Originally from San Salvador, El Salvador, Julio Gutiérrez is a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is broadly interested in issues of political economy and ecology in Central America. His research focuses on contemporary forms of urban development, specifically rural gentrification in Cordillera del Bálsamo, El Salvador. examining the role of corporate and political networks in the expansion of real-estate markets and their implications for land use, water politics, and processes of spatial segregation.