Annabella España-Nájera is a Professor at California State University at Fresno in the Department of Chicano and Latin American Studies. She holds a PhD in political science from the University of Notre Dame. Her research interests include party system institutionalization and political parties, regime changes, quality of democracy and representation, and the challenges to consolidating and fortifying democracies in the Latin American region, as well as the local political dynamics in Central America. She is currently analyzing the impact of electoral reform on representation and gender in El Salvador’s municipal councils, party-switching in Guatemala’s Congress, and new parties in the Salvadoran and Guatemalan party systems. She has published in journals such as Latin American Politics and Society, Electoral Studies, Party Politics, and the Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas.