Bio

Mario A. Gómez Zamora was born and raised in Tangancícuaro, Michoacán, México, the grandchild of Alicia Zepeda Madrigal, Serafin Zamora Ríos, Guadalupe Estrada Cacari, and Enrique Gómez Montelongo. Mario is a queer P’urhépecha dancer, poet, and scholar of queerness, gender and sexuality, migration, memory, Latinx and Latin American studies, dance studies, performance studies, and P’urhépecha studies. He earned his PhD and M.A. in Latin American and Latino Studies and Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, a master’s in teaching history at Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, and a B.A. in Secondary Education with a concentration in History at Normal Superior Juana de Asbaje in Michoacán.

For over a decade, Mario has collaborated with P’urhépecha youth and elders in the recollection of oral histories in his community of origin. One of these projects culminated in the publication of the multilingual book Entre el Recuerdo y la Memoria: Historias de Patamban (translated into P’urhépecha and English), which Mario edited.

Currently, Mario is a Mellon Fellow in the Humanities Center and Guest Faculty in the Department of Theater and Performance Studies at Stanford University, where he is working on his book project "Queer P’urhépecha Histories and Performances Beyond Borders." Mario is receiving mentorship to complete his project from Dr. Jennifer DeVere Brody in TAPS. In the summer of 2025, he was a UC Chancellor’s postdoctoral scholar at the Department of Anthropology at UCLA, where he was supported by Dr. Jason De León.

At Stanford University, Mario is teaching Intro to Dance Studies (winter) and his course Queer Indigenous Performances in the Americas (spring). His scholarship and poetry have been published by Wicazo Sa Review, Pasados, the Historical Institute of the University Michoacana Press, the Autonomous University of Nuevo León, Genealogy, and Los Angeles Review of Books. His last article, “Breaking Queer Silences, Building Queer Archives, and Claiming Queer Indigenous P’urhépecha Methodologies,” won the Most Thought-Provoking article in Native American and Indigenous Studies in 2025.

Academic Appointments

  • Lecturer, Theater and Performance Studies

Administrative Appointments

  • First-Generation Graduate Committee Chair at the First-Generation Graduate Initiative, University of California, Santa Cruz (2023 - 2025)

Honors & Awards

  • Most Thought-Provoking Article, Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) (2025)
  • Lionel Cantú Memorial Award, University of California, Santa Cruz (2024)
  • Postdoctoral Recruitment Initiative in Science and Medicine (PRISM), Office of Postdoctoral Affairs (OPA), Stanford University (2024)

Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations

  • Council Member, Latin American Studies Association section on Ethnicity, Race and Indigenous Peoples (ERIP) (2025 - Present)

Professional Education

  • BA, Normal Superior Juana de Asbaje, Education and History (Secondary Teacher in History) (2012)
  • Masters in Teaching History, Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, Education and History (2016)
  • MA, University of California, Santa Cruz, Latin American and Latino Studies (2022)
  • PhD, University of California, Santa Cruz, Latin American and Latino Studies, and Anthropology (2025)

Contact

Additional Info

  • Mail Code: 8125

Links

Research Interests

  • Diversity and Identity
  • Gender Issues
  • Immigrants and Immigration
  • Race and Ethnicity
  • Research Methods

Current Research and Scholarly Interests

Mario A. Gómez Zamora’s first book project explores the cultural tensions that queer Indigenous P’urhépechas face when participating in their communities’ traditions. Through the lens of queer theory, dance studies, and performance studies, Mario analyzes how Indigenous communities reproduce colonial violence against queer individuals in the present, and how queer P’urhépechas work toward new futures through danzas and performances in P’urhépecha fiestas and ceremonies while they claim their indigeneity as part of the collective in Michoacán and among those P’urhépechas who migrated to the Pacific Coast and Midwest of the United States. To trace the stories of marginalized Indigenous people in both their homelands and in sites of migration, Mario combines Indigenous methodologies, such as talking-while-walking through the landscape, with oral histories, semi-structured interviews, participant observations, and archival research. His scholarship reshapes queer studies, migration studies, and performance studies by examining how queer P’urhépechas are embraced by the collective via their participation in danzas as female characters but are still subjects of anti-gay violence and death beyond the performance space. This is a project of hope, life, and resistance to the hegemonic normativity in the P’urhépecha landscape.

2025-26 Courses

All Publications

  • "Those Who Are Like That" Performing Queer Belonging Through P’urhépecha Indigenous Practices of El Costumbre Wicazo Sa Review Gómez Zamora, M. A. 2025; 40 (Spring/Fall): 128-154

    View details for DOI 10.1353/wic.2025.a971964

  • An Indigenous P’urhépecha Woman Record: Recordando el Pasado de Mamá Lupe Pasados: Recovering Histor, Imagining Latinidad Gómez Zamora, M. A. 2024; 1 (2)
  • Breaking Queer Silences, Building Queer Archives, and Claiming Queer Indigenous P'urhépecha Methodologies Genealogy Journal Gómez Zamora, M. A. 2024

    View details for DOI 10.3390/genealogy8040123

  • Entre El Recuerdo y La Memoria: Historias de Patamban edited by Gómez Zamora, M. A. Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas y la Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo. 2024