Guatemala, el olor de las imágenes

hubo un siglo, un día, que duró muchos siglos

As I walked through the streets of Antigua, I came across a second-hand book of cuentos breves in a small bookshop, while the city was chaotically celebrating some festivity and children licked puffy ice creams that never seemed to melt.

This series is a collection of visual fragments inspired by the words of Miguel Ángel Asturias, sensorial magic I could feel with my own eyes. People whose skin carried traces of bark, the deep-orange curtains of the sunset wrapping people and nature in their glow, ritual candles burning before sacred trees to call for protection and health. The breath of trees drifted toward the mountains, where paths curled like threads of smoke.

Some of the people portrayed here belong to communities who, with strength and dignity, continue to defend their territories and lives against the relentless pressure of mining, agribusiness and other extractive industries. A reminder of fragility and belonging in a land of layered voices.

[2013]