Itzel is a Nahua from Tepetlixpa, Mexico, living in Alaska and a bilingual researcher actively engaged with the Abya Yala (Latin American) diaspora community in Alaska since 2013, working toward community-based solutions and imagining Latinx futurities. 

Zagal´s research integrates decolonial migration approaches, international human rights law, and the intersections of cultural heritage and community healing. Her work centers on Indigenous epistemologies and methodologies for community care practices.

As an Indigenous Anthropologist, I reject classroom neutrality: we name power, practice decolonial, abolitionist, and anti-racist pedagogy, and center Indigenous ways of knowing alongside epistemologies from the Global South.

Itzel is also a mother, a wife, and comadrita (godmother) of many. She is a popoxcomitl (ceremonial copal smoke) carrier who holds and shares ceremony across borders.