I am a fourth-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 consumer expectations influence the actions of Oaxacan heritage chefs in Columbus, Ohio, Los Angeles, California, and Oaxaca City, Oaxaca.