About David-James Gonzales

David-James Gonzales (DJ) is Assistant Professor of History at Brigham Young University. He is a historian of migration, urbanization, and social movements in the U.S., and specializes in Latina/o/x politics and social movements.

David-James's website

NBN Episodes hosted by David-James:

Carly Goodman, "Dreamland: America's Immigration Lottery in an Age of Restriction" (UNC Press, 2023)

February 29, 2024

Dreamland

Carly Goodman

In a world of border walls and obstacles to migration, a lottery where winners can gain permanent residency in the United States sounds too good to be…

Christian O. Paiz, "The Strikers of Coachella: A Rank-And-File History of the UFW Movement" (UNC Press, 2023)

September 8, 2023

The Strikers of Coachella

Christian O. Paiz
Listen:

The past decades have borne witness to the United Farm Workers' (UFW) tenacious hold on the country's imagination. Since 2008, the UFW has lent its ra…

Yu Tokunaga, "Transborder Los Angeles: An Unknown Transpacific History of Japanese-Mexican Relations" (U California Press, 2022)

February 6, 2023

Transborder Los Angeles

Yu Tokunaga

Focusing on Los Angeles farmland during the years between the Immigration Act of 1924 and the Japanese Internment in 1942, Transborder Los Angeles: An…

Robert Chao Romero, "Brown Church: Five Centuries of Latina/o Social Justice, Theology, and Identity" (InterVarsity Press, 2020)

June 3, 2022

Brown Church

Robert Chao Romero

For five hundred years, Latina/o culture and identity have been shaped by their challenges to the religious, socio-economic, and political status quo,…

Jane Lilly López, "Unauthorized Love: Mixed-Citizenship Couples Negotiating Intimacy, Immigration, and the State" (Stanford UP, 2021)

February 1, 2022

Unauthorized Love

Jane Lilly López

For mixed-citizenship couples, getting married is the easy part. The US Supreme Court has confirmed the universal civil right to marry, guaranteeing e…

Michelle Téllez, "Border Women and the Community of Maclovio Rojas: Autonomy in the Spaces of Neoliberal Neglect" (U Arizona Press, 2021)

November 10, 2021

Border Women and the Community of Maclovio Rojas

Michelle Téllez

Near Tijuana, Baja California, the autonomous community of Maclovio Rojas demonstrates what is possible for urban place-based political movements. Mor…

Alex E. Chávez, "Sounds of Crossing: Music, Migration, and the Aural Poetics of Huapango Arribeño" (Duke UP, 2017)

October 21, 2021

Sounds of Crossing

Alex E. Chávez

In Sounds of Crossing: Music, Migration, and the Aural Poetics of Huapango Arribeño (Duke UP, 2017), Alex E. Chávez explores the contemporary politics…

George J. Sánchez, "Boyle Heights: How a Los Angeles Neighborhood Became the Future of American Democracy" (U California Press, 2021)

July 6, 2021

Boyle Heights

George J. Sánchez

The vision for America’s cross-cultural future lies beyond the multicultural myth of the "great melting pot." That idea of diversity often imagined et…

Jessica Ordaz, "The Shadow of El Centro: A History of Migrant Incarceration and Solidarity" (UNC Press, 2021)

May 24, 2021

The Shadow of El Centro

Jessica Ordaz

Bounded by desert and mountains, El Centro, California, is isolated and difficult to reach. However, its location close to the border between San Dieg…

Felipe Hinojosa, "Apostles of Change: Latino Radical Politics, Church Occupations, and the Fight to Save the Barrio" (U Texas Press, 2021)

April 27, 2021

Apostles of Change

Felipe Hinojosa

In the late 1960s, the American city found itself in steep decline. An urban crisis fueled by federal policy wreaked destruction and displacement on p…

Roberto Lovato, "Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas" (Harper, 2020)

March 30, 2021

Unforgetting

Roberto Lovato

The child of Salvadoran immigrants, Roberto Lovato grew up in 1970s and 80s San Francisco as MS-13 and other notorious Salvadoran gangs were forming i…

Elisa Pulido, "The Spiritual Evolution of Margarito Bautista: Mexican Mormon Evangelizer, Polygamist Dissident, and Utopian Founder, 1878-1961" (Oxford UP, 2020)

