Ph.D. Candidate in Latin American and Latino Studies
I am a scholar of queerness, gender and sexuality, migration, indigeneity, memory, Latinx studies, P’urhépecha Studies, and queer Indigenous research methodologies. I am a queer Indigenous P’urhépecha and mestizo scholar (the son of a mestiza mother and a P’urhépecha father) originally from Tangancícuaro, Michoacán, México. I hold a bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education, with concentration in History from Normal Superior Juana de Asbaje, a master’s degree in Teaching History from Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, and an M.A. in Latin American and Latino Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Currently, I am a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in Latin American and Latino Studies with a Designated Emphasis in Anthropology. My scholarship and poetry have been included in different collections in Spanish, English, and P’urhépecha.
I am a Eugene Cota-Robles Fellow, and I was a Crossing Latinidades Mellon Humanities Fellow between 2022-23.
Photo by Evan Ho
Research
In the last decade, my research has centered on the study of the P’urhépecha group in Michoacán and the United States. First, through my master’s program in Teaching History, I conducted an oral history research project with students from the Patamban’s middle school, with whom we collected histories of their town through the oral tradition. The histories were assembled into a book published by the Universidad Michoacana Press. I have also participated in different projects of recollection of histories of immigrants in my hometown, Tangancícuaro, as well as documenting the work of local artisans. In my current research, I focus on examining gender binary rituals and sexual narratives within P’urhépechas in Michoacán, the Pacific Coast, and the Midwest in the United States. I also analyze the counter-hegemonic responses queer P’urhépechas design to respond to homophobia and anti-gay violence within their communities in both sites of the border. For example, through danzas, customary practices, community service, or by migrating to urban areas.
Fiesta Cristo Rey Chiquito. Patamban, Michoacán. Photo by Mario A. Gómez Zamora