About Joaquín Rivaya-Martínez

I am an associate professor of History at Texas State University. I hold a B.A. in History from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in anthropology from UCLA. I was a postdoctoral fellow at SMU’s Clements Center for Southwest Studies in 2007-2008. I specialize in the history of the indigenous peoples of the US-Mexico Borderlands and the southern Great Plains during the 18th and 19th centuries. My research has been funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, the Newberry Library, the Philips Fund for Native American Research, UC MEXUS, UCLA’s Institute of American Cultures, and Mexico’s CONACyT. I complement my archival research with ethnographic, archaeological, linguistic, and environmental evidence, as well as interviews with contemporary consultants, paying attention to indigenous voices and perspectives from the past and from the present. I am currently writing a book on captivity among the Comanches and editing a collective book on The Indigenous Borderlands of the Americas.

Joaquín Rivaya-Martínez es profesor de Historia en Texas State University. Sus intereses académicos incluyen la etnohistoria, los pueblos indígenas de las Grandes Llanuras y el Suroeste de EE.UU., la frontera México-EE.UU. y la América hispánica.

Joaquín's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Joaquín:

Juliet B. Wiersema, "The History of a Periphery: Spanish Colonial Cartography from Colombia's Pacific Lowlands" (U Texas Press, 2024)

April 26, 2024

The History of a Periphery

Juliet B. Wiersema

During the late Spanish colonial period, the Pacific Lowlands, also called the Greater Chocó, was famed for its rich placer deposits. Gold mined here …

Yanna Yannakakis, "Since Time Immemorial: Native Custom and Law in Colonial Mexico" (Duke UP, 2023)

September 4, 2023

Since Time Immemorial

Yanna Yannakakis

In Since Time Immemorial: Native Custom and Law in Colonial Mexico (Duke UP, 2023), Yanna Yannakakis traces the invention of Native custom, a legal ca…

Rani-Henrik Andersson and David C. Posthumus, "Lakhota: An Indigenous History" (U Oklahoma Press, 2022)

March 25, 2023

Lakhota

Rani-Henrik Andersson and David C. Posthumus

The Lakȟóta are among the best-known Native American peoples. In popular culture and even many scholarly works, they were once lumped together with …

Cynthia Radding, "Bountiful Deserts: Sustaining Indigenous Worlds in Northern New Spain" (U Arizona Press, 2022)

December 16, 2022

Bountiful Deserts

Cynthia Radding

Common understandings drawn from biblical references, literature, and art portray deserts as barren places that are far from God and spiritual sustena…

Dustin Tahmahkera, "Cinematic Comanches: The Lone Ranger in the Media Borderlands" (U Nebraska Press, 2022)

June 7, 2022

Cinematic Comanches

Dustin Tahmahkera

For centuries Comanches have captivated imaginations. Yet their story in popular accounts abruptly stops in 1875, when the last free Comanches entered…

Paul Conrad, "The Apache Diaspora: Four Centuries of Displacement and Survival" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2021)

May 10, 2022

The Apache Diaspora

Paul Conrad

In The Apache Diaspora: Four Centuries of Displacement and Survival (U Pennsylvania Press, 2021), Paul Conrad brings to life the stories of displaced …