Enrique C. Ochoa (they/them/he) is professor of Latin American studies and history at Cal State Los Angeles. Enrique grew up on the San Gabriel Valley and was raised by his Sicilian American mother and his Nicaraguan father, both of whom were middle school teachers.

Enrique received their Ph.D. in history from UCLA and has been teaching at Cal State LA since 1995. In 2013-2014, Enrique was named the President’s Distinguished Professor, and from 2006-08, they held the Walter and Michi Weglyn Endowed Chair of Multicultural Studies at Cal Poly Pomona. The author and editor of multiple articles and several books, Enrique’s research focuses on Mexican and Central American history, food studies, Latinx studies, immigration, and teaching history and intersectional ethnic studies in K-16 classrooms and communities.

Enrique’s publications include Feeding Mexico: The Political Uses of Food Since 1910 (2000) Latina/o Los Angeles: Migrations, Communities, and Political Activism (2005) From Tortillas to Low-Carb Wraps: Capitalism and Mexican Food in Los Angeles Since the 1920s, Diálogo (2015) Political Histories of Food in The Oxford Handbook of Food History (2012) and Food History in Oxford University Bibliographies Online: Latin American Studies (2021)

Chris Rodriguez grew up between Los Angeles and Baja California with ancestral roots in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain, France, and Basque Country) and across Northern-Central Mexico. He is the descendant of classically trained chefs, crystalized by the culinary legacy of his great-grandfather’s bacalao a la vizcaina, still prepared by his family to this day.

As a father and mutual aid chef organizing community-based access to the ecological stewardship of the land, Rodriguez is actively engaged in the development of local institutions such as a land trust, community gardens, mutual aid kitchens, a homeschool, and grassroots community health projects.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Gender, Ethnic and Multicultural Studies; as well as a Bachelor of Science in Hospitality Management from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.