Groepsportret van een reisgezelschap bij het hotel Montezuma in Las Vegas in New Mexico before 1883

This is a photograph of a group visiting the Hotel Montezuma in Las Vegas, New Mexico; we don't know when it was taken, or by whom, but it was likely part of a travel album or publication. The image is a window into the late 19th-century American West, a period marked by expansion and romanticization. It shows a group of tourists, likely affluent, standing in front of the hotel. What stories do they tell? The construction of grand hotels such as this one served a very particular clientele. The hotels were not just places to stay, but symbols of cultural conquest, imposing a vision of American leisure on indigenous lands. These places erased the history of the local people. Consider also the absence of the people native to the region in this image. As we view the photograph, let's reflect on whose stories are told and whose are omitted.