Dr. Boj Lopez is a Maya-K’iche’ Assistant Professor of Chicanx and Central American Studies at UCLA. We discuss her academic journey and early interests in the project of ethnic studies, as well as in building Maya community spaces in diaspora. Boj Lopez works in the growing field of Critical Latinx Indigeneity which she approaches as a bridge of conversations between Latino/Chicano Studies and Native American and Indigenous Studies. This approach interrogates the complicated relationships with categories like ‘Latin,’ which some refuse. Yet, at the same time also leaves room for Maya diaspora communities who may adopt or use the ‘Latin’ category for survival. The book Indigenous Archives recently released and we explore some of its premise which responded to questions of why displaced Maya diaspora communities look for each other and how they find one another. Boj Lopez shares an introduction to her book that confronts the dominant function of archives of upholding hegemonic narratives located in centers of power, and shifts to archives beyond dominant institutions, such as the mobile and living ones found in inter-generational ancestral clothing and textiles.

References:

Floridalma Boj Lopez, ‘Naming, A Coming Home: Latinidad and Indigeneity in the Settler Colony’, The Funambulist, 41 (2022).

Floridalma Boj Lopez, Indigenous Archives: The Maya Diaspora and Mobile Cultural Production (Duke University Press, 2026)

Notes on Terms: Xela/Quetzaltenango (Xela is shortened from Xelajú N’oj, which is an Indigenous Maya name for this place. Whereas Quetzaltenango is the official national place name derived from Nahuatl); Tongva (Indigenous people and place name for Los Angeles, California); Soonkahni (Indigenous place name for the Salt Lake Valley in the Newe/Shoshone/Goshute language); Maya-K’iche’ (K’iche’ refers to an ethno-linguistic group of diverse Highland Maya peoples and communities, and Maya is a post-colonial term that has been adopted by many, which contemporarily refers to the Mayan culture and people in Mesoamerica); Corte (A skirt that is typically made and worn by Guatemalan Mayan women often featuring ikat or jaspe patterns. Corte is derived from Spanish and it is also known as Uq or Uk in the K’iche’ language). Huipil (A generally loose-fitting feminine blouse worn by Indigenous Mesoamerican women, which in Guatemala are often lineage-based and regionally distinct, identified by their unique patterns, colours, and styles; huipil is derived from Nahuatl, but this garment is also known as p’ot in the K’iche’ language). Kab’awil (Maya concept for duality or pairing of oppositional or complimentary forces; etymologically it is a compound word expressing the number two and face, which means to see with multiple visions or faces or a double view; philosophically linked with interconnectedness, complexity, and plurality, which is often depicted in textiles as mirrored images such as two exact birds facing different directions).