He/Him

Nick Daniel Rivas is a first-generation college graduate who was born in El Monte, CA and grew up throughout the Inland Empire, San Gabriel Valley, and Coachella Valley in Southern California. Raised by his single mother and feminist grandmother, he identifies as Chicano-Latino, Chicanx-Latinx, and Peruano-Mexicano. He is a songwriter and uses lyrics, videos, and digital art as a method of decolonization, reconstructing identity, and social activism. 

Nick went to Indio High School and Xavier College Preparatory High School where he played basketball and ran track. He was involved in organizing and leading the 2006 walkouts at Indio High School for two days, resisting bill H.R.4437. In 2009 he received his G.E.D. from College of the Desert in Palm Desert, CA. He attended Mt. San Antonio College (MT. SAC) in Walnut, CA, where he earned his A.A. in Social & Behavioral Science and in Kinesiology & Wellness. He then transferred to California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), where he attained his B.A. in Chicano-Latino Studies with a minor in Native American Cultures. He received his M.A. in Chicana(o) and Latina(o) Studies from California State University, Los Angeles. He began documenting interviews, photos, and video for Chicana-Latina feminist from East Los Angeles community organization Old Timers of Southern California in 2019 and became an official member on October 22, 2022. Nick is currently a doctoral student in the Chicana/Chicano Studies Department at The University of New Mexico. His goal is to be an Ethnic Studies lecturer, write articles for newspapers, create movie scripts, and produce short films. 

CV

Click Here

Research Interests

Nick's academic research experience consists of environmental racism in the Coachella Valley and Chicana feminist pedagogies and epistemologies within social movements, organizations, and work spaces. He is currently interested in initiating research on Peruvian migration to California in the 1980’s-present, the displacement of Black and Brown students in the Pomona Unified School District during the early 1990's, and the 2006 walkouts against H.R.4437 at Indio High School. 

Research Topics

Ethnic Studies | Chicana/o History | Methods of Social Activism | Environmental Racism | Transnationalism