Martin Rizzo-Martinez is a historian and a producer of film, podcast, and other media content. After completing his PhD at UC Santa Cruz in 2016, he became a UC Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow to work with Dr. Cliff Trafzer at UC Riverside. Following his postdoc, he worked with California State Parks as the Historian & Tribal Liaison for the Santa Cruz District, which allowed him to work closely with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and other tribal partners in the region. He is currently a professor in the Film and Digital Media program at UCSC. Martin is the author of the recently released book We Are Not Animals, a detailed look at the lives and survival strategies of the native peoples of the Monterey Bay area who survived the Spanish mission system, and the Mexican and American colonizing forces that followed it. He is also co-producer of the podcast “Challenging Colonialism”.
