KEVIN BELTRAN
Kevin Beltran
(they/them)
Kevin Beltran was born in Los Angeles, California, but spent most of their life in New Mexico. They were raised on a sovereign native reservation in western New Mexico and attended high school and college in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. As a Native Person and Person of Color, the artist's experiences have shaped how they choose to document landscapes, people, structures, and ways of life in New Mexico.
Living on Tewa Land in the Northern NM Rio Grande Valley, the artist is passionate about acknowledging and paying homage to the original indigenous stewards that have blessed these lands and areas since time immemorial. While New Mexico is known for its one-of-a-kind landscapes and surreal sunsets, it's important to move through these lands and spaces with respect and gratitude for those original caretakers in mind.
ARTIST STATEMENT: ROUTE 66 Series
Route 66, also known as the “Mother Road”, was originally constructed in the 1920’s, connecting the Midwest to the western lands and cities along the way, and eventually becoming a lifeline for rural communities. During the Dust Bowl era 200,000 people used the highway to get away from the devastation that resulted from mistreatment of the lands that led to major droughts and damages to the Great Plains.
During the 1920’s Indigenous People had been living under conditions of colonization and genocide for well over a century, with Western assimilation through education, rapid loss of lands, poverty and substandard/poor health care pushing communities to the edge. The Western World shaped a story of the last days of the “great noble Indian”, celebrated the end to the “Indian problem”, and at the same time the romanticizing of Indigenous People became widespread. Mainstream America made posters, companies, cigarettes and racist and inaccurate roadside attractions meant to depict a “disappearing race” when in fact, Indigenous People continued to survive and resist across the West, living in communities all along the path of Route 66 as it as it was filled with a major highway, motels, gas stations, gift shops and roadside attractions.
To this day, Route 66 still carries the history of mainstream America's inaccurate perspective of Indigenous Peoples. My purpose of documenting these towns, buildings and desolate roadside places is to bring to light how America today still holds onto the vintage white washed perception of a people that were seen to be another part of ancient history. The reality of the mindset mostly stayed with the collapse of Route 66’s booming days, as today we are still here. You are on Native Lands.
This collection of photos is meant to ask: How do we talk honestly about the truths of misrepresentation and fetishization when it comes to Indigenous peoples? How do we enjoy and celebrate a place that holds so much pain and unspoken history?