Pedro Cruz assistant professor in the College of Arts, Media and Design p.cruz@northeastern.edu 617.373.5129 Expertise Pedro Cruz for Northeastern Global News The United States isn’t quite a melting pot, this data visualization artist says. It’s more like a tree. The United States isn’t quite a melting pot, this data visualization artist says. It’s more like a tree. Pedro Cruz thinks of the United States as a tree. Specifically, as a tree trunk, with its concentric rings demarking growth throughout the years. As the Northeastern professor imagines it, each ring, instead of being formed by the birth and death of new plant cells, is formed by the flow of new immigrants arriving to the country.