Indigenous Archives: The Maya Diaspora and Mobile Cultural Production
Indigenous Archives: The Maya Diaspora and Mobile Cultural Production
by Floridalma Boj Lopez
Duke University Press, 2026
ISBNs
Cloth: 978-1-4780-2956-4
Paper: 978-1-4780-3301-1
eISBN: 978-1-4780-9447-0 (OA)
eISBN: 978-1-4780-6175-5 (standard)
About the Book
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. Drawing on in-depth analysis of cultural production and interviews with Guatemalan Maya youth and young adults, Floridalma Boj Lopez examines how Mayas in diaspora craft and circulate narratives about their experiences across borders. Citing a more active practice of “archives in formation,” Boj Lopez depicts 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.
About the Author
Floridalma Boj Lopez is Assistant Professor of Chicana/o and Central American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Reviews
“Hope, love, and joy fill the pages of Indigenous Archives, capturing the creative ways children of Maya immigrants affirm their collective dignity. Boj Lopez provides an expansive vision of how Indigenous diasporas learn and remix ancestral spirituality, knowledge, and technologies for survivance in the face of continual displacement. With original insights on Latinidades, Indigeneity, and more, it is a vital new point of reference for scholars and organizers.”
-- Leisy J. Abrego, co-editor of We Are Not Dreamers: Undocumented Scholars Theorize Undocumented Life in the United States
-- Leisy J. Abrego, co-editor of We Are Not Dreamers: Undocumented Scholars Theorize Undocumented Life in the United States
“Indigenous Archives addresses important issues concerning the historical memory, cultural production, and re/definition of Indigeneity for the Maya diaspora in the United States, particularly in Los Angeles. It cannot be read without taking necessary pauses and deep meditative breaths. For Indigenous migrants and future generations, it offers a vindication, a lifeline, a hope that Indigenous futures are possible.”
-- Luis Urrieta, Jr., Charles H. Spence, Sr. Centennial Professor of Education, University of Texas at Austin
-- Luis Urrieta, Jr., Charles H. Spence, Sr. Centennial Professor of Education, University of Texas at Austin
"Those of us who work with immigrant and Indigenous communities as insiders or outsiders can only be grateful for Boj Lopez’s loving, detailed, and materially grounded rebellion on behalf of Maya brilliance and endurance, especially at a time when the once-benign face of the US deportation machine has been unmasked in all its brutality."
-- Brendan H. O’Connor Ethnic and Racial Studies
-- Brendan H. O’Connor Ethnic and Racial Studies
Tags
Guatemala, American Studies, Politics and culture, Relocation, Maya arts, Indigenous Archives, Maya Diaspora, Indigenous Studies, Ethnic identity, California, Hispanic & Latino Studies, Social life and customs, Social aspects, Cultural & Ethnic Studies, Social Science
Open Access Information
Label: UCLA
License: CC BY-NC 4.0
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