Mariana Ruiz-González

Mariana Ruiz-González is a Mexican/Latinx cultural studies and community-engaged scholar. Her teaching as well as research examine the cultural politics of humor, place, sound and performance. Her classes focus on popular representations of race, gender, sexuality, migration and class, mainly emphasizing how public art and popular manifestations create alternative archives of community resistance. Her projects include collaborative mural initiatives, the radio show “El Molcajete: The Spanish Hour,” public humanities and oral history projects, and partnerships with local schools as well as artists in Walla Walla.

She is currently completing her book manuscript, “El albur: Gestuality and Mexican Identity,” which offers a decolonial history of albur, a verbal double entendre, usually known as a mockery of homosexuality. Her research addresses racialized classism, social stratification and the necessity to express sexual desire more freely in Mexico. She is also developing an edited volume on protest songs throughout the Americas and new research on folkloric dance, sound and cultural memory in the Pacific Northwest.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Universidad La Salle (Mexico 2005), and developed her professional career as a sports journalist for TV Azteca, earning the opportunity to broadcast in the Pan American Games (Brazil 2007) and the Olympic Games (Beijing 2008). Afterwards, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Hispanic-American Literature at the Claustro de Sor Juana (Mexico 2014), and her doctorate in Spanish Literature and Culture from Arizona State University focused on Visual and Digital Studies in Latin America (2024).