Floridalma Boj Lopez is an Assistant Professor in the Chicana/o and Central American Studies Department at UCLA. Dr. Boj Lopez’s work uses a transborder approach to analyze the experiences of Maya migrants as they cross settler colonial borders and encounter distinct racial logics in the United States. Her research examines cultural production among the Guatemalan Maya diaspora with a particular emphasis on intergenerational relationships, gender, and the production of Indigenous migrant community in Los Angeles, CA. She is particularly interested in how these communities respond to structures of state violence and understand their relationship to Indigeneity.
MY BOOK IS FINALLY OUT!
Indigenous Archives analyzes the modes through which young Guatemalan Mayas in Los Angeles and Guatemala make sense of and respond to transnational structures of settler colonialism. Citing a more active practice of “archives in formation,” I depict Indigenous archives as a cross-generational, collective conversation rooted in memory, survival, and cultural expression where Indigenous cultural practices and artifacts move, adapt, and assert their presence in the contemporary. Indigenous Archives invites readers to consider Indigeneity as a process, lived experience, and historical perspective, rather than as a static identity, and shows how extending analysis across borders is critical to understanding Latinidad and Indigeneity.
“When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.“
-Audre Lorde
Get in touch
fbojlopez@ucla.edu
Floridalma Boj Lopez, PhD 