AMLT Staff

Alec Apodaca, Cultural Resources Program Manager

Why did you want to work for AMLT / why are you doing this work?

During graduate school, I learned about all the great work of the Tribe and their land trust. At that time, I viewed AMLT as leaders in our state in protecting and stewarding land, doing it in a way that was innovative, refreshing, and timely. So, when the time came to find a project to focus on for my school research project, my dream was to collaborate with AMLT on research issues in archaeology of food and Indigenous stewardship practices in central coastal California.

Through that process, as a team we learned much about how Native people in the past stewarded and built relationships with plants and animals, and how those relationships developed over countless generations, and are still vibrant oday. We also learned that a numerous number of Amah Mutsun ancestral sites are threatened, and that number of threatened sites continues to increase each day.

After graduating from UC Berkeley, I was very pleased to learn about a position as a Cultural Resources Program Manager at AMLT. I saw this as a "when the rubber meets the road" moment. Archaeology is a science that learns about culture from a deep-time perspective and has great potential to help build points of access to ancestral places that have had "no trespassing" signs on them for generations.

Archaeology is one of several ways to revive links to ancestral foodways and stewardship practices. There are also great employment opportunities in the field of archaeology. My main objective as the Cultural Resources Program Manager is to protect, steward, and study all cultural resources in the region, and to help the Tribe bring the next generation of Tribal archaeologists forward.

What from your whole life's experiences are you bringing to this role?

After high school, I worked as a furniture mover and got a chance to master the art of Tetris, but using chairs, couches, and boxes as my pieces instead. While this was hard work, I had a chance to travel throughout California on delivery runs and reflect on my life goals. Although it took me a while, I was able to finish community college and soon found myself with a job in archaeology. I then transferred to UC Santa Cruz where I got my BA and then worked for Caltrans as an Environmental Planner. I learned much about how archaeology has been weaponized against Indigenous peoples all across the United States, often minimizing the great achievements of each culture and being complicit in the destruction of Native cultural heritage. I used this background to inform how I carry out my job at AMLT. I work to detach the colonial legacy that has historically followed how cultural resources have been managed in our State.

Where are you from?

I was born and raised in southern San Diego, CA. I am the proud son of a father who was a lettuce picker from Santa Maria, CA and mother who was a housekeeper from Baja, Mexico. I was raised to value family, hard-work, and most importantly eating good food! Growing up I spent each of my summers in Baja, where I learned how to fish, collect firewood, and help out on the Rancho. This gave me a happy balance to my life in San Diego where I spent my time playing sports and hanging out with cousins. Now, I spend my free time experimenting with new BBQ recipes, going on hikes around the Bay Area, and spending time with my wife, son, and two cats.