Global Press Journal Connections: The World in Photos

Mexico City, Mexico

Jairo Nol Vásquez replaces old water valves in northern Mexico City. The valve-changing work started in September 2018, a year after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake in Mexico City caused serious damage to the underground valves.

Photo by Mar García

Mexico City, Mexico

Lucio Rodríguez, left, repairs a metal curtain with his son, Julio Antonio Rodríguez, at their shop in Mexico City, Mexico. Their business is located in the city’s Centro Histórico. Many small shops in the area use metal curtains at their entrances, so work is never scarce for the pair.

Photo by Mayela Sánchez

Mexico City, Mexico

Merol, 33, performs a free show for people who pass by Kiosko Morisco, a gazebo in Mexico City, Mexico. The participants get a balloon after tossing a cloth ring in the air for Merol to catch. Merol, who prefers his stage name, seeks to spark the interest of people walking past. “We want to tell children to have fun — to grow up well and happy,” Merol says.

Photo by Mar García

Mexico City, Mexico

Francisco Tecoatl, 40, performs a ritual cleansing with smoke and herbs in Mexico City’s Plazuela del Marqués. Tecoatl is a member of Calpulli Ze Mazatl, a civil society organization that preserves and promotes Aztec cultural traditions. Every Thursday to Sunday for the last 20 years, they have performed indigenous Aztec dances and rituals in alternating locations. After the dance ends, they offer cleansings to people passing by.

Photo by Mar García

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

Benito Ruiz Alvarez, a traditional doctor, or “i´lol” in the Tsotstil language, performs a healing for Josefa López Santis in San Cristóbal de las Casas, a city in Mexico’s Chiapas state. Ruiz Alvarez uses prayers, plants, candles, stones, incense and a traditional drink called posh as part of the ceremony. The facility is owned by the Organización de Médicos Indígenas del Estado de Chiapas, an organization of doctors and midwives with Tsotsil ancestry who preserve medicinal traditions, including midwifery, botany and bone setting.

Photo by Adriana Alcázar González

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

Yanine Santana, 20, works on a tattoo for Andrea Osorio, 25, at the second Expo Tatuaje Internacional, which took place from May 18-19 in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas state, Mexico. Santana is known for using sustainable materials in her work as a tattoo artist. She was one of over 100 tattoo artists from all over the world who participated in the exposition.

Photo by Marissa Revilla

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

José Luis Flores Velasco, a physiotherapist, gives a massage to Mariana Cameras at an alternative medicine fair in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico. Fair participants came to promote alternative therapies, like reiki, therapeutic massages, biomagnetism and magnets, and consuming natural products.

Photo by Adriana Alcázar González

Aldama, Chiapas, Mexico

Margarita Santiz, 23, makes a cushion cover at her home in Aldama, a municipality in Chiapas, Mexico. Due to an ongoing conflict between Aldama and the nearby Chenalhó municipality, Santiz’s family can no longer harvest coffee, their original livelihood. Now, Santiz, her mother, and her 11 siblings each make two cushion covers a week and sell them for 160 Mexican pesos ($8.48) a piece.

Photo by Mexican Family Makes Cushion Covers for Sale

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

Members of the folk dance group, Mixcoacalli, perform at the annual Feria de la Primavera y de la Paz, or Spring and Peace Fair, at the Plaza 31 de Marzo, a park in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico. Dancers in the group range from 13 to 18 years old.

Photo by Marissa Revilla

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

Rie Watanabe (left), a Japanese violinist based in San Cristóbal de las Casas and Arabella Siles, a sound artist and therapist who uses gongs, bowls, drums and other instruments, perform their piece “Destejer El Silencio” at the Iglesia del Carmen, a church in San Cristóbal de las Casas. Siles read her own poetry while Watanabe played the violin. The performance took place during La Feria de la Primavera y de la Paz, or Spring and Peace Fair.

Photo by Marissa Revilla

Zinacantán, Chiapas, Mexico

María Santiago González Pérez, 63, a midwife and healer, sits with her altar of the Virgin of Guadalupe, San Sebastián Mártir, in Zinacantán, a town in Mexico’s Chiapas state. It is popularly believed that González Pérez, who has been a dedicated midwife for 12 years, gained knowledge of the trade through dreams. She is also an artisan weaver and sells her handicrafts at home and in the esplanade of a church called the Iglesia de San Lorenzo.

Photo by Marissa Revilla

Mexico City, Mexico

Actor and student Alejandro Garza, 22, rehearses his role in “Construyendo la Carne,” a play performed at the Centro Universitario de Teatro in Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico City. The play questions social constructs of gender and how they can be separated from the body. Garza plays the role of a drag artist and a transgender woman, among other characters.

Photo by Mayela Sánchez

Mexico City, Mexico

Antonio Álvarez, 16, portrays Jesus of Nazareth in a play performed by the group Víacrucis Santiago Iztacalco at Kiosco San Matías in Mexico City’s Iztacalco district. For the past 10 years, the group has put on almost 40 performances during Holy Week in public plazas all over the district. “It takes a lot of sacrifice, but it’s very nice,” Álvarez says of his role. “I wanted the role but didn’t think they’d give it to me. I was very scared. I even cried when I got it.”

