In 2024, Weshoyot Alvitre, graphic novelist, writer and illustrator, took pen to paper to draw selected moments in the history of what we now call Texas. This exhibit is about those drawings.
There are many ways to craft history, many mediums to share that craft, and many communities that make meaning from the evidence we have for the past. In the midst of the pandemic, an editor at Yale University Press asked historian Benjamin H. Johnson to write a little history of Texas, but in a way that would interest people on the cusp of middle school, like the iconic A Little History of the World by E.H. Gombrich. In Texas: an American History, Benjamin H. Johnson identified twenty five moments around which to craft this history. Weshoyot Alvitre took on the project of sketching these evocative moments. The Center for the study of the Southwest wants a focus on the art and design of the illustrations, to give us all the opportunity to have the drawings stand apart from the book project, to foster a dialogue between image and word.
Weshoyot Alvitre
Weshoyot Alvitre is a Tongva and Scottish comic book artist, writer and illustrator. She was born in the Santa Monica Mountains on the property of Satwiwa, a cultural center started by her father Art Alvitre. She grew up close to the land and raised with traditional knowledge that inspires the work she does today. Weshoyot has been working in the comics medium for over 15 years. Her work focuses on art and writing that visualizes historical material through an Indigenous lens. She has also contributed art response to contemporary Indigenous issues using pop-culture, sci-fi and archival research materials to spark conversations and re-frame colonial narratives. Her work has been featured in the anthologies of Moonshot Volumes 2 and 3, Deerwoman: An anthology, Imminent Cuisine the Zine, and Marvel Voices: Indigenous Voices. Alvitre has also received numerous awards for her children’s book illustrations in 'At the Mountains Base' (Kokila 2019) and 'Living Ghosts & Mischievous Monsters' (Scholastic 2021). Alvitre’ s current projects 'Toypurina: Our Lady of Sorrows' and 'Lone' focus on the re-telling of stories from her own tribal community, using historical fact, primary accounts and tribal knowledge to provide fuller representation of those from her Tongva history. It is through this voice, and through her artwork, she feels she is able to communicate her unique viewpoint and continue a strong dialogue on issues that are important to her as a Native woman.
Benjamin Heber Johnson
Benjamin Heber Johnson is Professor in the History Department and School of Environmental Sustainability at Loyola University Chicago. He is the author of numerous works on the United States–Mexico border and environmental history, including Revolution in Texas: How a Forgotten Rebellion and Its Bloody Suppression Turned Mexicans into Americans; Bordertown: The Odyssey of an American Place; and Escaping the Dark, Gray City: Fear and Hope in Progressive Era Conservation.
He is also a member of Refusing to Forget, a public history project devoted to commemorating the legacies of the border violence of the 1910s, which has received awards from the Western History Association, the American Historical Association, and the Organization of American Historians.
Giselle Barmore is a publicist for the Jeremy Torres Lab Theatre, a published photographer and a Texas State Student.
Jason Reed is a professor of photography, a tireless collaborator, part of the Borderlands Collective and more. For new and ongoing projects, visit their personal website.
