Jesus Villalobos

Jesus O. Villalobos is a Master of Arts student in the Center for Latin American Studies. They also hold an M.A. in Library and Information Science from the University of Arizona, with a specialization in Archives and Special Collections and a graduate certificate in Archival Studies. During the LIS program, they were a Knowledge River Scholar. Jesus earned their B.A. in Latin American Studies from Grinnell College, where they concentrated in literature, history, and anthropology. Originally from the San Fernando Valley in California, they bring a sustained interest in memory, archives, and cultural production across the Americas. They previously interned at and currently volunteer with the Mexican American Heritage and History Museum in Tucson, contributing to oral history and archival projects focused on regional memory and community heritage. Their research explores how archival and cultural practices mediate collective memory and knowledge, particularly in contexts shaped by state violence and displacement. Drawing on archival theory, memory studies, and critical theory, their work examines how institutional records and creative interventions shape, constrain, and reconfigure meaning across social and political terrains. Focusing on projects in Guatemala and along the U.S.–Mexico borderlands, Jesus investigates tensions between archival authority and the ephemeral, embodied, or unofficial traces that elude conventional documentation. Their work engages questions of visuality, evidence, and mediation, and is grounded in Latin American critical thought, media and visual studies, and theories of memory, the archive, and cultural politics. Jesus has presented their work at regional and national conferences, including the Society of Southwest Archivists Annual Meeting, the Society for Cinema and Media Studies Undergraduate Conference, the Institute of Latin American Studies Student Association Conference at the University of Texas at Austin, and the Peace and Conflict Studies Student Conference at Grinnell College. Their presentations have addressed topics ranging from community archives and anti-archival visual practices to gender, trauma, and cultural memory in Latin American literature and film. In their free time, Jesus enjoys watching films, reading nonfiction, and exploring archives, museums, and other cultural memory spaces.