LA MUELA

O’odham Name: Maccud Do’ag

Meaning: Grinding stone/Metate/Molar/Tooth mountain

Maccud Do’ag is referred to as “La Muela” (“The Molar”) by people navigating north. It is found on occupied Tohono O’odham and Hia-Ced O'odham land, on the so-called Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Its colonial name is Kino Peak, named after the Italian Jesuit Missionary and colonizer Father Eusebio Francisco Kino. He established more than two dozen missions and settlements throughout native lands in what is now widely referred to as Arizona, New Mexico, and the Mexican state of Sonora. In 1698 Father Kino established a mission ranch in Sonoyta, introducing the first livestock grazing in the region. The introduction of cattle for the purpose of profit would eventually lead to overgrazing and an imbalance in the ecosystem of this region.

PORTRAIT PROCESS VIDEO

Some of the items I worked with to create the portraits include: the end of a broken shaving razor, an empty tuna packet, a piece of ripped camouflage cloth, rusty cans, a black water gallon, broken glass, and a mop slipper. I also worked with unrooted plants and land relatives such as: dried saguaro cactus ribs, ocotillo limbs, palo verde branches, rocks, and tierra. I used these elements to paint the portraits because –like the mountains– they are members of this ecosystem and carry a certain energy important to the portrayal of this shared space.