Lizbeth De La Cruz Santana
Asst Professor
Weissman School of Arts and Sciences
Department: Black and Latino Studies
Areas of expertise:
Email Address: lizbeth.delacruzsantana@baruch.cuny.edu
> View CV- Biography
- Teaching
- Research and Creative Activity
- Grants
- Honors and Awards
- Service
Artistic and Creative Activities
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026). Humanizar Historias Exhibit College Tour.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026). Humanizar Historias Tour.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026). Humanizar Historias Opening Reception.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026). Humanizar Historias Tour.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026). Culture in Practice: A CLAS visit to Arte Américas. In Progress.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2025). Inmigrantes Del Noroeste. The American Political Science Association (APSA).
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2025). US Childhood Arrivals Mural Project. PSC CUNY Cycle 55.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2024). Deported U.S. Veterans Immersive Exhibit. Social Practice CUNY.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2024). El Paso del Norte Mural project portrait exhibition. Student Life at Baruch College.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2024). El Paso del Norte mural project. Black and Latinx Publics and Office of the Dean at Baruch College.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2024). El Paso del Norte Mural project portrait exhibition. Art Masters El Paso.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2024). Deported Veterans Diaspora Mural Project. Office of the Dean.
Book Chapters
(2026). From Bearing Witness to Painting the Archive: Illustrating the Humanizing Deportation Project at the US-Mexico Border. Women’s Lived Experience as Researchers: Situating the Personal in Qualitative Inquiry Routledge.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026). ""No soy víctima:" Diásporas deportadas y familias de estatus mixtas fracturadas. Movilidades Humanas en las Américas: entre regímenes de expulsión, políticas de contención e industrias de cuidado Universidad de San Buenaventura, Bogotá. Editorial Bonaventuriana,.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026). Art Against the Border: US Childhood Arrivals Painting Diaspora Narratives. Media, Migrants, and U.S. Border(s) Palgrave Macmillan.
(2022). Deported US Childhood Arrivals "From the Famous Estados Unidos" Dreaming in Tijuana. Migrant Feelings, Migrant Knowledge: Building a Community Archive (pp. 87-106). Austin, TX. University of Texas Press.
(2022). The Playas de Tijuana Mural Project: Digital Storytelling, Portraiture and U.S.-Mexico Border Art. Critical Storytelling from the Borderlands: En la Línea (p. 31–42). Amsterdam, Netherlands. Brill.
Presentations
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, March 12). Raíces & Resilience: Latin American & Caribbean Women in Leadership . : The Initiative for the Study of Latin America (ISLA).
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, February 12). Art Againts the Border: Painting Undocumented and Deported American Stories. UC Berkeley: Chicanx and Latinx Studies Program and Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, February 12). Migrant Voices of the Central Valley: Longing, Belonging, Resistance, and Reclaiming Identity Through Art. 2026 CVIIC Conference on Immigrant Integration. Clovis, CA: Education and Leadership Foundation.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, February 12). Art and Advocacy: Deported U.S. Veteran Voices at the Border. Collaborative Knowledge-Making: Creative Methods in Migration Studies. UC San Diego: UC San Diego Center for Comparative and Immigration Studies.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, May 12). Publicly Engaged Scholarship for Social Change. Institute for Social Change. Michigan: University of Michigan’s Rackham Graduate School. In Progress.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, April 12). A Conversation with the Artist and Arte Américas Cultural Arts Fellows. Fresno, CA: Arte Américas Museum. In Progress.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, April 12). Archiving Migrant Knowledge Through A Community-Based Project. Fresno, CA: Arte Américas Museum. In Progress.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, May 12). Publicly Engaged Scholarship for Social Change. Institute for Social Change. University of Michigan’s Rackham Graduate SchoolIn Progress.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, March 12). With a Paint Brush in their Hands: Community-Engaged Artivism and Digital Storytelling Amid Anti-Immigrant Sentiment. CUNY Women’s Conference 2026. Online
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, February 12). Documentar, Pintar, y Sentir las Historias de Inmigrantes: Del Archivo Digital a Murales Interactivos. Fresno State: Modern & Classical Languages & Literatures.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, April 12). A Conversation with Dr. Lizbeth De La Cruz Santana. Binational Migration Institute. Tucson, Arizona: The University of Arizona’s Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, April 12). Painting the Humanizing Deportation Archive. Humanities Conference on Refugee and Immigrant Studies. Mercer, Georgia: Mercer University.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, April 12). Between Borders: The Lives of Deported U.S. Veterans. Binational Migration Institute. Tucson, Arizona: The University of Arizona’s Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, October 12). Painting Immigrant Stories Within and Beyond the Border. Willamette University
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, September 12). Latinidad in the Making: Digital Humanities Projects and Collective Futurities. : CUNY Graduate Center Digital Initiatives, the Ph.D. Program in Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures, & the MA Program in Digital Humanities.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, November 12). Learning Without Borders: Immigrants Transforming Higher Education. University Worth Fighting For. The Graduate Center City University of New York: Futures Initiative Advancing Equity and Innovation in Higher Education.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, October 12). If the System Doesn’t Offer You a Path, Build Your Own: Empowering Belonging and Action for Undocumented Students. Undocumented Student Action Week. Online: Fresno City College Dream Center.
