APRIL 3, 2020 — During her freshman year at UTSA, Sarah Luna ’03 dove into studying the dead and later cofounded the group Ladies Incensed by Patriarchal Society. She also joined the anthropology club, volunteered at the Center for Archaeological Research and connected with Professor Laura Levi, who later led a study that took Luna to Belize.
Now Luna has taken that same drive and determination to Tufts University as an assistant professor of anthropology and is publishing her first book, Love in the Drug War: Selling Sex and Finding Jesus on the Mexico-U.S. Border, slated to release on April 14.
Her journey from the Southeast Side of San Antonio to the classrooms of her Massachusetts university was driven by her curiosity about other people, her questions about faith and religion and later her desire to teach. She credits anthropology for changing her worldview in profound ways.
A first-generation student, Luna earned a scholarship to attend college and live on campus, but she still drove to her parents’ house each weekend.
She found a support system at UTSA, though, in her professors while visiting them during office hours and getting to know them outside the classroom. She also met another student in the dorms who became her best friend.
“I came from a very conservative and religious family,” she said. “A lot of the ideas I was being exposed to were really different. I had been exposed to one version of the truth, then I learned about all these places and cultures, and I learned other truths.”
Later, field work took her to Mexico, where she learned of a prostitution zone. She decided to find a way to gain access so she could interview and study the women there.
In the end it was her family’s connection to the church that helped her connect to a group of missionaries who traveled to Mexico to work in the prostitution zone, convincing women to leave sex work and all that came with it behind.
The ethnographic research Luna later conducted over 2008–2009 in Mexico became the basis of her book. Her study took her into the prostitution zone with sex workers and missionaries where she uncovered what she calls “revelatory relationships of love and obligation,” and she explores the intersection of love, intimacy and reciprocity.
She was excited to see the book’s cover, which uses a photo she took in La Zona and incorporates the color rosa Mexicano, or Mexican pink.
“Before she died, my grandmother crocheted a baby blanket for my future child, and I told her that if I didn’t end up having children, I’d wrap my first book in it,” Luna says. “I didn’t end up having children, so I’ve got to keep my end of the bargain and wrap my book in the blanket once it arrives. This bundle of joy has taken more than a decade of intense labor to be birthed.”
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In partnership with Metro Health, HCAP will host a lecture discussing the life and body of work of Dr. Fernando Guerra, longtime director of the Metropolitan Health District.
Buena Vista Theater, Downtown CampusJoin our team to reflect on the students’ achievements and challenges during the semester and explore techniques, strategies, and tools to address growth mindset, self-reliance, and what it takes to keep students committed and on the path to success
Multidisciplinary Studies (MS 240) and VirtualThis course will introduce you to this popular graduate program, providing a review of UTSA’s Employee Educational Benefit program and MPA info. Free lunch will be provided!
Mesquite Living Lab, Main CampusDía en la Sombrilla, formerly Fiesta UTSA, is a festival hosted each spring as a part of Fiesta® San Antonio events. Sponsored by Roadrunner Productions, the event features music, food, confetti, games, event t-shirts, and more.
Sombrilla Plaza and Central Plaza , Main CampusFiesta Arts Fair is a party with a purpose! The annual art-focused fundraising celebration provides operating support for UTSA Arts, which is dedicated to community arts education for children and adults, public-facing performances and exhibitions, and arts-based research and partnerships to enhance the accessibility of the arts for the public.
UTSA Southwest, 300 Augusta, San Antonio TX 78205This year’s UEA ceremony will be an in-person event that will take place from 9:30 to 11 a.m. on Tuesday, April 25 in the H-E-B Student Union Ballrooms (HSU 1.104/1.106) on the UTSA Main Campus. The ceremony will feature UTSA President Taylor Eighmy, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Kimberly Andrews Espy, Vice President for Inclusive Excellence Myron Anderson, Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President for Business Affairs Veronica Salazar and representatives from Staff and Faculty Senate.
H-E-B Student Union Ballrooms (HSU 1.104/1.106), Main CampusSan Antonio’s treasured Asian Festival returns on Saturday, May 27, 2023, at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Downtown Campus. In observance of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month the one-day performance, entertainment, and food event will celebrate the diverse Asian diaspora represented in South Texas and San Antonio. Come and enjoy one of San Antonio’s premier family-friendly events, with hands-on activities and opportunities to learn through experience.
UTSA Downtown CampusThe University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
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UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education.
The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to ending generations of discrimination and inequity. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.