January 20, 2021

The Spiritual Evolution of Margarito Bautista

Elisa Pulido

The Spiritual Evolution of Margarito Bautista: Mexican Mormon Evangelizer, Polygamist Dissident, and Utopian Founder, 1878-1961 (Oxford University Pre…

Arlene Davila, "Latinx Art: Artists, Markets, and Politics" (Duke UP, 2020)

November 13, 2020

Latinx Art

Arlene Davila

In Latinx Art: Artists, Markets, and Politics (Duke UP, 2020), Arlene Dávila draws on numerous interviews with artists, dealers, and curators to explo…

Maria Hinojosa, "Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America" (Atria Books, 2020)

October 21, 2020

Once I Was You

Maria Hinojosa

Maria Hinojosa is an award-winning journalist who, for nearly thirty years, has reported on stories and communities in America that often go ignored b…

M. Ramirez and D. Peterson, "Ignored Racism: White Animus Toward Latinos (Cambridge UP, 2020)

September 15, 2020

Ignored Racism

M. Ramirez and D. Peterson

Although Latinos are now the largest non-majority group in the United States, existing research on white attitudes toward Latinos has focused almost e…

Laura Gómez, "Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism" (The New Press, 2020)

August 17, 2020

Inventing Latinos

Laura Gómez

Latinos have long influenced everything from electoral politics to popular culture, yet many people instinctively regard them as recent immigrants rat…

Jennifer Domino Rudolph, "Baseball as Mediated Latinidad: Race, Masculinity, Nationalism, and Performances of Identity" (Ohio State UP, 2020)

July 22, 2020

Baseball as Mediated Latinidad

Jennifer Domino Rudolph

In her incisive study Baseball as Mediated Latinidad: Race, Masculinity, Nationalism, and Performances of Identity (Ohio State University Press, 2020)…

Romeo Guzman et al., "East of East: The Making of Greater El Monte" (Rutgers UP, 2020)

June 12, 2020

East of East

Romeo Guzman et al.

Romeo Guzman's and his colleague's East of East: The Making of Greater El Monte (Rutgers University Press, 2020) is an edited collection of thirty-one…

María Cristina García, "The Refugee Challenge in Post-Cold War America" (Oxford UP, 2017)

April 30, 2020

The Refugee Challenge in Post-Cold War America

María Cristina García

“Never again!” This was the rallying cry, seemingly universal and unanimous, among liberal nation-states as they formed the United Nations (UN) in 194…

David G. García, "Strategies of Segregation: Race, Residence, and the Struggle for Educational Equality" (U California Press, 2018)

April 9, 2020

Strategies of Segregation

David G. García

Most Americans have a limited understanding of the history of segregation in the United States. While many are taught that segregation was as an insti…

Mario T. García, "Father Luis Olivares, A Biography: Faith Politics and the Origins of the Sanctuary Movement in Los Angeles" (UNC Press, 2018)

February 11, 2020

Father Luis Olivares, A Biography

Mario T. García

As the leader of the Sanctuary Movement in Los Angeles during the 1980s, Father Luis Olivares brazenly defied local Catholic authorities and the feder…

Cecilia Caballero et al. "The Chicana M(other)work Anthology: Porque Sin Madres No Hay Revolucion" (U Arizona Press, 2019)

August 28, 2019

The Chicana M(other)work Anthology

Cecilia Caballero et al.

In The Chicana M(other)work Anthology: Porque Sin Madres No Hay Revolucion (University of Arizona Press, 2019) editors Cecilia Caballero, Yvette Marti…

Ronald Rael, "Borderwall as Architecture: A Manifesto for the U.S.-Mexico Boundary" (U California Press, 2017)

November 16, 2018

Borderwall as Architecture

Ronald Rael

With the passage of the Secure Fence Act in 2006, the U.S. Congress authorized funding for what has become the largest domestic construction project i…

Stephanie Elizondo Griest, "All the Agents and Saints: Dispatches from the U.S. Borderlands" (UNC Press, 2017)

September 6, 2018

All the Agents and Saints

Stephanie Elizondo Griest

In the United States, contemporary discourse concerning “the border” almost always centers around the country’s southern boundary shared with Mexico. …