Steve Velasquez is a Curator for the Division of Home and Community Life, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. His research interest includes Latino history and identity, material culture, food ways, and immigration/migration history. He was co-curator for the Bracero Oral History Project and associated traveling exhibit, Bittersweet Harvest: The Bracero Program 1942-1964.  Past projects include, Mexican Treasures at the Smithsonian; AZUCAR! The Life and Music of Celia Cruz; A Collector’s Vision of Puerto Rico; Julia Child’s Kitchen at the Smithsonian, as well as many other exhibit cases and special projects.  Most recently he was co-curator for Food: Transforming the American Table 1950-2000 and Many Voices, One Nation. He is currently involved in several research and collecting projects on baseball, entertainment history, and food, wine, and beer history. He is also project director for “Exiles in America: Memory and Lived Experience of Cuban Pedro Pans” as well as “Mexican Vineyard Workers in Napa: Work, Culture, and Community.”

Article

• Ruffins, Fath Davis, Mieri, Magdalena, Velasquez, L. S., and Woodaman, Ranald. 2024. "Marvette Pérez: A Visionary Smithsonian Curator." Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals, https://doi.org/10.1177/15501906241246068. 2024
• Velasquez, L. Stephen. 2021. "Stirring the Pot." Gastronomica, 21, (3) 56–72. https://doi.org/10.1525/gfc.2021.21.3.56. 2021
• "Doing it with Ganas: Mexican and Mexican Americans Shaping the California Wine Industry" Southern California Quarterly, Vol 100, No. 2, Summer 2018, p. 216-243. 2018
• Velasquez, L. S. 2018. "Doing It with "Ganas"Mexicans and Mexican Americans Shaping the California Wine Industry." Southern California Quarterly, 100, (2) 216–243. https://doi.org/10.1525/scq.2018.100.2.216. 2018
• "Creating a Bracero Archive: Collaborations, Collections, and Challenges." Diálogo, Vol. 19, No. 2, Fall 2016, 7-20. 2016

Chapter

• Velasquez, L. Stephen. 2022. "Pepe: The Limits of Cantinflas." In Entertainment Nation: How Music, Television, Film, Sports, and Theater Shaped the United States. Cohen, Kenneth and Troutman, John W., editors. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Books. (https://doi.org/1588347249) 2022
• "Old South, New Migrations" .  Ed. Salazar-Porzio, Margaret.  Smithsonian Scholarly Press. 231-243. 2017
• Velasquez, L. Stephen. 2017. "Old South, New Migrations." In Many Voices, One Nation: Material Culture Reflections on Race and Migration in the United States. Salazar-Porzio, Margaret, Troyano, Joan Fragaszy, and Safranek, Lauren, editors. 231–244. Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press. In Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge. 2017
• Velasquez, L. S. 2017. "Tortillas, tacos, and berries : reflections on collecting Latino food history at the National Museum of American History." In Food and museums. Levent, Nina and Mihalache, Irina, editors. London ; New York: Bloomsbury Academic. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474262279.ch-009. 2017
• “Tortillas, Tacos, and Berries: Reflections on Collecting Latino Food History at the National Museum of American History”.  Food and Museums. Ed. Mihalache, Irina.  Bloomsbury Academic. 2016