Este Orantes Migoya, M.A., Ph.D. student

Este (they/them) comes from a lineage of strong and resilient women and is the youngest of three siblings. Born in Ixim Ulew (Guatemala), they and their family were displaced to Tkaronto as political refugees in the mid 1990s. These experiences lay the foreground for their commitment to grassroots and community work and nourished their two decades of experience working on social and environmental justice across Turtle Island and Abya Yala.  

They holds an M.A. in sociocultural anthropology with a collaborative specialization in development policy and power.  Currently working towards a Ph.D. in anthropology (University of Toronto), their research interests focus on the defense of territory and historic memory along the central corridor connecting Abya Yala from Mexico to Colombia, exploring the collision between the various forms of violence facing communities and the stakes of possibility they are defending.  Their research and community engagement is complimented through ongoing collaboration with projects led by Indigenous and Ancestral communities in Turtle Island, the highlands of Ixim Ulew, and the Pacific Coast of the Chocó region (Colombia).