Pedro Reyes was born and raised in the ancestral lands of present-day San Fernando Valley to Mexican immigrant parents from Jalisco, Mexico. Pedro comes from a working-class immigrant family where his father worked as an autobody mechanic for nearly 30 years while his mother was a homemaker and domestic worker. Pedro identifies as a cis gender Chicano/x, veteran of two foreign wars, and first generation nontraditional interdisciplinary scholar. Pedro attended his K-12 education within the Los Angeles Unified School District and graduated from John F. Kennedy High School four years after September 11, 2001.
After three semesters at Los Angeles Mission College, Pedro withdrew and enlisted in the United States Marines Corps in the winter of 2006. Within Pedro’s nearly eight years of service, he achieved the rank of sergeant. His military experience and roles included combat advisor in OIF 2007, an embassy security guard, a combined anti-armor fire team leader in OEF 2012, and an infantry squad leader at his final duty station aboard Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, CA in 2014. After honorably separating from the Marines in the fall of 2014, Pedro returned to school and earned a bachelor's degree in history from Seattle University in the fall of 2017. Pedro also holds a certification in paralegal studies from Edmonds Community College in Lynnwood, WA.
In the fall of 2021, Pedro was accepted to the Chicana(o) &Latina(o) Studies graduate program at Cal State LA. In the summer of 2023, Pedro completed an original thesis on how Junior ROTC programs contribute to Student-to-Military Pipelines (STMP). Because of Pedro’s personal and educational experiences, he is dedicated to the inquiry of injustice and actions that seek to change social conditions that oppress vulnerable communities. Pedro believes that his interests are extensions to his personal life, which is why he is dedicated to building awareness of anti-war and racism in the American education system and beyond. As a first-generation scholar, veteran, and critical educator, Pedro is interested in disrupting patriarchal violence and values that have historically perpetuate hate, sexism, homophobia, bigotry, and the exclusion of oppressed communities. Pedro’s research interest includes the production of (il)legalities, militarizing the youth, the militarization of the global south, productions of masculinities, gender-based violence, and the ecologies of war.
Currently, Pedro is a faculty lecturer in the Chicana(o) & Latina(o) Studies Department at Cal State LA where he teaches a course on Ethnic Studies, Resistance & Solidarity and another course on the US Constitution and Community. Outside of academics, Pedro and his life partner enjoy concerts, local outdoor markets, traveling, and spending time with their two furry relatives.