7th International Conference on the Historical Links between Spain and North America

Inocencio "Chencho" Arias is a Spanish diplomat, retired in 2010. He has held relevant positions such as Secretary of State for Cooperation (vice minister), undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, ambassador of Spain to the United Nations (from July 1997 to December 2004) and spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with three different governments of democracy (UCD, PSOE, and PP). He actively collaborates with media such as El Mundo, "Cadena COPE", and El Periódico. He has also published books about his diplomatic life and current affairs, including Confesiones de un diplomático, Los presidentes y la diplomacia, or Yo siempre creí que los diplomáticos eran unos mamones.

Dr. Castresana has been a practicing attorney, magistrate, investigating judge and public prosecutor for more than 30 years.

In 1989 he became a member of the Career of Public Prosecutors of Spain. Since that time, he has worked in the Prosecution Offices of Barcelona and Madrid, as well as in the Anti-drug and Anti-corruption Special Prosecution Offices. In 2005 he was promoted to the Supreme Court of Spain.

In 2007, the UN Secretary General appointed Dr. Castresana as Commissioner against Impunity in Guatemala, with the category of Assistant Secretary General of the UN. Dr. Castresana worked in this post until 2010. In recognition of his work in Guatemala Dr. Castresana received the Medal of Honor as Commendatore della Repubblica from Italy, the Grand Cross badge of Honor from Guatemala, the title of Officer of the Legion of Honor from France, and the Order of the Civil Merit from Spain. Dr. Castresana is also a recipient of the National Award for Human Rights in Spain and holds the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Guadalajara, Mexico, and Central University of Chile. 

Dr. Castresana has been an expert on a number of legal missions including with the Council of Europe, the EU, the UN and the World Bank, amongst others. He has written multiple articles published in media and specialised legal magazines, and lectured in universities and other institutions in Europe and America (including Harvard, Yale, NYU, CUNY, Drexel, Berkeley, Stanford, the US DoD and DoS). He is also a Professor of Criminal Law at Carlos III University of Madrid, and International Criminal Law at the University of San Francisco, California, and Haverford College, Pennsylvania.

In 2016 he was awarded the First Prize for Transparency, Integrity and Fighting Corruption by the General Counsel of Lawyers of Spain and Transparency International. Currently, he is the Head of the Department of Criminal Law in Estudio Jurídico Ejaso, a law firm based in Spain and Portugal.

Professor, and Robert H. and Nancy Dedman Chair in History Associate Director, Clements Center for Southwest Studies

Professor Foley's current research centers on the politics of immigration and citizenship in North America and Europe; Nativism/Xenophobia and ethno-nationalist movements globally; changing constructions of race, citizenship, and transnational identity in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands; migration studies; and comparative civil rights politics of African, Asian, and Latinx Americans. 

He is co-editor (with James Hollifield) of Understanding Global Migration (forthcoming, Stanford University Press, 2022) and  the author of The White Scourge: Mexicans, Blacks, and Poor Whites in Texas Cotton Culture (University of California Press, 1997); Quest for Equality: The Failed Promise of Black-Brown Solidarity (Harvard University Press, 2010), Mexicans in the Making of America (Harvard University Press, 2014); Los Mexicanos en la creación de los Estados Unidos (Instituto Mora, 2020); Teaching Mexican American History (American Historical Association, 2002, co-authored with John R. Chávez); and Reflexiones: New Directions in Mexican American Studies (University of Texas Press, 1998).

Professor Foley is a Distinguished Lecturer of the Organization of American Historians and has lectured extensively in the U.S., Europe and Latin America. For a number of years he lived and taught in Mexico (Mexico City), Germany (Berlin, Heidelberg, Stuttgart), Spain (Salamanca, Zaragoza), and Japan (Misawa; Naha, Okinawa). He also spent two years living on aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean Sea where he taught sailors of the U.S. Navy's 6th Fleet in its Program for Afloat College Education (PACE).