My research addresses key questions at the interface of morphology, syntax, phonetics, and phonology applied to the sociocultural context of the Afro-Latino Vernaculars of the Americas (ALVAs) — the languages that developed in Latin Americafrom the contact of African languages, Spanish and Portuguese in colonial times. 

My dissertation, Aspects of Afro-Puerto Rican Spanish: The Interplay of Social and Linguistic Factors, combines linguistic, sociohistorical, legal and anthropological insights to examine language variation and change in Loíza, Puerto Rico, a community central to Afro-Latino identity. Drawing on linguistic, sociohistorical, legal, and anthropological perspectives, it analyzes morphosyntactic and prosodic variation while engaging creole studies through an interdisciplinary lens. By combining quantitative and qualitative methods, this project situates Loíza Spanish at the intersections of language, pedagogy, race, and identity, contributing to debates in sociolinguistics, raciolinguistics, and migration studies and offering new insights into language contact, acquisition, and change.

This project is not only theoretically significant but also community-engaged: it inspired Cuentos de Loíza, a storytelling initiative that elevates Afro-Puerto Rican voices and produces classroom resources affirming heritage varieties. Alongside this project, I serve as an associate researcher for the Atlas of Afro-Hispanic Languages, a Humboldt-funded initiative documenting Caribbean and diasporic Spanish varieties. These initiatives advance applied research that links linguistic analysis with pedagogical and community impact.

Beyond sociolinguistics, I bring expertise in heritage instruction and Spanish for the Professions. Teaching Spanish for Healthcare Professionals at UT-Austin’s School of Nursing deepened my interest in medical discourse and has led to an invitation to contribute a chapter on doctor–patient interaction to the forthcoming Handbook of Applied Sociolinguistics (Cambridge University Press).