Max Benavidez is a writer and independent scholar.

He is the author of Gronk, a recent book on the renowned L.A. artist. His work has appeared in several anthologies including The Fight in the Fields (Harcourt Brace) and Distant Relations (Smart Art Press). He wrote the lead essay for the recent art book, Chicano Visions (Little Brown/Bulfinch). He is co-author of A New Sun and Graciela’s Dream, and the author of Maria de Flor, all bilingual titles published by Lectura Books. He also serves as a contributing editor to the Americas issue for Bomb magazine. He was a contributing writer and essayist for the Los Angeles Times in the Calendar and Book Review sections and a regular contributor to Art Issues.

He was appointed a Resident Scholar at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center (2004-05) under a grant from the Ford Foundation and was adjunct faculty at the Cesar Chavez Center at UCLA (1994 – 2003) where he also taught courses in Latin American and Mexican Literature.  He has lectured at several universities and museums throughout the U.S. and abroad.

He is a graduate of UCLA and conducted graduate work in Latin American studies, also at UCLA, where he received a UC Regents Pacific Rim Research Grant. Currently, he is completing his Ph.D. at Claremont Graduate University in higher education where he is the recipient of a Fellowship from the Ahmanson Foundation. He consults widely on cultural and policy issues for a wide range of organizations and universities including the University of California, the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the California Latino Caucus Institute for Public Policy.  Benavidez is a native of Los Angeles, California