cordillera: “A series of more or less parallel mountain ranges, including their ridges, basins, and tablelands … The term cordillera came into English from the Spanish, from the word ‘cordilla’, which means ‘string’ or ‘rope’” — Robert Hass, Home Ground

It goes by many names. Ute people called it the Ȟe-Ská or White Mountains, while to the Quechua, it was the Antis. Today, we know pieces of it as the Rockies, the Sierra Madre, and the Huayhuash: a pastiche of Amerindian and European languages. Stretching nearly 9000 miles, the American Cordillera is the longest chain of mountains in the world, and on its way from Alaska to Patagonia, it passes through some fifteen countries. It is the backbone of the continent, and its forests, minerals, and glaciers give life to hundreds of millions of people.

Through this project, I aim to explore the various sites of the Cordillera from its most pristine landscapes to its most polluted cities. More than a celebration of nature, I want to understand how the Cordillera shapes the lives of those who live, work, and recreate among them, and the ways in which people’s interactions with the mountains align or conflict. In doing so, I hope to offer a more complex understanding of the mountains that so many of us Americans–North and South–call home.