Hello!

My name is Juan Carlos.* I am a historian of gender, sexuality, and visual culture. Born and raised in Mexico City, I earned a Licenciatura en Historia from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in 2014 (equivalent to an honors B.A.). I then earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Toronto in 2016 and 2022, respectively. I am now based in Calgary, where I am Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities at Mount Royal University.

My research and teaching focus on Mexico and the Americas more generally. For the past ten years, my work has examined the relationship between print media, visual culture, and the histories of gender, sexuality, race, and social movements in Mexican and transnational contexts. My first book, Gay Print Culture: A Transnational History of North America (Duke University Press, 2026) investigates the relationship between transnational gay liberation politics, periodicals, and images in Mexico, the United States, and Canada from the early 1970s through the mid-1990s.

My new project focuses on the figure of the devil in Mexican popular culture. The project examines how artists and activists in modern Mexico have used the figure of the devil to grapple with the legacies of colonialism, imperialism, and state violence, as well as to denounce a range of issues, including social inequality, sexism, and homophobia.

In addition to my academic work, I am passionate about reading, hiking, and writing. In fact, I am writing a novel set in Mexico City which I hope to publish one day!

* In case you are wondering, my first name is Juan Carlos and my last name is Mezo González. We Mexicans have long names!