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I was in Ecuador visiting indigenous Quichua communities. I’d been traveling for maybe ten days and had visited many small, remote, hard-to-reach villages in the high Andes. Although the journey to these places is long and travel is slow and unpredictable these mountain communities are the best areas in which to see traditional Quichua Andean life. Among the traditions that I’d seen in these remote mountain communities were Andean music including a traditional festive oratorio performance, cheese-making and dairy farming. I’d even been lucky enough to spend a whole day traveling on horseback with local Quichua farmers as they tended their land. They’d been surprised by my request to accompany them into the high mountains for the whole day but after seeing my basic horsemanship skills they agreed. It was a day so removed from my own daily life that I can never forget it. A few days later it was time to travel down to lower altitudes. On my way I stopped in a small town that happened to be hosting its weekly market. Quichua people from surrounding communities had traveled by whatever means they could through the early hours of the morning – even overnight – to sell their goods. On offer was everything from yarn to vegetables and handicrafts to maize to guinea pig - a local delicacy not kept as pets but eaten. Without the stomach for that I wandered around with my camera; marketplaces are always fertile grounds for photography. I’d taken many “continuity” shots but by late afternoon I was still looking for a picture that would tell a story. Then I saw this merchant who somehow had escaped my attention earlier in the day. I studied her from a distance without my camera at first. There was something about her that told me she was the one who might give me my story photo. I started to take pictures as she conducted her trade but they were yet more continuity shots. After her first few customers had bought from her and then left I put my camera away disappointed. Then she waited for her next customer. That customer was a long time coming and in her wait she began engaging in a ritual that I didn’t understand. I watched intrigued. I finally realized that she was praying and thought it strange that she would pray while conducting her weekly commerce. Finally she took her hand from her head and blew on it. Then I knew that she was the one as I realized that she was offering her prayer to the wind. We’ll never know what her prayer was for – perhaps for more customers – but we do know that she believed in it. Please contact us to obtain commercial or non commercial use rights of this photo or to receive a limited-edition, fine-art print of this photo as our reward for your donation. 
I was in Chiapas State, Mexico, visiting Tzeltal and Tzotzil villages. One village in particular was high on my list of places to visit. Amatenango del Valle is a Tzeltal village of only a few thousand people. It is situated in an area that has been inhabited by the Tzeltal Maya for at least a thousand years – probably longer. It is quite famous today and is mentioned in most guide books covering this part of Mexico. Amatenango del Valle is worth visiting for many reasons. The modern Tzeltal people who live there are very welcoming and friendly; the village has an impressive church that is around three hundred years old and witnesses a mixture of Mayan and Catholic-influenced practices and the climate is pleasant all year round – the village sits almost two thousand meters above sea level. But what draws people here the most is the practice of making pottery. Pottery has been made here since the area was first settled thanks to an abundance of local clay. The village is often called the village of clay workers. But the reason Amatenango del Valle is different from many other places where pottery is made is that the techniques have survived from before the Spanish arrived. While this means that the pottery is still made by hand it also means that it is still fired inside a real wood fire instead of a kiln. The practice would have started in the area out of the necessity to make practical household items like pots for cooking and jars for storing food and water. Traditionally it was Tzeltal women who made this pottery and today also the visitor sees exclusively women making it. However these women have recently begun to understand the commercial value of their niche art form and a significant tourist-oriented trade has developed in the village – making and selling "art pottery" animal figurines. Some Tzeltal women in Amatenango del Valle still make pots and jars but many women make these animal figurines – animales, while young girls in the village make smaller versions – animalitos, as they hone their skills. As my guide and I approached the turn-off from the main road into the village there was predictably a large display of animales and animalitos from which to make my purchases. Although I intended to buy something most of my time would be spent wandering through the village itself talking to the inhabitants and, I hoped, seeing pottery being made. I must have timed my visit unfortunately because we wandered through what seemed like the whole village and saw nobody making pottery. Then as we turned a corner a woman and her young daughter were both busy at work – not shaping or firing but painting their animales and animalitos. They were used to seeing foreigners with cameras but as always I sought permission before using mine. In the end I took many photos of the woman and of her daughter. Some of those photos were posed but as I often find the best one wasn’t. Please contact us to obtain commercial or non commercial use rights of this photo or to receive a limited-edition, fine-art print of this photo as our reward for your donation. |