De La Cruz Santana, L. Introduction of Edel Rodriguez. Reading and Conversation with Spring 2025 Harman Writer-In-Residence Artist and Author Edel Rodriguez. Baruch College: Harman Program.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, October 12). Community-Based Art and Immigrant Storytelling. Online: Universidad Panamericana.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, October 12). Policy, Activism and Community: A Conversation with Dr. Lizbeth De La Cruz Santana. Online: San Francisco State University.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, April 12). Muralism and Digital Storytelling on The U.S. Childhood Arrivals Diaspora at the US-Mexico Border. Chicana and Chicano Studies in the 21st C: The Continuities and Ruptures within the Field. San Francisco, California: National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS) Conference.
De La Cruz Santana, L., Perez, M., & Padilla, M. (2026, April 12). Geographies of Migrant Deaths at the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands: A Human Rights DIY Community-Engaged Project in the University Classroom. Chicana and Chicano Studies in the 21st C: The Continuities and Ruptures within the Field. San Francisco, California: 2024 National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS) Conference.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, June 12). ‘If I die today, I can go back’: Premortem Legal Violence Endured By Deported US Veterans. 2024 Latin American Studies Association Hybrid Congress: Reacción y resistencia: Imaginar futuros posibles en las Américas. Bogota, Colombia (Online): Latin American Studies Association (LASA).
De La Cruz Santana, L., Morales, A., & Dutan, K. (2026, October 12). The Luxury of Painting the Archive?: Rascuache Artist Illustrating Deportation Stories at the US-Mexico Border. Arts of the Present (ASAP)/15. The City University of New York Graduate Center
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, April 12). El Paso del Norte mural project Portrait Exhibition. Manhattan, NY: Baruch College Student Life.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, October 12). The Emotional Toll of Policing at the US-Mexico Border: Insights from Migrant Narratives and Knowledge in the Humanizing Deportation Project . Workshop Border Policing, Boundary Creation and Emotions. Netherlands: Border Criminologies Thematic group on Border Policing and Emotion.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, September 12). Children of the Deported: Mixed-Status Families Forced Intro Transit . MexicanEAST Conference. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, March 12). Lo que no se dice / What is Unspoken. Dialogue About American Latino Theater with Marcos Martinez, moderated by Lizbeth De La Cruz Santana. Manhattan, NY: LATEA.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, April 12). Painting the Archive: El Paso del Norte mural project. Papagayo Spring Festival. El Paso, Texas: El Paso Community College.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, October 12). Demystifying the Academic Job Market for Graduate Students . Online: American Education Research Association (AERA) Division K, Teaching & Teacher Education.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, August 12). Pintando el archivo Humanizando la Deportación en la frontera México-EEUU. Colegio Iberoamericano de Investigación en Psicología y Educación (CIIPE). Mexico City, Mexico (Online): Colegio Iberoamericano de Investigación en Psicología y Educación (CIIPE).
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, June 12). Borderland Perspectives: Art Architecture and Design. Case Studies: The Playas de Tijuana Mural Project. INTERSECTIONS: Art and Law at the Border 2024. San Diego, CA: California Lawyers for the Arts.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, October 12). Deportation Stories in the Classroom. Border Crossings: Immigration, intersectionality and Critical Education Guest Speaker Series. San Francisco (Online): San Francisco State University.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, October 12). Latina Scholar-Activism in the U.S.: Artivism and Digital Storytelling. Latina Activism in the U.S. Guest Speaker Series. Santa Barbara, California (Online): UC Santa Barbara.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, October 12). U.S. Childhood Arrival Stories: The Playas de Tijuana Mural Project. Critical Storytellers from the Borderlands Workshop Series. Crawfordsville, Indiana: Wabash College.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, November 12). Art and Story in Immigrant Rights Advocacy. PPLE 397 Internship Advocacy Course Guest Speaker Series. Salem, Oregon (Online): Willamette University.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, October 12). Border Crossings: Immigration, Intersectionality, and Critical Education. Border Crossings: Immigration, intersectionality and Critical Education Guest Speaker Series. San Francisco, California (Online): San Francisco State University.
