Daniel Arreola is a cultural geographer who specializes in the study of the Mexican American borderlands. 

He is the recipient of the Paul P. Vouras Medal from The American Geographical Society for his studies in regional geography, and the Carl O. Sauer Distinguished Scholarship Award and the Preston E. James Eminent Latin Americanist Career Award from the Conference of Latin Americanist Geographers for his Mexican borderland studies.

Arreola is the author of "The Mexican Border Cities: Landscape Anatomy and Place Personality"(with James R. Curtis), "Tejano South Texas: A Mexican American Cultural Province," and "Hispanic Spaces, Latino Places: Community and Cultural Diversity in Contemporary America."

His current work concerns the visual historical geography of Mexican border towns, a research project in four volumes. The initial book in this project was "Postcards from the Rio Bravo Border: Picturing the Place, Placing the Picture, 1900s-1950s" published in 2013. The second installment was "Postcards from the Sonora Border: Visualizing Place through a Popular Lens, 1900s-1950s," published in 2017. A third volume, "Postcards from the Chihuahua Border: Revisiting a Pictorial Past, 1900s-1950s" was published in 2019. The fourth installment completing the series is "Postcards from the Baja California Border: Portraying Townscape and Place, 1900s-1950s" published in 2021.

In addition, Arreola is researching the cultural history of the Mexican restaurant in America. A forthcoming book will assess the cultural geography of Mexican restaurants across the country.