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Indigenous Archives

The Maya Diaspora and Mobile Cultural Production

Cover of Indigenous Archives features a photograph of two young Mayan women wearing traditional clothing sitting on steps. Read the Introduction

Book

Pages: 200

Illustrations: 12 illustrations

Published: January 2026

Author: Floridalma Boj Lopez

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.

Praise

“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

“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

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Information

Author/Editor Bios Table Of Contents Rights Additional Information Funding Information

Author/Editor Bios

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Floridalma Boj Lopez is Assistant Professor of Chicana/o and Central American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Table Of Contents

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Foreword / Oscar Ubaldo Boj Chojolán  ix
Acknowledgments  xiii
Introduction  1
1. Contesting the Logics of Displacement in the Production of the Indigenous Migrant  33
2. Weaving Maya Geographies, Textiles, and Relationality in Diaspora  53
3. La Comunidad Ixim and Organizing in the Maya Diaspora  81
4. Returning the Gaze, Reclaiming the Image: Contemporary Photography as Archive Making  111
Conclusion  137
Notes  143
Bibliography  159
Index  175

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Sales/Territorial Rights: World

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Additional Information

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Related Links Paper ISBN: 978-1-4780-3301-1 / Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4780-2956-4 / eISBN: 978-1-4780-6175-5 / DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478061755

Funding Information

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This book is freely available in an open access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem)—a collaboration of the Association of American Universities, the Association of University Presses, and the Association of Research Libraries and the generous support of Arcadia, a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin, and the UCLA Library. Learn more at the TOME website.