• Being born and raised in Tucson with deep family roots on both sides of the Arizona-Sonora border inspired my interest in regional history.

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•Pima County Library selected In the Shadows of the Freeway: Growing Up Brown & Queer to receive a 2021 Southwest Book Award.

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• Philip J. Deloria, President of the Organization of American Historians (OAH), appointed me a OAH Distinguished Lecturer in 2021.

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• I served as “Historian” for the Tucson-Pima County Historical Commission for two years (January 2020-2022). 

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• In 2019, Arizona’s César E. Chávez Holiday Coalition awarded me the Dolores Huerta Legacy Award for my activism and scholarship focusing on bringing awareness to Mexican American and local history.

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• My first book, La Calle provided the source material for the local Borderland’s Theater's “Barrio Stories,” a site-specific theatrical event that took place over four days in 2016, and that attracted over 5,000 people. Click here to learn more and watch a documentary on "Barrio Stories."

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• In 2011, the Border Regional Library Association awarded my book, La Calle: Spatial Conflicts and Urban Renewal in a Southwestern City a Southwest Book Award.

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• I founded and directed the public history program at the University of Arizona, Nuestras Tierras, Nuestras Culturas, Nuestras Historias designed to reclaim, preserve, and document the experiences and contributions of people of Mexican descent in the U.S.-Mexico border region.

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• I was a tenured professor in the Department of Mexican American Studies at the University of Arizona (2003-2020). 

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• I have a PhD in History.

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• I received a BA in 1992 and MA in 1996 from Cal State LA. 

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• President of Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos in Los Angeles, 1988-1990.

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• I worked as a electrician in IBEW Local Union 11 in Los Angeles, 1982-1994.

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• I was one of the original or founding members of Lesbianas Unidas, 1983.

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