In 2022, New Mexico experiencedits largest wildfireto dateand it was no accident.
Afterwards, it was so hot: You could feel the heat off the ground, Garcia says.
Everything was black, gray, and white.
García in a Kenzo turtleneck, jacket, skirt, and boots in Mora, New Mexico.
My grandparents lost a lot of forest on ancestral land.
There are a couple of people that I know in Mora that lost their homes.
If you go there now, all thats left is chimneys.
Designer Ronald Rael with his earth 3D-printing rig in San Luis Valley, Colorado. Rael’s work combines 3D-printing technology with indigenous and traditional building materials to create experimental adobe structures in New Mexico and Colorado.
Garcia in a Kenzo turtleneck, jacket, skirt, and boots in Mora, New Mexico.
The impact on New Mexicans didnt end with the fires either.
For a lot of people, their cattle is their livelihood, Garcia explains.
Photographed by Carlos Jaramillo
Thats their college fund or their winter money.
By day, Garcia works as an architectural designer, with a focus on preserving local culture.
No matter how much is burned down on this earth, you cant really burn mud, Garcia.
The oculus roof of Casa Covida in San Luis Valley.
Designer Ronald Rael with his earth 3D-printing rig in San Luis Valley, Colorado.
I started wanting to grow my own plants and food.
We were campesinos and were of the Chicano movement.
The structures were built by combining traditional natural materials with contemporary 3D-printing methods.
Then its prepared inside of a cement roller and printed using software called Grasshopper and Rhino.
The way my family does them, we do it in the winter when its snow-capped.
The oculus roof of Casa Covida in San Luis Valley.
