Alan Pelaez Lopez (unknown – current) is a scholar of migration, poetics, and settler colonialism, and an interdisciplinary artist.

Biography

Alan Pelaez Lopez was born in Mexico and migrated to the United States when they were five years old. Pelaez Lopez's first poetry collection, ''Intergalactic Travels: poems from a fugitive alien'' was published in 2020 by The Operating System, and was a finalist for the International Latino Book Award. In the collection, the author chronicles their migration via the use of poems,

collage Collage (, from the , "to glue" or "to stick together") is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assembly of different forms, thus creating a new whole. (Compare with pasti ...

s, performance documentation, and

political asylum The right of asylum, sometimes called right of political asylum (''asylum'' ), is a juridical concept, under which people persecuted by their own rulers might be protected by another sovereignty, sovereign authority, such as a second country or ...

application forms to emphasize the material realities of Indigenous and Black immigrants. Their chapbook, ''to love and mourn in the age of displacement'' was published by Nomadic Press in 2020. As a

cultural critic A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole. Cultural criticism has significant overlap with social and cultural theory. While such criticism is simply part of the self-consciousness of the culture, the social positions o ...

, Pelaez Lopez wrote the foreword to ''Fantasy America,'' the exhibition catalogue to "Fantasy America," on view at

The Andy Warhol Museum The Andy Warhol Museum is located on the North Shore (Pittsburgh), North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is the largest museum in North America dedicated to a single artist. The museum holds an extensive permanent co ...

in 2021, which responded to

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (;''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''"Warhol" born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol ...

's 1985 photographic memoir ''America.'' They have published cultural commentary about film, music, and/or

social movement A social movement is either a loosely or carefully organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a Social issue, social or Political movement, political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to re ...

s in

Teen Vogue ''Teen Vogue'' is an American progressive online publication, formerly in print, launched in January 2003, as a sister publication to '' Vogue'', targeted at teenage girls and young women. Like ''Vogue'', it included stories about fashion and ...

Refinery29 Refinery29 (R29) is an American multinational digital media and entertainment website focused on young women. It is owned by Sundial Media Group. History Justin Stefano, Philippe von Borries, Piera Gelardi, and Christene Barberich co-founded Ref ...

, Splinter News,

Rewire News Group Rewire News Group (formerly Rewire and RH Reality Check) is a daily United States online news publication focused on reproductive and sexual health from a pro-choice perspective. It also covers issues around racial, environmental, immigration, ...

, and more. In 2022, Pelaez Lopez was one of five recipients of a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the

Poetry Foundation The Poetry Foundation is a United States literary society that seeks to promote poetry and lyricism in the wider culture. It was formed from ''Poetry'' magazine, which it continues to publish, with a 2003 gift of $200 million from philanthrop ...

alongside Tarik Dobbs, Diamond Forde, Tariq Luthun, and Troy Osaki. As a

social practice Social practice is a theory within psychology that seeks to determine the link between practice and context within social situations. Emphasized as a commitment to change, social practice occurs in two forms: activity and inquiry. Most often appl ...

artist, they initiated the

hashtag A hashtag is a metadata tag operator that is prefaced by the hash symbol, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services–especially Twitter and Tumblr–as a form of user-generated tagging that enable ...

#latinidadiscancelled, which gained traction in 2018. Through the hashtag, Pelaez Lopez began to compose

meme A meme (; ) is an idea, behavior, or style that Mimesis, spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying c ...

s that sparked critical conversation about Anti-blackness and Indigenous erasure in discourse surrounding

Latinx ''Latinx'' is an English neologism used to refer to people with Latin American cultural or ethnic identity in the United States. The term aims to be a gender-neutral alternative to ''Latino'' and ''Latina'' by replacing the masculine and fem ...

identity. Their solo exhibition "N gtion" was on view at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 2023, which further extended the artist's critiques of

nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

, race, ethnicity, and Indigeneity in Latin America and the Latin American diaspora via a series of installations. After completing a PhD in

Ethnic studies Ethnic studies, in the United States, is the interdisciplinary study of difference—chiefly race, ethnicity, and nation, but also sexuality, gender, and other such markings—and power, as expressed by the state, by civil society, and by indivi ...

from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, Pelaez Lopez began their academic career at

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...

as Assistant Professor of Race and Resistance Studies where they pushed to change the Queer Ethnic Studies program to the "Queer and Trans Ethnic Studies" program, centering

transgender studies Transgender studies, also called trans studies or trans* studies, is an interdisciplinary field of academic research dedicated to the study of gender identity, gender expression, and gender embodiment, as well as to the study of various issues o ...

Bibliography

External links

Alan Pelaez Lopez , Race & Resistance Studies (sfsu.edu)

A Conversation with Alan Pelaez Lopez: A Poet of Queer Liberation (lambdaliterary.org)

Hokūlani K Aikau and Alan Pelaez Lopez on decolonising travel – Architectural Review (architectural-review.com)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pelaez Lopez, Alan Wikipedia Student Program Living people 21st-century Mexican poets Year of birth missing (living people) University of California, Berkeley alumni San Francisco State University faculty Ethnic studies scholars LGBTQ studies academics Mexican emigrants to the United States

Biography

Further reading

Bibliography

External links