 near-lynching attempt of Cortez in south central Texas from a gendered, transnational, and multi-national archival perspective.

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Commemorating 250 years of American independence through the stories, people, and places that shaped Texas and the nation.

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary in 2026, Texans have a unique opportunity to reflect on the state’s role in the American story. Through exhibitions, programs, educational initiatives, and community events across Texas, Texas America250 encourages celebration, reflection, and commemoration at both local and statewide levels. At the Texas State Historical Association, we are proud to support this important moment through our mission-driven work in history education and public engagement, including Texas History Day, and we invite students, educators, and communities to explore this milestone in meaningful ways.

On July 4, 2026, we will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the greatest nation in the history of the world. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Long may these ideals live in the heart of every Texan and every American. May God bless all who have defended our freedoms that we enjoy each day. And God bless the United States of America.

Greg Abbott, Governor of Texas

Commemorating 250 years of American independence through the stories, people, and places that shaped Texas and the nation.

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary in 2026, Texans have a unique opportunity to reflect on the state’s role in the American story. Through exhibitions, programs, educational initiatives, and community events across Texas, Texas America250 encourages celebration, reflection, and commemoration at both local and statewide levels. At the Texas State Historical Association, we are proud to support this important moment through our mission-driven work in history education and public engagement, including Texas History Day, and we invite students, educators, and communities to explore this milestone in meaningful ways.

On July 4, 2026, we will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the greatest nation in the history of the world. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Long may these ideals live in the heart of every Texan and every American. May God bless all who have defended our freedoms that we enjoy each day. And God bless the United States of America.

Greg Abbott, Governor of Texas

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