Carlos Rivas earned his PhD in Art History at UCLA. Born in East Hollywood to Salvadoran war refugees, Rivas completed his undergraduate studies at the University of California, Riverside and he is a lifelong supporter of social justice causes especially as they pertain to immigrant communities in the United States. Rivas has previously taught Central American Studies and Latin American Art History at UCLA, Pitzer College, and Cal State Long Beach, and he is involved in numerous Latinx artist and activist collectives in Southern California. Rivas’s interdisciplinary research examines a broad range of topics, from the history of colonialism in Central America, twentieth-century mass migration during armed conflicts in El Salvador and Guatemala, and present-day artistic expressions in the Central American diasporic community in the United States.