John is an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. He received his PhD and MA from Cornell University, with graduate concentrations in Latina/o Studies and Latin American Studies, and primarily researches Latina/o and Indigenous literatures with a focus on Mexico and Central America and their diasporas.

He is the translator of Letters from Inside a U.S. Detention Center: Carla's Story (Routledge, 2023) and directed an award-winning documentary at the Mexico-Guatemala border. His previous community work was been featured in Harper's Bazaar, LA Times, Vogue, and People en Español and were the subject of a TED Talk at the TED Center in NYC.

His academic work is published or forthcoming in Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, Diacritics, Latin American Cultural Studies, Latin American Literary Review, and other venues. Reflecting his commitment to publicly engaged scholarship, John was inducted into the Bouchet Graduate Honor Society at Yale University for his work with underserved students and communities.

He is currently at work on two book projects—one centers on childhood migration stories, focusing on U.S. Central American and Chicana/o literature. It asks: How do the stories and politics of childhood migration intersect, and what does this confer in the body politic? The other work considers contemporary Maya, Zapotec, and Garifuna poetry and activism, analyzing displacement, memory, and survivance through the lens of literature and Critical Indigenous Studies and Critical Latinx Indigeneities.

John grew up in Pennsylvania, along with extended family stays in Central America. He has resided on Lenape, Aniyvwiya (Cherokee), Gayogohó:nǫˀ (Cayuga), Garínagu, Quechua, Lenca, Hinóno'éí (Arapaho), Tsistsistas (Cheyenne), Núuchiu (Ute), and Maya lands.