Moving Forward, Looking Back – Journeys Across the Old Spanish Trail by Janire Nájera is the result of a collaboration between the artist and SPAIN Arts & Culture, the Spanish Embassy’s Cultural Office in Washington, D.C. The project was also displayed as an exhibition in Washington D.C. in spring 2015. Nájera (born in Spain, 1981) is a photojournalist based between Wales and Basque country in Spain. All the text is in both Spanish and English, with a few linguistic idiosyncrasies scattered here and there in the English text. A short essay by Orlando Romero gives further historic context to the book, elaborating on the development of links between New Mexico and California.
The book traces the artist’s journey along a colonial trade route travelled by a young trader called Antonio Armijo in the winter of 1829-30, recognised as the first commercial venture from New Mexico to California. By the mid-nineteenth century, the Old Spanish Trail had become an established route for commerce, and in time these trails have developed into highways. The hardback book includes images in full colour, a map of the area, interviews with Spanish-American community members and diary entries from the artist’s expedition.
Landscape photographs of the journey are paired with portraits of the interviewees, captured in formal poses in front of their sunburnt houses, or indoors with local textiles and Catholic saint figurines dotting the background. The people Nájera meets have actively researched their roots, tracing them to Mexico and Spain, and are closely involved in preserving their heritage by taking part in cultural activities and colonial-era traditions. Spanish migration in this area has its origins in the 16th century, and many of the group also have Native American ancestry. One of the interviewees is a descendant of one of the founders of Los Angeles, suggesting the importance of this group in US history.
The interviewees tell of lives lived immersed in Spanish traditions, bi-lingual homes, strong influence of Catholicism and non-English speaking parents. The reader’s thoughts inevitably turn to roots and heritage. What is it really that makes your community and traditions? How are they kept alive? Through language, images, objects? One of the interviewees says that knowing about one’s heritage becomes a part of your identity: “…home never leaves you and wherever you go, you take it with you.” The artist’s multi-disciplinary approach offers diverse points of view on the same subject, with photography operating as a form of research.
Along the way, Nájera captures in lush, sun-washed detail the blue open skies, the cowboys, the abandoned cars, the empty gas stations and the rear view mirrors reflecting views disappearing into the horizon. Inevitably, the imagery echoes the familiar visual vernacular of the American road trip – Robert Frank and Jack Kerouac whisper in the dry dust along the way. The book ends with the pastel hues of a Pacific coast sunset, a fitting ending to a voyage that then – and now, still – suggests a journey to a promised land.
– reviewed by Riikka Kuittinen
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Notes:
Janire Nájera Moving Forward, Looking Back will be exhibited as part of the Diffusion Festival 2015 ‘Looking for America’ in Cardiff, 1 – 31 October 2015. More details can be found here.
Details of Moving Forward, Looking Back can be found on the dedicated project website here.
