How long have you been a member?
I have been a member at large in Division 44 since August 2021. I end my term this August 2024.
What are you passionate about?
I am passionate about abolition feminism, liberation psychology, and other emancipatory frameworks and practices rooted in anti-imperialism, racial justice, gender justice, and disability justice. My hope is that Division 44 will center more conversations on the intersection of abolition, feminism, and liberation.
Who inspires you?
Angela Davis, Grace Lee Boggs, Gloria Anzaldua, Audre Lorde, Mariame Kaba, Dolores Huerta, James Baldwin, bell hooks, Fannie Lou Hamer, and other freedom fighters.
Can you tell us more about your most recent publications?
My most recent publications have focused on encouraging psychologists to distance themselves from the Eurocentric epistemologies that dominate the field of psychology today and to move toward a critical race epistemology that understands knowledge as being shaped by membership in multiple subordinated groups and interlocking systems of oppression. Most recently, I wrote an article titled Abolition Feminism, Liberation Psychology, and Latinx Migrant Womxn in Detention, which offers multi-level critical reflection strategies to support therapists in their efforts to resist the violent and oppressive nature of the immigration industrial complex and prison industrial complex.
What issues do you think will be front and center for psychologists in the coming year(s)?
Abolition should be front and center. Psychologists will have to be more critical of hegemonic perspectives and attempt to move beyond the dominant colonial imaginary. Understanding that marginalized communities are under assault, psychologists should more actively try to disrupt systems of oppression in academic, clinical, health systems, and political spaces.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself.
I was born in Mexico City and raised in Cuernavaca, Morelos. As a child, when I wasn’t on the soccer field, I was dreaming on the basketball court. My diet growing up consisted of, but was not limited to, Lucas, Miguelito, and Chamoy. After graduating from high school, I moved to San Antonio, the city where I became a serious Spurs basketball fan and studied psychology. Today, I am an Associate Professor at the University of San Francisco, a lover of Inca and Xoloitzcuintle dogs, and a proud godmother known by her niece and nephew as “nina.”