Noé Montes: Regional History

Regional History features three bodies of work by Noé Montes realized over the last decade that document and tell the story of communities in Southern California: Coachella Valley Farmworkers , Cuyama and I mperial Air . Each project includes photographs, workshops with residents, and narrative accounts drawn from interviews. These projects center the experiences of residents – white working class, Indigenous, Latine, Black, and other people of color – who are usually omitted from or underrepresented in dominant accounts and local histories of the region. With this work, Montes offers a history of the land and points towards the harmful effects of extractive economies on individuals and communities. He also highlights the work that communities themselves have done in the development of the social and economic infrastructure of the region. The exhibition poses questions about the relationship between power, historical narrative, and the continued exploitation of historically marginalized communities, as it also presents ongoing resistance to these forces, whether through activism, cultural preservation, or the richness of family and daily life. Programming for this exhibition will include additional engagement with local, personal, and community archives in the Inland Empire to fill gaps in historical accounts regarding the multidimensionality of life in the region.