Lizbeth De La Cruz Santana

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

Dr. Lizbeth De La Cruz Santana is a Chicana cultural worker, educator, and Assistant Professor of Chicano Studies at Baruch College (CUNY). Born in Torrance, CA and raised between Compton, California, and Jalisco, Mexico, she grew up absorbing the language and traditions of both regions. Her grandparents had participated in the Bracero Program, and like many families with agricultural roots in California and Texas, migration profoundly shaped their lives, yet the reasons behind these movements often remained unspoken, an absence of narrative that would become a guiding force in her future scholarship and artistic practice. 

At fifteen, her family relocated to Fresno, where she attended Hoover High School before entering Fresno State with the intention of becoming a teacher. Her academic path shifted after taking Spanish American Testimonio, a course taught by Dr. Gloria Medina-Sancho. The class ignited her interest in first-person narratives, an experience she credits with redefining her trajectory, leading her to pursue a Master of Arts degree in Spanish Latin American Literatures and Cultures from Fresno State. Dr. De La Cruz Santana holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis, specializing in Latin American Literature and Cultures and a designated emphasis on Human Rights.

At the beginning of her doctoral studies, she joined the Humanizing Deportation project as a researcher, an experience that led to field work at Playas de Tijuana, where the border wall meets the Pacific Ocean. These experiences culminated in her doctoral dissertation and, later, her most recognized work: Playas de Tijuana mural project (2019–2021). Her current research project focuses on childhood arrival migrants to the United States. Her academic craft centers Indigenous and feminist pedagogies and methodologies to acknowledge different forms of accessible, reciprocal knowledge-making responsive to community needs.  

Her book manuscript, Deporting Our Own: Exiled US Americans from the Country that Raised Them, is a seven-chapter project that examines the legal, ethical, and social challenges faced by Latinx immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as minors but have been deported or excluded from programs like DACA and the DREAM Act. The book argues that migrant storytelling is a vital form of knowledge that challenges dominant ideas of deservingness, citizenship, and belonging. Drawing on ten years of work with the Humanizing Deportation project, she analyzes collaboratively produced digital stories that center migrants’ narrative agency and disrupt top-down representations of deportability. Importantly, she introduces the Childhood Arrivals Critical Theory (CACrit) framework, an interdisciplinary approach that moves beyond rigid legal categories to better understand the emotional, temporal, and political complexities shaping the lives of undocumented childhood arrivals. 

  • Currently, her Humanizar Historias (Humanize Stories) exhibit is on view at the Arte Américas museum, from February 26 to June 28, 2026. It brings together a decade of her research and creative practice in an immersive exhibition of participatory murals developed through her public-facing projects. It highlights the impact of her scholarship in migration and Chicanx studies, alongside a sustained commitment to the communities she collaborates with. The exhibition also includes a robust slate of public programming that she will lead, including tours for students and the general public, a bilingual storytime and teaching lesson, a panel on Humanizing Deportation, a digital storytelling workshop, and a public event featuring storytellers who contributed to the mural projects.
  • She is a Co-PI for the Leave No One Behind: Study on Deported U.S. Veterans, Deported Veterans' Immediate Family, Advocates, and Legal Practitioners. A collaboration with Dr. Jennifer Martinez Medina (Willamette University) and Lorena Murga (The University of Texas, El Paso).
  • She is the co-director of the Leave No One Behind Mural project, a participatory multi-site, multi-mural and digital storytelling project that fuses the arts with community political advocacy to visualize the stories of immigrants dismissed from conversations surrounding the future of U.S. childhood arrivals. 
  • Currently, through a PSC CUNY 56 award, she is facilitating digital narratives of deported veterans and their families, which will be available in the open-access Humanizing Deportation archive.   
  • Through a Peer-to-Peer Pedagogical Partnerships grant sponsored by the American Political Science Association (APSA) and in collaboration with Dr. Jennifer Martinez-Medina (Willamette University) and Dr. Randy Villegas (College of the Sequoias), Dr. De La Cruz Santana is co-developing Teaching Immigration Through Digital Storytelling, which involves creating instructional material on immigration and deportation policy centered on the diverse range of stories and themes curated by the Leave No One Behind Mural project.
  • As a PSC CUNY 55 award recipient and Korea Art Forum Faculty Fellow, Dr. De La Cruz Santana coordinated the bicoastal U.S. Childhood Arrivals mural project, illustrating current and former undocumented youth stories. The murals are installed in NYC and California.
  • As a Social Practice CUNY fellow, Dr. De La Cruz Santana curated the Deported U.S. Veterans Immersive Exhibit and directed the Deported U.S. Veterans Diaspora mural located at the Tijuana/San Diego border.  
  • During the Spring 2024 semester, she directed a binational effort to paint and install the El Paso del Norte mural project, located under the Santa Fe/Paso del Norte bridge in Ciudad Juárez. 

