I am an historian of 19th century California rooted in both Mexico and the United States.  I feel that my work connects to my own life deeply as a long-standing Californian of Mexican descent.  I completed my Ph.D. in American History from University of California at Los Angeles in 2020 after earning her M.A. in Ethnic Studies from UC San Diego in 2000.  I am currently a community college professor at Los Angeles Pierce College teaching in American and Latin American history.  I'm currently creating a podcast on the impact of rock en español on the youth of Latin America during the dirty wars.  My dissertation will be turned into a book about the negotiation of racial myths in early California history between Native California Indians, white Americans, and Mexican Californios.

I recently completed the Educational Partnership for Internationalizing Curriculum(EPIC) fellow at Stanford University focusing on bringing global studies to the community college systems in 2019-2020.  I attended the Summer Program in Plant Humanities at Dumbarton Oaks Library, an affiliate of Harvard University in the early summer of 2021.  I recently attended the Cornell University Summer Migrations program in the summer of 2021.  With the Cornell Migrations project I created a professionally developed podcast with a group of academics, artists, and graduate students on Latin American indigenous migrations.  

I am currently affiliated with the University of California Humanities Research Institute(UCHRI) in two capacities.  I have been accepted to the UCHRI Affiliated Scholars Program with institutional access 

I am also working as a junior faculty member on the podcast program with the UCHRI program.