Event Speakers' Biography | University of Houston-Downtown

Dr. Jesus Jesse Esparza, is an Associate Professor of History at Texas Southern University in Houston. His area of expertise is the history of Latinos in the United States, with a particular emphasis on civil rights activism. He is the author of Raza Schools: The Fight for Latino Educational Autonomy in a West Texas Borderlands Town (OU Press, 2023), which received three book awards: the 2024 Outstanding Book Award by the Texas Association of Chicanos in Higher Education, the 2024 Tejas Foco Nonfiction Book Award by the National Association of Chicana and Chicanos Studies, and the 2025 Book of the Year Award by the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education. Dr. Esparza’s current book project, The Barrio and the Badge: A History of Latinos and Law Enforcement in Houston, examines the complex relationship between Houston’s Latino community and its police forces and is under contract with the University of Oklahoma Press. Dr. Esparza earned his PhD from the University of Houston and has previously held academic positions at Houston Community College, Lone Star College, and Texas A&M University in College Station. He serves as the Interim Chair of the Department of History at TSU. He is also the Board President of the Texas Oral History Association and President of the Collective of Progressive Educators, a nonprofit organization dedicated to uncovering, preserving, and promoting the history of U.S. Latinos.

Dr. Natalie Garza, is a professor of history at Houston Community College in Houston, TX.  She also serves as a faculty member and mentor with the Puente Project, a nationally recognized initiative to increase the number of underrepresented students who enroll in four-year colleges and universities, earn degrees, and return to their communities as leaders to future generations.  Dr. Garza’s research has focused on the Mexican American history of Houston.  She engages in public history work in the community, including conducting oral histories and writing the history of Houston’s Segundo Barrio for a permanent public history installation at Guadalupe Plaza Park in Houston’s East End.