Her father went to high school with the Beach Boys in Hawthorne, and she says she would be honored to be accepted as an “L.A. Romero moved to her tribe’s reservation at a very young age, but she’s proud to be born in L.A. I think that’s really abstract for people in the Los Angeles area.” Cara Romero “I really wanted to ground people in what it feels like, what it means that you’re on Indian land in California. Much of her work features portraits of girls and women with staged, dramatic qualities meant to challenge the viewer to reexamine their existing beliefs about Native Americans, both as individuals and as part of larger communities today. Romero’s photographic work is known for its focus on exploring the interplay between Native American communities throughout the U.S. Her Desert-X billboard series “Jackrabbit, Cottontail & Spirits of the Desert” alludes to the ancestral lands of the Mojave, Cahuilla, Serrano and Chemehuevi people. “I think that’s really abstract for people in the Los Angeles area.” “I really wanted to ground people in what it feels like, what it means that you’re on Indian land in California,” Romero says. But for Romero, who has held elected office in her tribal council and executive leadership roles in several tribal cultural and educational institutions, that land is laden with meaning. For most Angelenos the road is just that. Romero is one of them, and she’s using billboards, one of the biggest physical messaging platforms available, to tell some of her people’s stories.įive billboards featuring her evocative photographs line up along Gene Autry Trail, which connects the 10 Freeway to Palm Springs. This year they are featuring the work of 18 artists spread across approximately 50 miles. “Every other population, even subcultures, can be anything, but the concept of being Native American is very narrow.”ĭesert X is a biennial, free-to-access art exhibition set in the Coachella Valley. “But what about the people? What about how we are tied to the landscape?” she says on the phone from her tribe’s reservation near Lake Havasu. continues to depict Natives through the lens of a skewed history, casinos and reservations. Cara Romero, an Inglewood-born Chemehuevi photographer, says that the U.S. Nevertheless, this community - and the urban Native American population nationwide - remains largely invisible to mainstream American society. The largest group of Native Americans who live in urban areas is based right here in Los Angeles County, according to the U.S. Last updated: AugThe Inglewood-born Chemehuevi photographer Cara Romero utilizes the 10 Freeway to shine a light on our nation’s disconnect with Native Americans in this year’s Desert X exhibition.
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