Tanalís Padilla

Tanalís Padilla is the Leverett Howell Cutten ’07 and William King Cutten ’39 Professor in the History Section. She teaches and writes about Latin America. Her first book, “Rural Resistance in the Land of Zapata,” recounts the history of an agrarian movement that turned to armed struggle during an era of Mexican history previously considered one of social and political stability. Her newest book, “Unintended Lessons of Revolution: Student Teachers and Political Radicalism in Twentieth-Century Mexico,” traces the history of the educational institutions that trained thousands of teachers from rural, poor, and indigenous backgrounds. These works (which have been translated into Spanish and published in Latin America), as well as her numerous other academic and public-facing articles, explore questions of consciousness, political mobilizations, international solidarity, social justice, and public health. She is currently writing a book on Cuban medical internationalism that explores the history of the over 600,000 doctors the island has sent to over 160 nations, mostly in the Global South.

Padilla earned her PhD from the University of California, San Diego and her BA from Pomona College.