I was saddened to run across this article about Michael Kearny, an anthropologist whose work is everywhere if you start digging into the literature on the Mixtec in California. It turns out that he passed away in 2009.
Kearny would seem to have been truly dedicated to studying Mixtecs (and Zapotecs) in California. According to this obituary, he actually spoke Mixtec himself:
Michael Kearney “was not only an excellent teacher and scholar who trained several generations of researchers but he also was a partner committed to the struggle for justice to indigenous peoples,” said sociologist Mixtec Gaspar Rivera Salgado, who worked closely with him.
For the migrant indigenous community and its leaders, Kearney contributions have proven invaluable because besides the scientific rigor in his research, Kearney was an exceptional person. According to CBDIO’s Executive Director, Rufino Dominguez, Kearney worked hard to learn in depth from the indigenous communities and the proof is that he understood the Mixteco language and lived many years in San Jeronimo El Progreso, Silacayoapan, Oaxaca.
So far I have found his monographs most useful. Some of them are online; while rather old, I still find this one a really good introduction to understanding how Mixtecs live in California:
Runsten, David & Michael Kearney. 1994. A survey of Oaxacan village networks in California agriculture. California Institute for Rural Studies. http://caff.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Oaxacan1.pdf.
A more general bibliography of his work is available at UC Riverside:
Michael Kearny Bibliography
And props to platanos-fritos, whose post first brought this scholar to my attention: platanos-fritos: Invisible Indians