(Remembering the Andes in Cherokee Territory. Transandean notes)

Abstract

Byron Tenesaca is a kichwa-kañari visual artist currently residing in North Carolina. In 2022, we met in Tokiyasdi (Asheville), Cherokee territory. In the Spring of 2023, we both participated in the trans-Indigenous festival Activating Indigenous Beats. Native Hip Hop. As part of the festival, Tenesaca directed a collective mural in which Cherokee and Andean designs are juxtaposed, as well as representations of plants and animals from various latitudes of Abiayala (The Americas). In this essay I put together an interview with Tenesaca, and some “transandean” (Noriega, 2012) reflections on this mural. In confronting the politics of identity in highly racialized countries such as the United States–where Indigenous peoples from southern Abiayala are labeled as “Hispanic” and “Latinx”–Native-migrant artists and writers must negotiate, reconstruct, and reaffirm their affiliations–sometimes multiple. In Tenesaca’s art and in the mural we created together, the Cherokee mountains are a bridge to reconnect with the Andes.