Moving Forward, Looking Back: Journeys Across the Old Spanish Trail is a documentary project focusing on identity, based on memory and inspired by travel.

Looking for the traces of intangible heritage that evokes Spanish culture in the American Southwest, photographer Janire Nájera drove along the Old Spanish Trail following in the footsteps of Antonio Armijo, who first opened this trade route in the 19th century. Moving Forward, Looking Back provides an insight into how the traditions of the first settlers have merged with local cultures and have influenced the identity of today’s pueblos and modern cities in the states of New Mexico and California.

Janire Nájera is a photojournalist based between Wales (UK) and Bilbao (Basque Country, Spain). Janire is concerned with highlighting communities around the globe which have been displaced through changing social and economic climates, with the aim to rethink and develop our understanding of the environments we belong to.