It is here where my need to photograph my ancestors begins, out of the desire to find my indigenous roots, my family history and my obsession with knowing what I do not know ...
My ancestry began with the arrival of Richard Platt, from England (1604-1685), who went to the United States in 1638; seven generations later my great-grandfather, Frederick Platt (1841-1893) was born. In 1867, my great-grandfather made the decision to leave New York, to go to California. On his way, Frederick decided to go to Sonora because of the “gold rush”, reaching the town of Lecoripa, where the indigenous people were still fighting for their territory. At that time, the government stripped indigenous peoples of their lands to sell them to foreigners married to Mexican women, the same case in which my great-grandfather was.
This is where my need to photograph my ancestors begins, out of the desire to find my indigenous roots, my family history, and my obsession with knowing what I don't know. In my search for some evidence about what happened in the years that my great-grandfather arrived in Sonora, I found a massacre that took place in 1868, in which many confrontations occurred between indigenous people and whites (eager to seize the lands of the former ). In that year, the federal government ordered, on the night of February 18, the massacre of 600 Yaqui Indian prisoners in the church of Bacum.
The lands of my family have been passed from generation to generation; first to my grandfather Federico (1876-1958); then to my father (1917-1981). I used to hear him say that when he was about nine years old, he saw long-haired men riding horses without saddles, with bows and arrows, and that they were chasing them. Now the new generations have found lands in debt for the new ways of life that we lead, without realizing the evil that we do.
My search in this situation is to know what I do not know, and what I think I will never know and understand. Knowing that the generations of my family have lived on lands that belonged to the indigenous, and that I know that it is not the only family in our nation, but that we are the majority, invites me to demonstrate with this work a deep admiration for it, my race, because of my ancestors not from the United States, but from Mexico; I can only offer these photographs as a tribute to the suffering that we still continue to cause ... without knowing what we do not know.
ALEJANDRA PLATT
He was born in Hermosillo, Sonora, in 1960. He resides between Sonora and Arizona. FONCA Co-investment Grant, 1999, with the project “In the name of God” and the State Fund for Culture and the Arts of Sonora, 1993, with the project “Hijos del Sol”.
He has had multiple individual exhibitions and among the most important are: Arizona State Museum with exhibition and conference "In the name of God", Tucson, Arizona, USA, 2003; The Mexican Community Center and the Consulate General of Mexico, The Center for Mexican American Studies & the College of Liberal Arts of the University of Texas of Austin, with an exhibition and conference “In the name of God”, Austin, Texas, USA, 2002 Presentation of the book "In the name of God", Centro de la Imagen, Mexico, DF, 2000. And José Luis Cuevas Museum with "Hijos del Sol", Mexico, DF, 1996.
Among the collectives are “Mexican Photographers”, Photo September, Tucson, Arizona, USA, 2003. “Tribute to Padre Kino”, Segno, Trento, Italy, 2002. “Latin American Photography Show”, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1997 and México, DF, 1996. “Con Ojos de Mujer”, Lima, Peru, Antwerp, Belgium and Madrid, Spain, 1996 and Beijing, China, 1995. And the “VI Photography Biennial”, Mexico, DF, 1994.
His works are in private collections in Tucson, Arizona, USA, 2003 and in Hermosillo, Sonora, 2002. In different institutions and museums such as the Frank Waters Foundation, Taos, New Mexico, USA, 2002. Museum of Anthropology and History, INAH , Mexico, DF, 2000. Museum of Santo Domingo, INAH, Oaxaca, Oax., 1998. University of Sonora, Hermosillo, Sonora, 1996. And the Sonoran Institute of Culture, Hermosillo, Sonora.
