Natalia Facio grew up in a family supported by union jobs in Las Vegas, and she understands first-hand the importance of the labor movement for hard-working ÁùºÏ±¦µä families.
Now, as a historian and a graduate student at the University of ÁùºÏ±¦µä, Reno, Facio has been nationally recognized for her research into the mutually supporting relationships between the civil rights and labor movements in Southern ÁùºÏ±¦µä 50 years ago.
Facio, who completed her undergraduate studies in the University’s Department of History in May, has been named winner of the Barbara Wertheimer Prize in Labor History awarded by the . Named for a labor organizer and historian whose research focused on American labor and gender history, the award recognizes serious study in American labor and work history among undergraduate students.
Her senior thesis, “Unions and Exclusions: Civil Rights Within the Las Vegas Labor Movement,” digs deeply into court records, newspaper articles and other sources from the 1960s and 1970s to tell how workers of color and women battled to achieve equal opportunity in unions. The research covers labor organizations ranging from building-trade locals to the powerful Culinary Union that represents hotel and casino workers.
A thesis with personal roots
While her family background provided her with first-hand knowledge of the labor movement, Facio was further inspired to undertake her research by her selection in 2023 for the of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
In that program, which prioritizes students from historically marginalized communities, Facio worked during the summer of her junior year as an organizer among local government employees in the Miami area. She found that many workers, union members among them, had limited knowledge of the historical background of the labor movement.
“It’s important for workers to understand their unions, their roots and how problems were overcome in the past,” Facio said. “The issues that face us today didn’t just come out of nowhere.”
Important faculty support
Returning to her undergraduate studies at the University in the fall of 2023, she decided to undertake a senior thesis, even though it isn’t a requirement for graduation in the History Department. She worked closely on the project with Eric Nystrom, an associate professor of history and director of the History Department’s graduate program.
Nystrom said Facio’s thesis, which runs to 12,000 words, is an impressive work of research and writing by an undergraduate.
“She went far above and beyond what was required of her,” said Nystrom.
It might have gone much farther above and beyond, Facio said, without the valuable assistance that Nystrom provided in helping her sharpen the focus of her research and thesis when it threatened to sprawl out of control.
“I had never written a paper this big before, and there were moments during this process when I didn’t know what I was doing,” she said. “Dr. Nystrom listened to me and helped me throughout the entire project.”
While Nystrom served as Facio’s adviser on the thesis, she also drew on the expertise of Michael Aguirre, an assistant professor of history at the University whose interests include labor and political economy, particularly in the borderlands of the United States and Mexico.
The faculty support was particularly important, Facio said, because she didn’t become fully engaged with the project until the start of the spring semester. That gave her only half the time that most students devote to a senior thesis.
New research digs deeper
Facio now hopes to continue her studies of labor organizations into her master’s thesis. She’s shaping a proposal to conduct research into the labor movement along the West Coast, which developed in different ways than the better-documented unionization efforts on the East Coast.
She’ll take a short break from her graduate studies and work as a teaching assistant to attend — virtually — the December ceremony at which the New York Labor History Association will present the Wertheimer Prize and its $500 check to her.
After completion of her education, Facio envisions a career in which she can put her love of historical research to use, perhaps through work in development of public policy.
Nystrom said the award to Facio of the Wertheimer Prize for undergraduate research is especially noteworthy because the list of past winners has been dominated by students from top-tier East Coast universities. Facio’s work helps establish the position of the University’s History Department as well as its entire College of Liberal Arts.
“Our history department is small but scrappy. We have a very high-quality faculty and we work closely with our students,” Nystrom said. “We are helping to open doors for students who are really motivated.”
Facio’s dedication to her education and drive to help others through the things she has learned are ways that she embodies The Wolf Pack Way.
