Mónica García Blizzard

Mónica García Blizzard received a B.A. in Romance Languages and Literatures with minors in Anthropology and European Studies from the University of Notre Dame, where she also completed an M.A. in Italian Studies. She holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Latin American Literatures and Cultures from The Ohio State University. 

Dr. García Blizzard works at the intersection of Latin American Cultural Studies and Film Studies with a focus on Mexico. Her scholarship explores the role of national and transnational Mexican cinema in mediating race and class difference, as well as national identity.

Mónica's dissertation on the representation of Indigeneity in Mexican cinema received the 2017 LASA Mexico Section Award for best dissertation. Her first book, The White Indians of Mexican Cinema: Racial Masquerade throughout the Golden Age, (SUNY Press, 2022), argues that the filmic representation of Indigeneity through White Mexican bodies during the mid-twentieth century reveals the unresolved tensions between competing racial ideologies and proposals for national identity. Her book received an Honorable Mention from the International Latino Book Awards for Best Academic Themed Book in 2024. 

Her peer-reviewed articles have appeared in Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos, Transnational Screens, Estudios Mexicanos/Mexican Studies, Studies in Spanish and Latin American Cinemas, Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies, and Vivomatografías: Revista de estudios sobre precine y cine silente en Latinoamérica. She also contributed to the volume, The Poetics of Race in Latin America, edited by Mabel Moraña (Anthem Press, 2022). 

Mónica was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico to Mexican parents from Mexico City and Guanajuato, and was raised primarily in Texas. Her transnational, transcultural, and multilingual life experience has shaped her hemispheric and transatlantic perspectives, as well as her focus on nationalisms, racial formations, and marginality.