Mellon postdoctoral fellow
Mario A. Gómez Zamora was born and raised in Tangancícuaro, Michoacán, México, the grandchild of Alicia Zepeda Madrigal, Serafin Zamora Ríos, Guadalupe Estrada Cacari, and Enrique Gómez Montelongo.
Mario is a queer P’urhépecha dancer, poet, and scholar of queerness, gender and sexuality, migration, memory, Latinx and Latin American studies, dance studies, performance studies, and P’urhépecha studies. He earned his PhD and M.A. in Latin American and Latino Studies and Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, a master’s in teaching history at Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, and a B.A. in Secondary Education with a concentration in History at Normal Superior Juana de Asbaje in Michoacán.
Currently, Mario is a Mellon Fellow in the Humanities Center and Guest Faculty in the Department of Theater and Performance Studies at Stanford University, where he is working on his book project Queer P’urhépecha Histories and Performances Beyond Borders. Mario is receiving mentorship to complete his project from Dr. Jennifer DeVere Brody in TAPS. At Stanford, Mario will be teaching courses on Dance Studies and his course "Queer Indigenous Performances in the Americas."
In the summer of 2025, he was a UC Chancellor’s postdoctoral scholar at the Department of Anthropology at UCLA, where he was supported by Dr. Jason De León.
Mario's scholarship and poetry have been published by Wicazo Sa Review, Pasados, the Historical Institute of the University Michoacana Press, the Autonomous University of Nuevo León, Genealogy, and Los Angeles Review of Books. His last article, “Breaking Queer Silences, Building Queer Archives, and Claiming Queer Indigenous P’urhépecha Methodologies,” won the Most Thought-Provoking article in the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association.
Mario is a first-generation graduate, and a member and co-founder of the P’urhépecha Working Group Parákata-Tzintzún and the P’urhépecha Studies Collective.
For more, check Mario's CV here.
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