At Baruch College, Dr. De La Cruz Santana's scholarship, teaching, and service has been recognized through the following: 

  • 2026 Phenomenal Woman Nomination 
  • 2025 Making a Difference SEEK Awards 
  • 2025 Audience Choice Award for Research Innovation at the Fourth Annual Cross-College Symposium Spring Showcase
  • 2024 Weissman Excellence Award in Teaching For Full-Time Faculty (The first time it was awarded to a first-year Assistant Professor)

Nationally, she has been awarded a

  • 2025 Being Human National Humanities Festival Grant by the National Humanities Center 
  • 2024 Black Deported Veterans of America Challenge Coin 
  • 2024 League of United Latin American Citizens Service to the Nation Medallion (A recognition only awarded to service members. An exception was made for Dr. De La Cruz Santana)

Read her most recent publications: 


Learn more about her scholarship here: https://lizbethdelacruzsantana.com/

Education

Ph.D., Spanish Latin American Literatures and Cultures, University of California, Davis Davis United States

M.A., Spanish Latin American Literatures and Cultures, California State University, Fresno Fresno United States

B.A., Spanish Latin American Literatures and Cultures, California State University, Fresno, Fresno United States

SemesterCourse PrefixCourse NumberCourse Name
Fall 2025LTS3059Latino/A Lit In the U.S.
Fall 2025ENG3059Latino/a Literature in the U.S
Fall 2025LTS3012Latinas: Soc & Cult Survey
Fall 2025LTS1003Lat Am: Institut & Cult Survey
Fall 2025CMP3059Latino/a Literature in the U.S
Spring 2025LTS3085Topics-Hispanic/Latino Studies
Spring 2025BLS3085Special Topics Bls
Fall 2024CMP3059Latino/a Literature in the U.S
Fall 2024ENG3059Latino/a Literature in the U.S
Fall 2024ANT3021The U.S. and Mexican Border
Fall 2024LTS3059Latino/A Lit In the U.S.
Fall 2024LTS3021The U.S. and Mexican Border
Fall 2024SOC3021The U.S. and Mexican Border
Spring 2024LTS3100Latino Communities in the U.S.
Spring 2024LTS3021The U.S. and Mexican Border
Spring 2024ANT3021The U.S. and Mexican Border
Spring 2024SOC3021The U.S. and Mexican Border
Fall 2023LTS3012Latinas: Soc & Cult Survey
Fall 2023BLS4900Seminar Black & Latino Studies
Fall 2023LTS4900Sem Blk & Lat Studie

Artistic and Creative Activities

De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026). Humanizar Historias 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 Exhibit College Tour.

De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026). Culture in Practice: A CLAS visit to Arte Américas. In Progress.

De La Cruz Santana, L. (2025). US Childhood Arrivals Mural Project. PSC CUNY Cycle 55.

De La Cruz Santana, L. (2025). Inmigrantes Del Noroeste. The American Political Science Association (APSA).

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). Deported U.S. Veterans Immersive Exhibit. Social Practice CUNY.

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, May 21). Publicly Engaged Scholarship for Social Change. Institute for Social Change. University of Michigan’s Rackham Graduate SchoolIn Progress.

De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, April 21). Archiving Migrant Knowledge Through A Community-Based Project. Fresno, CA: Arte Américas Museum. In Progress.

De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, April 21). A Conversation with the Artist and Arte Américas Cultural Arts Fellows. Fresno, CA: Arte Américas Museum. In Progress.

De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, February 21). 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, March 21). 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 21). 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 21). 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, March 21). Raíces & Resilience: Latin American & Caribbean Women in Leadership . : The Initiative for the Study of Latin America (ISLA).

