Education

BS University of Illinois - Chicago

Research Interests

Colonial Latin American History
Early Modern Mexico
Animal Studies
Urban History

Dissertation

"Canines and the Making of Mexico City: Three hundred years of human-dog encounters, 1521-1821"

Faculty Advisors

Javier Villa-Flores
Yanna Yannakakis
Karen Stolley

Biography

A professor once told me that our research is always tied to aspects that deeply concern us, even when it might seem otherwise. I believe he was right. My current dissertation project explores processes through which life becomes commodified or considered disposable. In the dissertation, I study the changing attitudes towards dogs in colonial Mexico City, the process that led government authorities to regard roaming canines as a pest, and the affective bonds between humans and dogs in the early modern. The project grew out of my experiences living in Mexico City. As a child in the borough of Tlalpan, my family and I “adopted” several stray dogs. Sometimes, these dogs lived with us for prolonged periods. In other instances, they only stayed for a short time and departed out of their own volition. Although anecdotal, this experience shows the different kinds of relations that dogs engage with humans. In my research, I trace the changing human-dog ties over time and explore interspecies conflicts and community-building instances between species.

Publications:

• Luna Loranca, Arturo. “El antropófago en casa: la Ilustración en Ciudad de México y las matanzas de perros vagabundos, 1791-1820.” In Sobre España en el largo siglo XVIII, edited by Juan Díaz Álvarez, Fernando Manzano Ledesma, and Rodrigo Olay Valdés, 563-572. Gijón: Trea, 2022.