Juan A. Venegas

Relational Race Relations; African Diaspora in Mexico; Slave Trade ; Race & Ethnicity; Black Immigration to Latin America; 19th Century Black Freedom Networks in the Americas, Mass Incarceration; Racial Disparities in Policing; Modern Abolitionist Movements; Education and Race; Comparative History and Race; Feminism and Race; Restorative Justice; Indigenous Studies; Chicano Studies; Africana Studies; Ethnic Studies

• Spring 2024 Sandra Mabritto Memorial Stipend (awarded $1,000)
• 2023-2024 Bunche Fellowship Program
• Summer 2023 Bunche Fellowship Program
• Summer 2023 Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS) (awarded $10,000)
• Winter 2023 Sandra Mabritto Memorial Stipend (awarded $3,000)
• 2022-2023 Sandra Mabritto Memorial Fellowship Fund (awarded $18,000)
• 2021 Excellence in Leadership for California Student Opportunity and Access Program (Cal-SOAP)
• 2019 California State University Trustees Award Recipient (awarded $7,000)
• 2019 Amigos de Guadalupe Scholarship Recipient (awarded $1,000)
• 2018 Silicon Valley FlexFactor Technology 2018 Third Place Winner
• 2018 William C. Overfelt Humanitarian of the Year
• 2018 Amigos de Guadalupe Scholarship Recipient (awarded $1,000)
• 2018 CSUDH Future Scholars Scholarship (awarded $1,000)
• 2018 Godfather Scholarship (awarded $1,000)
• 2018 Alger Nash Memorial Academic Scholarship (awarded $2,500)

April 2023-Present

Graduate Researcher

The University of California, Los Angeles, CA (UCLA)

Faculty Advisor: Kelly Lytle Hernandez, Ph.D.

Project Title: Million Dollar Hoods and Archiving the Age of Mass Incarceration (AAMI)

Research Method: Archives, Collection/Exhibit Curator, Community Ethnics

Topic: This research documents mass incarceration and police violence in Los Angeles, CA from the 1970s-current with newly unsealed public records that were unlawfully sealed by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). This research also curates digital collections/exhibits with the advisement of UCLA Faculty and Los Angeles community consultants.

January 2023-Present

Graduate Researcher 

The University of California, Los Angeles, CA (UCLA)

Faculty Advisor: Kelly Lytle Hernandez, Ph.D.

Project Title: Black West

Research Method: Consult historical books, articles, and archives (English and Spanish) 

Topic: This research explores Black migration and Slave trade in 19th century United States and Mexico. 

April 2023-June 2023

Student Research 

The University of California, Los Angeles, CA (UCLA)

Advisors: Veronica Terriquez, Ph.D.

Community Advisor: Azucena Beltrán-S, Project Manager.

Project Title:  Sea Region Powermap

Research Method: Geography, economic, political, and environmental health mapping

Topic: This research project is the start of a larger community initiative to support Salton Sea residents in circumventing the environmental impacts of lithium mining from Tesla and other electric car companies.

 2019-Present

Community and Academic Researcher 

California State University Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) and  University of California, Los Angeles, CA (UCLA)

Advisors: Victoria Duran, Ph.D., Miguel Gutierrez, Ph.D., Kelly Lytle Hernandez, Ph.D., and Celia Lacayo, Ph.D

Project Title: The Impacts of Teaching the Mexican Underground Railroad to Black American and Mexican Communities in California

Research Method: Historical research, presentations, surveys, interviews, and observations

Topic: This research explores how teaching the history of the Mexican Underground Railroad can improve relationships primarily between Black American and Mexican communities in California. This project also include historical themes of race in Mexico/Latin America, settler colonialism in the Americas, Indigenous experiences in Mexico/the Southwest, racial identity formation, and more.

December 2019-March 2020

Undergraduate Research

California State University, Dominguez Hills, Carson, CA (CSUDH)

Faculty Advisor: Miguel Gutiérrez, Ph.D.

Project Title: The Mexican Underground Railroad: Exploring Mexico's Contributions to Black Liberation

Research Method: Scholarly articles and archived data

Topic: This research explores the political actions Mexico took to aid in freedom efforts for enslaved Africans in the U.S from 1821-1865.

• Venegas Antonio, J. (forthcoming May 2024). The Mexican Underground Railroad: the Significance of Cinco de Mayo and Indigenous People . Delivered at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, Los Angeles, CA.
• Venegas Antonio, J. (2024). The Underground Railroad to Mexico: Freedom in the Borderlands and Entanglements with Settler Colonialism. Delivered at California State University Dominguez Hills, Carson, CA.
• Venegas Antonio, J. (2023). The Inaugural Afro-Isthmus Symposium. Delivered at University of California, Los Angeles, CA.
• Venegas Antonio, J. (2023). The Mexican Underground Railroad and the Significance of Cinco de Mayo. Delivered at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, Los Angeles, CA.
• Venegas Antonio, J. (2022). The Mexican Underground Railroad: Borderland Freedom Struggles and Accomplices (1821-1865). Delivered at University of California, Los Angeles, CA.
• Venegas Antonio, J. (Fall/Spring 2021-2022). Afro-Mexican History and the Mexican Underground Railroad. Delivered at William C. Overfelt High School, San Jose, CA. Sponsored by San Jose State University.
• Venegas Antonio, J. (2021). East Side San Jose Radical Dreaming Workshop. Delivered virtually at William C. Overfelt High School, San Jose, CA. Sponsored by San Jose State University.
• Venegas Antonio, J. (2021). The Mexican Underground Railroad: Exploring Mexico's Contributions to Black Liberation. Delivered virtually at Student Research Day, California State University, Dominguez Hills, Carson, CA.
• Venegas Antonio, J. (2021). Collective Cultural Perpetuity Testimony. Delivered virtually at William C. Overfelt High School, San Jose, CA.

• 2022-Present, Member, Afro-Latinx Connection de UCLA
• 2022-Present, Ally-Member, Unión Centroamericana de Estudiantes
• Spring 2023- Salton Sea, CA, Community Survey Reseracher
• 2018-2021, Member/Secretary, Society of Independent Student Journalists Club
• 2020, Organizer, CSUDH Black History Month Programing: The Underground Railroad from South Texas into Mexico
• 2019, Member, Male Success Alliance
• 2018-2019, Member, Equality Club
• 2017, Organizer, Mexico Puebla Earthquake Fundraiser Relief
• 2017, Organizer, San Jose Flood Toiletry Drive

Bilingual: English and Spanish; intermediate Portuguese

Training and Certification: 21-22 Admissions Advising for First-Generation College Students; 21-22 College Fit & Match

Computer: Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop; Endnote; Zotero; Microsoft PowerPoint, Word, and Excel; Audacity; Webpage Design