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

Looking for the traces of intangible heritage that evoke Spanish culture in the American Southwest, photojournalist Janire Nájera drove along the Old Spanish Trail, following in the footsteps of Antonio Armijo, who first opened this trade route in the nineteenth century. The book combines a collection of portraits and interviews with the travel diary written by Nájera during the trip. Through a contemporary artistic language, 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.

This project is the result of a long collaboration between Janire Nájera and SPAIN arts & culture, which began with an open call posted on the digital platform SPAINred.