La Sierra is community-based immersive media project (VR site with embedded oral histories) collaboration between artists Kevin Sweet and Sarah McCormick, activist Shirley Romero Otero and members of the Land Rights Council (San Luis), and the Move Mountains youth leadership program.
2019 - 2023 (ongoing)
For 60 years, a community of predominantly Chicano/Chicana families in Costilla County, Colorado, have fought for their ancestral rights to the access and resources of an 83,000-acre mountain tract known as ‘La Sierra.’ Originally part of the Sangre de Cristo land grant, this community relied on the inherited, communal resources of La Sierra for generations. In 1960, they were fenced out of their land and cultural inheritance when their rights were illegally removed through a Torrens Title action in U.S. District Court. Though limited access has been assured through decisions made by the Colorado Supreme Court, restrictive actions by the current owner and management of the land have been characterized as abuse and oppression.
Developed with activist Shirley Romero Otera and members of the Land Rights Council of San Luis, the goal for this project is to support the community of heirs in their continuing intergenerational fight for fair access to the land. Through photogrammetric imaging, virtual reality design, and workshops in creative media production, La Sierra engages young members of the community in the process of becoming the authors and holders of their families' histories and the critical importance of the land while transforming the tools that have been used against them into tools of resistance.
More information on the history of the fight for La Sierra is available via the Chicano & Latino History Project.