The University of Arizona Press

Jessica Ordaz is an assistant professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. She grew up in Northern California with Mexican parents from Purépero, Michoacán. Ordaz became a first-generation college student at University of California, Santa Barbara, triple majoring in women’s studies, history, and global studies. She received her doctorate from the University of California, Davis, in American history. During the 2017–18 academic year, Ordaz was the Andrew W. Mellon Sawyer Seminar postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington, which focused on comparative racial capitalism. Her award-winning book, The Shadow of El Centro: A History of Migrant Incarceration and Solidarity, was released in March 2021. Her second project will explore the multifaceted history of veganism and plant-based foods throughout the Americas, focusing on colonization, food politics, and social justice. This research will illuminate the wider and transnational history of Latinx veganism and how communities of color have engaged with questions of animal, human, and plant relations for centuries. Ordaz has also published in Radical History Review, the Journal of American Ethnic History, California History, Southern California Quarterly, and the Washington Post.