Somi Se’k (The Land of the Sun – La tierra del Sol)
Somi Se’k ( The Land of the Sun – La tierra del Sol ) is how the Estok Gna, the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe, refer to
the lands on both sides of the River of Spirits (Rio Grande), comprising the Chihuahuan Desert, the Rio Grande
Valley and its delta. Somi Se’k is not just a name or a neutral place, but a multilayered net of universes where
the region’s present, past, and future are still in conversation. The drawing functions as a counter-geography that
visually represents the stories of some of the human and non-human relatives that inhabit these lands. While the
moon phases and the River of Stars (the Milky Way) on the upper part of the drawing speak about Carrizo
Comecrudo conceptions of time and afterlife, other vignettes render processes of religious colonization,
Manifest Destiny, and Westward Expansion; the cattle, agriculture, and oil industries; and ongoing humanitarian
and ecological catastrophes at the border.
Color pencil on paper, 94 x 70 inches, unframed, 2020
Somi Se’k ( The Land of the Sun – La tierra del Sol ) is how the Estok Gna, the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe, refer to
the lands on both sides of the River of Spirits (Rio Grande), comprising the Chihuahuan Desert, the Rio Grande
Valley and its delta. Somi Se’k is not just a name or a neutral place, but a multilayered net of universes where
the region’s present, past, and future are still in conversation. The drawing functions as a counter-geography that
visually represents the stories of some of the human and non-human relatives that inhabit these lands. While the
moon phases and the River of Stars (the Milky Way) on the upper part of the drawing speak about Carrizo
Comecrudo conceptions of time and afterlife, other vignettes render processes of religious colonization,
Manifest Destiny, and Westward Expansion; the cattle, agriculture, and oil industries; and ongoing humanitarian
and ecological catastrophes at the border.
