NESTOR P. RODRIGUEZ CLASS OF 1966 HALL OF FAME MEMBER 08-18-25

                                                                      HALL OF FAME MEMBER

   

Math and science kept Rodriguez afloat in school, easily making up for the poor grades he made in English because Spanish was his first language.  "I was a very good math and science student, so that's how I got A's," and poor English student."  Nestor graduated from Roy Miller High School in 1966 and he enrolled at Del Mar Junior College, where his father had gotten the textbooks.  In the spring of 1968, Nestor P. Rodriguez was desperate to get out of his hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas. The usually straight A student was failing his fourth semester at Del Mar Junior College when he decided to drop out. Nestor joined the Army Airborne to go fight in Vietnam, but aptitude test scores sent him elsewhere, as faith would   have it he ended at nuclear missile site in the mountains outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. He would go back to Del Mar College and then Texas A&I University and earn dual degrees Sociology and political science and later in 1974 a Master's of Sociology. Nestor left Kingsville in 1976 to pursue a Doctorate in Sociology at the University of Texas at Austin.

Nestor has conducted international research in Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador, and has traveled and lectured in China and Japan. His present research focuses on Guatemalan migration, U.S. deportations to Mexico and Central America, the unauthorized migration of unaccompanied minors, evolving relations between Latinos and African Americans/Asian Americans, and ethical and human rights issues of border enforcement.

HONORS AND AWARDS

Public Sociology Award, International Migration Section, American Sociological Association, 2016 - Distinguished Career Award, Latino Section, American Sociological Association, 2013 - Joseph S. Werlin Scholar of Latin  American/Hispanic Studies in Sociology, University of Houston, 2004-2006;  Human Rights Award, presented by Coordinator 96 and the U OF H Immigration and Refugee Coalition, December 1996; Distinguished Graduate Student Award, Texas A&I University, 1974;  Summa Cum Laude Graduate, Texas A&I University,    1973;  Governor's Public Service Internship Awardee, Austin, Texas, 1973.