De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, October 12). Honoring (Deported) US Childhood Arrival Stories. Introduction to Latinx Studies Guest Speaker Series. Cullowhee, North Carolina (Online): Western Carolina University.
Other Scholarly Works
Anonymous, J., De La Cruz Santana, L., Mata, E., Nuñez, M., Bautista, J., & Naranjo, D. (2025). Update of Julie’s Story. Humanizando la Deportación.
Barragan, A., De La Cruz Santana, L., & Ferol, W. (2025). Without Papers.
Valdivia, C., De La Cruz Santana, L., Chaudhary, F., Rodriguez, S., & Tlatepa, K. (2025). Geographies of Deportability.
Hernandez, f., De La Cruz Santana, L., Caridad Monserrate, T., Quervalu, S., & Quintero, Z. (2025). Before I Am Hunted.
(2024). Warriors Family.
Garcia, A., & De La Cruz Santana, L. (2024). Home is Wherever My Children Are.
Juarez, A., & De La Cruz Santana, L. (2024). I Lost My Youth Waiting to Legalize My Status.
Juarez, E., & De La Cruz Santana, L. (2024). Until Someone Listens.
Dorsainvil, J., & De La Cruz Santana, L. (2024). God Can Use a Broken Man. Humanizando la Deportación.
Reviews
De La Cruz Santana, L. (1970,January 1). Book Review: Until Someone Listens: A Story about Borders, Family, and One Girl’s Mission. Chiricú Journal: Latina/o Literatures, Arts, and Cultures. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Research Currently in Progess
De La Cruz Santana, L., Martinez-Medina, J., & Murga, L.(n.d.). Leave No One Behind: Study on Deported U.S. Veterans, Deported Veterans Immediate Family, Advocates, and Legal Practitioners. In Progress.
This study builds off the Leave No One Behind Mural Project (LNOBMP) to analyze immigration storytelling in coalitional and institutional advocacy strategies deployed and their success in realizing protection from deportation and well-being. The LNOBMP is a multi-site digital storytelling project representing deportation through thematic murals, emphasizing first-person narratives. Dr. Jennifer Martinez-Medina and Dr. Lizbeth De La Cruz Santana are co-directors of this project alongside deported veterans advocate Robert Vivar. By doing so, we capture how deported diaspora’s daily lives remain not only closely tied but also dependent on the broader politics of the U.S. We hypothesize that deported veterans use a myriad of approaches to protect against deportation and that those most effective in their approaches use public narrative techniques to appeal to a broader audience to demand critical public policies in favor of this aggrieved group.
The project builds on the principles of community-based participatory research (CBPR). It
employs mixed-methods approaches that include key-informant interviews, focus-group
interviews, stakeholder meetings, and participation in allied art public projects, such as a zine
and murals. We use hybrid and virtual modalities to be inclusive of participants' global locations.
This project is part of a larger book project with seed money from start-up funds from Willamette University (Jennifer Martinez-Medina).
De La Cruz Santana, L.(n.d.). Archiving the Deported Veteran Diaspora . In Progress.
The "Archiving The Deported Veteran Diaspora" project responds to the growing issue of deportation among non-citizen U.S. military veterans, with a particular focus on Black and AfroLatinx veterans. This project aims to expand the Humanizing Deportation archive by providing a platform for deported veterans and their families to share their stories on their own terms, emphasizing the lasting impact of deportation on their lives. It also implements a traveling exhibit to disseminate and showcase their stories. The project uses digital storytelling as its core methodology, prioritizing first-person narratives to capture the embodied knowledge of veterans affected by punitive immigration laws, especially after the passage of the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigration Responsibility Act (IIRIRA). By documenting the intersection of race, military service, and immigration status, the project challenges systemic injustices and encourages public dialogue around immigration reform, veteran rights, and repatriation efforts.