Photo by Mar García

Mexico City, Mexico

Uriel Montiel, 12, helps his parents operate rental mechanical rides called “flying chairs” from Holy Thursday through Easter Sunday at a religious fair at the Plaza de San Matías in Iztacalco, an administrative subdivision of Mexico City. People participating in the Catholic tradition of visiting seven churches during this time come to the plaza for food, pastries, games and rides. “I like to come because they let me get on the other games for free, but I don’t like the lack of sleep,” Uriel says.

Photo by Mar García

Aldama, Chiapas, Mexico

Roberto Santiz, 12, (left) and Carlos Pérez, 8, light fireworks during the celebration of Señor de Tila held in Aldama, a municipality in Mexico’s Chiapas state. The celebration usually involves a procession where a statue of the religious figure Virgen María Magdalena is taken to meet with other statues of saints around the area. The procession ends with fireworks as the statue is returned to its altar.

Photo by Marissa Revilla

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

Light from the setting sun shines over the Plaza 31 de Marzo in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico, during the “Mujeres Conversando con Mujeres,” or “Women Conversing with Women” recital. Members of the Dirección de Equidad de Género y Desarrollo de las Mujeres, a municipal body which oversees gender equality and women’s development, and other local collectives and organizations attended to hear recitations of poetry and feminist texts, as well as live music.

Photo by Marissa Revilla

Mexico City, Mexico

Fernando Sánchez, 25 (left), and Jorge Herrera, 35, participate in a lightsaber battle demonstration at the first edition of a Star Wars convention called STAR WARS Fan Fest Primera Edición in Mexico City, Mexico. The two are members of the Star Wars fan groups “Amigos de la Fuerza” and “Legión Rebelde México.” Members of both groups often spend time with hospital patients while dressed up as Star Wars characters.

Photo by Mar García

Mexico City, Mexico

Brayan Castillo makes a cross out of Chamaedorea, or parlor palm leaves, and oxeye daisies in Mercado 377 de Plantas y Flores, a plant market in the southern Mexico City district of Xochimilco. Castillo makes the crosses for customers who often lay them at tombs after someone passes away.

Photo by Mayela Sánchez

Acteal, Chiapas, Mexico

Lucía Vázquez Luna, holding a cross with the names of murdered family members, participates in a protest demanding justice for the Matanza de Acteal, a massacre which took place in the Acteal village of Mexico’s Chiapas state in 1997. The massacre took the lives of 45 Tsotsil people, including nine of Vázquez Luna’s relatives.

Photo by Marissa Revilla

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

An audience watches the film “Roma” by Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón on the stairs of El Cerrito, a church in San Cristóbal de las Casas. This monthly event, titled “Cinema para la Paz,” or “Cinema for Peace,” aims to share culture in public spaces. It was hosted by the Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative.

Photo by Marissa Revilla

Ocozocoautla de Espinosa, Chiapas, Mexico

Alberto Sánchez, 5, dances alongside his father during the Carnaval Zoque Coiteco in Ocozocoautla de Espinosa, a town in Mexico’s Chiapas state. This Christian Carnival celebration contains influences from the Spanish, Arabic and Zoque cultures that have been present since colonial times. Alberto and his father are members of group of dancers dressed to represent local corn farmers.

Photo by Adriana Alcázar González

Mexico City, Mexico

Dasher Daniel Argumedo Ramos (left) and Luis Flores play Pelota P'urhépecha in the atrium of the church of San Agustín Ohtenco in southern Mexico City. In Pelota P'urhépecha, or Uárhukua Ch'anákua in the P'urhépecha language, two teams of two or more players hit a ball to opposite sides of the playing field with wooden sticks to score points. One variant of the game involves the ball being set on fire.

Photo by Mayela Sánchez

Mexico City, Mexico

Members of the Compañía Juvenil de Danza Contemporánea, a youth dance company at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), salute the Mexican flag during their performance of “Gestos Muertos” in the Palacio de la Escuela de Medicina in downtown Mexico City. The choreography represents gestures that people make throughout the day. Dancers perform the choreography on the auditorium’s seats, while the audience sits on the stage.

Photo by Mar García

Baja California, Mexico

Don Ventura cooks and sells grilled shrimp, fish and roasted octopus skewers to visitors at Playas de Tijuana, a beach in Baja California, Mexico. “I like everything about my work,” says Ventura.

Photo by Mar García

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Mexico City, Mexico

Mexico City, Mexico

Mexico City, Mexico

Mexico City, Mexico

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

Aldama, Chiapas, Mexico

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

Zinacantán, Chiapas, Mexico

Mexico City, Mexico

Mexico City, Mexico

Mexico City, Mexico

Aldama, Chiapas, Mexico

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

Mexico City, Mexico

Mexico City, Mexico

Acteal, Chiapas, Mexico

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Mexico

Ocozocoautla de Espinosa, Chiapas, Mexico

Mexico City, Mexico

Mexico City, Mexico

Baja California, Mexico