I am a fifth-year PhD candidate in Cultural Anthropology. I received my BA from the University of Michigan in Anthropology and Spanish, and my MA in Latin American Studies from University of California, Los Angeles. My MA thesis concerned the Dominican academy system run by Major League Baseball, to which young Latin American baseball players are recruited and signed at sixteen years old in their first step toward potential major league stardom. My dissertation focuses on how Oaxacan chefs in Columbus, Ohio, Los Angeles, California, and Oaxaca City, Oaxaca define success for themselves and their businesses, how they adapt their food to local conditions, tastes and ingredients, and whether these chefs continue to identify with their Oaxacan cultural (and culinary) identity.