Professor Hernández has taught at DePaul University, The University of Chicago, and The University of Massachusetts. His research focuses on repatriated Mexicans during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He has published articles in Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies and Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos, as well as Landscapes of Violence: An Interdisciplinary Journal Devoted to the Study of Violence, Conflict, and Trauma.
His current book is entitled Mexican American Colonization During the Nineteenth Century: A History of the US-Mexico Borderlands. The book historicizes Mexican efforts to secure its northern border with repatriates from the United States in the aftermath of a war that entailed the loss of half the nation’s territory.
He has received fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Trustee Fellowship, Fulbright-Hayes Dissertation Fellowship, and The Center for Mexican American Studies Fellowship from The University of Houston. Since his time at UMASS, Hernández has received a Lilly Teaching Fellowship and has also been a Center for Public Policy & Administration Workshop Fellow. Currently he is the Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latina/o Studies Faculty Fellow for the academic year 2011.