I’ve often lived in the in-between—between places, families, cultures, languages, and nations. However, what once felt like an alienating and liminal space, one often ni aquí, ni allá, I now recognize as my greatest strength: I am a bridge. Bridges connect what might otherwise remain separate, and that is the work I do—bridging the Americas.

I am a U.S.–Latin America Engagement Strategist working at the intersection of policy, international education, and urban mobility. My work focuses on building partnerships that strengthen collaboration between governments, universities, and communities across Mexico and the region.

Through my role with the University of New Mexico’s Global Education Office, I collaborate with institutions and agencies—including Mexico’s Secretariat of Innovation, Science, and Technology (SECIHTI)—to design binational strategies that advance equity, infrastructure, and sustainable development.

My perspective is shaped by years of international fieldwork and cross-cultural engagement. I served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in post-conflict Guatemala, working with Indigenous Maya women on community-led development projects. I later earned a Ph.D. in Latin American history, where I explored how U.S.–Latin America cultural and policy relations have been shaped by desire, consumption, and identity.

I bring the clarity of a historian and seasoned writer to policy conversations, making complex U.S.–Latin America issues accessible to broader publics. Alongside my policy work, I write commentary on mobility justice, equity, and international partnerships, with publications in outlets such as La Jornada Maya and Inkstick Media.

I am also the author of the forthcoming book Desire as Empire: Consuming Indigenous Identity in Transnational Imaginations, which examines how Guatemala staged Indigeneity for international consumption in the 1930s, and how those dynamics reverberate in today’s policy and cultural debates.

To me, being “between” is no longer a place of alienation—it is a vantage point. Bridges are intentional, durable, and transformative. They hold weight and allow passage. In the same way, I use my position between cultures, institutions, and ideas to help create pathways toward more equitable and sustainable futures—bridging the Americas one partnership at a time.