Orlando Lara (he/him) is a PhD candidate in Anthropology at UC Irvine. Orlando is an anthropologist, Ethnic Studies scholar, and writer. Working with colleagues in Texas, he co-founded the Ethnic Studies Network of Texas, and has most recently been involved in the creation of a high school-level course in American Indian/Native Studies.

Grounded in the Rio Grande Valley and Southeast Texas, Orlando Lara’s dissertation focuses on the growth of identity precarity and insecurity through the interrogation and denial of core state identity documents such as US birth certificates and US passports. While research on liminal non-citizen statuses has flourished in recent years, his ethnographic and archival research opens new ground in the study of the ongoing and intensifying challenges to legal citizenship and other forms of purportedly ‘legal’ status, including birthright citizenship itself.

Working with the artist Delilah Montoya, he co-created “Sed: A Trail of Thirst” and, with the Sin Huellas Artist Collective, the multimedia installation, “Detention Nation.”