De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, May 21). 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, February 21). 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, April 21). 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. 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, April 21). Painting the Humanizing Deportation Archive. Humanities Conference on Refugee and Immigrant Studies. Mercer, Georgia: Mercer University.

De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, April 21). 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, September 21). 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, October 21). Painting Immigrant Stories Within and Beyond the Border. Willamette University

De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, October 21). Community-Based Art and Immigrant Storytelling. Online: Universidad Panamericana.

De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, October 21). Policy, Activism and Community: A Conversation with Dr. Lizbeth De La Cruz Santana. Online: San Francisco State University.

De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, October 21). 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. (2026, November 21). 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 21). 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, April 21). 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. (2026, March 21). 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, October 21). 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, April 21). 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, June 21). 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, August 21). 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, October 21). 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, April 21). El Paso del Norte mural project Portrait Exhibition. Manhattan, NY: Baruch College Student Life.

De La Cruz Santana, L., Morales, A., & Dutan, K. (2026, October 21). 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, June 21). ‘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., Perez, M., & Padilla, M. (2026, April 21). 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, September 21). Children of the Deported: Mixed-Status Families Forced Intro Transit . MexicanEAST Conference. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University.

De La Cruz Santana, L. (2026, October 21). 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 21). 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 21). 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 21). 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 21). Honoring (Deported) US Childhood Arrival Stories. Introduction to Latinx Studies Guest Speaker Series. Cullowhee, North Carolina (Online): Western Carolina University.

Other Scholarly Works

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.

Anonymous, J., De La Cruz Santana, L., Mata, E., Nuñez, M., Bautista, J., & Naranjo, D. (2025). Update of Julie’s Story. Humanizando la Deportación.

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.

Honor / AwardOrganization SponsorDate ReceivedDescription
2026 Phenomenal Woman NominationBaruch College2026-03-26Recognition of their remarkable achievements and contributions to the campus community.
“Making a Difference” SEEK Awards Percy E. Sutton SEEK Program2025-05-02
CTL Spring Open Educational Resources SeminarCenter for Teaching and Learning2025-02-18
2025 Shared Dialogue, Shared Space (SDSS) Artist FellowshipKorea Art Forum2025-02-10The artist will create a large-scale participatory mural amplifying the voices of undocumented youth, particularly those raised in New York City. This project will foster public awareness, empathy, and advocacy on immigration issues while empowering participants as artivists for their community.
Faculty Fellowship Publication Program (FFPP)The City University of New York2024-11-15
Challenge CoinBlack Deported Veterans of America2024-11-13Advocacy for Deported U.S. Veterans
Service to Deported U.S. Veterans Challenge CoinBlack Deported Veterans of America2024-11-13
LULAC Medallion League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)2024-08-17Advocacy for Deported U.S. Veterans
Workshop CertificateColegio Iberoamericano de Investigación en Psicología y Educación (CIIPE)2024-08-10
Social Practice CUNY Faculty FellowSocial Practice CUNY2024-07-12
Mellon Teaching FellowshipBlack and Latinx Publics2024-07-09
The Award for Excellence in Teaching for Full-Time FacultyWeissman School of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office2024-05-06
CUNY 1969 Project Summer Teach-In FellowBaruch Center for Teaching and Learning2024-05-05
CUNY 1969 Project Summer Teach-In Senior FellowBaruch Center for Teaching and Learning2024-05-03
Workshop CertificateThe Papagayo Project at El Paso Community College2024-05-01
Mellon Teaching FellowshipBlack and Latinx Publics2023-07-17

College

Committee NamePosition RoleStart DateEnd Date
Black and Latino Studies Executive CommitteeCommittee MemberPresent
First CUNY Wide Mexican-American GraduationFaculty Advisor5/2/2026
First Mexican-American Graduation at Baruch CollegeFaculty Advisor5/31/2025
Department of Black and Latino StudiesSecretary5/31/2025
AI Pedagogy Working GroupMember12/31/2024

University

Committee NamePosition RoleStart DateEnd Date
Mexican Studies InstituteFaculty Collaborator3/3/2025Present

Professional

OrganizationPosition RoleOrganization StateOrganization CountryStart DateEnd DateAudience
Penn-Birmingham Transatlantic Fellowship ProgramMemberPennsylvaniaUnited States9/7/2021PresentInternational