United States-based photographer Diego Huerta has been capturing vanishing cultures for the last 12 years. With one of his projects, Native Nation, he hopes to preserve the greatness of Native American culture in a photographic archive. While his Kickstarter campaign to fund the photobook was unsuccessful, Huerta’s portraits remain as a testament to the vibrancy and tradition that remains within the indigenous communities of Mexico and Texas that were driven to the mountains from their nomadic plains by the Spanish 500 years ago.
“Some of these towns are almost extinct, and you can only find information and statistics about the majority of these groups, but no real documentation,” wrote Huerta. “There isn’t a legacy to help them preserve and protect their customs.”
Since 2011, Huerta has photographed more than 31,000 people in Mexico and the United States. “Sometimes you need to cross mountains, and lakes, walk day and night. There are times that you spend all of your energy for one portrait. But at the end of the day, everything’s worth it.”
