This set of photos is really special to me, because I got to go outside my white tourist bubble, and see how the local people live in the town that I love to visit. A part of visiting poorer places is being forced to confront your own privilege which is easy to ignore and forget about when you live in a place like Vancouver, and think that privilege starts when you can afford a mansion in Point Grey or a Lamborghini. So with sharing these photos, I want to acknowledge my deep gratitude to Sergio for showing me his home and his family.
One of the reasons we love Puerto Escondido so much, is that it is not a town built solely on tourism. With no direct flights, there is not a single all-inclusive resort in town, and that means that for the most part, the kind of tourists that come here are surfers, or at least adventurers of some kind. Not a lot of “spring break” vibes over here.
One day, Shane and I were riding the motorcycle around the area surrounding our house. Just across a highway, you immediately got onto this dirt road, that lead through fields and then came to a small settlement, with a few houses, a church, and a school. There was also a small lake, which we later found out housed a crocodile. On our ride, we saw a little girl at one of the houses, who waved at us as we went by.
The next day, Shane’s mum, who is our primary Spanish expect, having lived for a year in Mexico City as a teenager, told us that Sergio’s daughter saw us in their village yesterday (Sergio is one of the staff who works at the house we rent). Looking to shoot more portraits on my trip, I asked Sergio if we could visit and photograph him and his family. He agreed, and a plan was made.
The next day we made the trip back to the house where we saw the little girl. She was there, along with her younger brother, and Sergio’s wife. We spent the next hour or so trying to communicate in broken Spanglish, and I got a lot of photos I really love on that day. One of my favourites is Sergio’s daughter holding my diffuser. It was not planned, but I adore the way it turned out.
